Grounding the International Norm on Women, Peace and Security: The Role of Domestic Norm Entrepreneurs and the Challenges Ahead

• Main Author: Veneracion-Rallonza, Ma. Lourdes
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2013
• Subjects: Asian Studies; Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Gender and Sexuality; International and Area Studies; Peace and Conflict Studies; Political Science; Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration; Social and Behavioral Sciences; Women's Studies
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/polsci-faculty-pubs/45; https://archium.ateneo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=polsci-faculty-pubs
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

One of the gaps in the study of international norms is the process by which they are institutionalized and accepted at the national level. As the international norm negotiates its way through various national (and even grassroots) levels, a point of inquiry would be how domestic norm entrepreneurs have enabled its localization. This study looks at the narrative of a loose network of peace and women’s human rights groups that worked together to localize United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on women, peace and security in the Philippines. Specifically, it reviews how the network evolved to become a domestic norm entrepreneur within the context of the creation of the Philippine National Action Plan on the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and the initiatives it took to localize the norm in the national arena. Within this frame, this study argues that the network continues to evolve as it responds to current and unfolding realities of peace and women’s human rights in armed conflict situations. Particularly, as domestic norm entrepreneur, the network is trying to transcend the usual top-down strategy of grounding an international norm and is now shifting gears toward the value of bottom-up approaches in order to achieve desired results at the grassroots level.