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Double bind at the UN: Western actors, Russia, and the traditionalist agenda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2018

KRISTINA STOECKL Open the ORCID record for KRISTINA STOECKL [Opens in a new window]  and
KSENIYA MEDVEDEVA
KRISTINA STOECKL*
Affiliation:
University of Innsbruck, Dept. of Sociology, Universitätsstraße 15, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
KSENIYA MEDVEDEVA*
Affiliation:
Free University Berlin, Graduate School of North American Studies, Lansstraße. 5-9, 14195 Berlin, Germany
*
*Email: kristina.stoeckl@uibk.ac.at
†Email: medvedeva@gsnas.fu-berlin.de
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Abstract:

This article is dedicated to analysis of the traditionalist agenda, promoted by Russia, in recent debates in the United Nations Human Rights Council (‘Traditional values’ from 2009 to 2013, ‘Protection of the family’ from 2014 to 2017). The traditionalist agenda could be interpreted as yet another chapter of contextualist opposition to the universalist application human of rights and as a successor to the cultural relativism in human rights promoted in the past by the Organization of Islamic States or countries from the Global South. This article seeks to challenge such an interpretation and instead makes the argument that the traditionalist agenda employs novel aspects of illiberal norm protagonism in the human rights sphere. The article undertakes an in-depth analysis of the discourse coalitions of both supporters and opponents of the traditionalist agenda, using the tools of discourse analysis in international relations and drawing on a constructivist approach to norm diffusion in international organisations.

Keywords

human rightsliberalismRussiatraditional valuesUnited Nations
Type
Research Article
Information
Global Constitutionalism , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , November 2018 , pp. 383 - 421
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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44 Interview C, Interview with a stakeholder from the NGO sector. Interviewer: K Stoeckl (16 June 2017). The interview was conducted via Skype in English. The interviewee remains confidential. Interview D, also with a stakeholder from the NGO sector, was conducted on 23 February 2018. Interviewer: K Stoeckl. The interview was conducted in person in English. The interviewee remains confidential.

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66 Interview C (n 44).

67 Joint Oral Statement, ‘Protection of the Family and its Members’, submitted for the 27th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council by Caritas Internationalis (International Confederation of Catholic Charities), Associazione Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII, Company of the Daughters of Charity of Vincent de Paul, Edmund Rice International, International Association of Charities, International Catholic Child Bureau, International Institute of Mary Our Help of the Salesians Sisters of Don Bosco IIMA, New Humanity, Pax Romana (International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs and International Movement of Catholic Students), VIDES International (International Volunteerism Organization for Women, Education, Development), and World Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations (n.d.) <http://www.apg23.org/downloads/files/ONU/Protezione%20famiglia/27HRC%20-%20Protection%20of%20the%20Family%20-%20JOS.pdf>.

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71 Interview B (n 43).

72 McCrudden (n 2) 43.

73 Interview D (n 44).

74 Interview C (n 44).

75 Interview E, conducted with a UN diplomat on 23 February 2018. Interviewer: K Stoeckl. The interview was conducted in person in English. The interviewee remains confidential.

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