Not Necessarily Solidarity

Abstract

Since the idea of “women's rights as human rights” emerged, there has been a wave of international donors, organizations and transnational feminist activists successfully delivering pressure and resources in the struggle to mitigate violence against women worldwide. Through these transnational networks, decisions regarding which local problems to address and how to manage them are often made at the international level. Most scholarship has rightly celebrated the advances for women's rights that have been made possible due to the impact of international organizations and transnational advocacy networks. However, there are many dilemmas that arise from this North-centric approach to assigning and managing priorities – especially among development aid organizations. Coordination with international donors is often necessary and has been a major source of advances. However, there are still some potentially harmful impacts of having to engage in these networks in order to address violence against women – including a disproportionate focus on short-term results while neglecting long-term goals. This article articulates these dilemmas and explains how international feminist human rights norms can be more successfully translated into a stronger sense of solidarity across borders and more sustainable advances for women. Examples are drawn from the Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Keywords:

• transnational advocacy networks
• violence against women
• Central America
• women's rights
• human rights

Acknowledgments

I am grateful for comments and suggestions from Beth Bartlett, Paul Cannan, Catia Cecilia Confortini, Michael Coppedge, Runa Das, Cynthia H. Enloe, Elisabeth Friedman, Frances Hagopian, Njoki Kamau, Scott Mainwaring, Mary K. Meyer McAleese, Susan S. Northcutt, Tineke Ritmeester, Joseph L. Staats, Sean Drysdale Walsh, Christina Wolbrecht and three anonymous reviewers. I thank the many interviewees who shared their time and knowledge with me in Central America. I also thank several generous and kindhearted people with whom I shared homes, meals and wonderful conversations in the field. Funding for this research was provided through a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship to conduct fieldwork in Central America, a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend Award.

Notes on contributor

Shannon Drysdale Walsh is an Assistant Professor and McKnight Land-Grant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Her book manuscript explains the development and variation in practices within justice system institutions that address violence against women in Latin America. She also produces scholarship on the impacts of women's representation, explaining patterns of crime and victimization in Latin America, and sex trafficking in the United States. She has published her research in journals such as Politics, Groups, and Identities. Dr Walsh holds an MA and PhD from the University of Notre Dame and a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Notes

1 See Alvarez (2000, 2003), Alvarez et al. (2003), Baines (2002), Carpenter (2007), Disney (2008), Liebowitz (2002), and True and Minstrom (2001).

2 See Alemany and Dede (2008, 9), Mukhopadhyay et al. (2011), Schoenstein and Alemany (2011), and Symington (2006).

3 Anonymous interview with a representative of an international donor agency in Guatemala, interview by author, Guatemala City, Guatemala, 16 November 2007. Quoted from 1:18 (time stamp) of recorded and transcribed interview.

4 Anonymous interview with a representative of an international donor agency in Nicaragua, interview by author, Managua, Nicaragua, 17 March 2008. Quoted from 12:00 (time stamp) of recorded and transcribed interview.

5 Anonymous interview with a representative of an international donor agency in Guatemala, interview by author, Guatemala City, Guatemala, November 2007. Quoted from field notes.

6 In Spanish: La Coordinadora Nacional para la Prevención de la Violencia Intrafamiliar y Contra la Mujer.

7 Anonymous interview with a representative of an international donor agency in Guatemala, interview by author, Guatemala City, Guatemala, November 2007. Quoted from field notes.

8 SEPREM is an acronym for the Secretaría Presidencial de la Mujer.

9 Anonymous interview with a representative from an international donor agency in Guatemala, interview by author, Guatemala City, Guatemala, November 2007.

10 Anonymous interview with consultant for a large, well-funded women's movement organization, San Salvador, El Salvador, 15 February 2008. Recorded and transcribed.

11 Anonymous interview with consultant for a large, well-funded women's movement organization, San Salvador, El Salvador, 15 February 2008. Recorded and transcribed. This competition can also have a negative impact on the distribution of services for victims that women's organizations provide.

12 Anonymous interview with a representative of an international donor agency in Guatemala, interview by author, Guatemala City, Guatemala, November 2007. Quoted from field notes.

13 Anonymous interview with a representative of an international donor agency in Guatemala, interview by author, Guatemala City, Guatemala, November 2007.

14 Interview with representative from international donor agency in Guatemala. Interview by author. Guatemala City, Guatemala, November 2007. Quoted from field notes.

15 Interview with representative from local NGO. Interview by author. San Salvador, El Salvador, 5 November 2008.

16 Interview with representative from an international donor agency. Interview by author. Managua, Nicaragua, 31 March 2008.

17 Anonymous interview with a representative from an international donor agency in Nicaragua, interview by author. Managua, Nicaragua, 17 March 2008. Recorded and transcribed.

18 Anonymous interview with representative from a state agency, interview by author. San José, Costa Rica, 21 May 2008. Quoted at 3:29 pm (time stamp) of recorded and transcribed interview.