Dismantling the Nicaraguan Violence Against Women Law in the Context of Populism

• In Event: Backlash: Moves Against Gender Equality in the Modern Age

Abstract

Although there has been a global diffusion of progressive policies addressing women’s issues, these are often created in a context of political rivals and are vulnerable to setbacks. Creating legislation is a process often met with challenges and sometimes reversals. Nicaragua passed the 2012 “Law 779,” the Comprehensive Law on Violence against Women, which was arguably the most wide-ranging and progressive law on violence against women in Latin America. However, the progressive elements of this law were dismantled by this same populist and increasingly authoritarian government in the subsequent two years.

While much scholarly literature focuses on progressive policy advances, setbacks and reversals receive less attention. Policy reversals and dismantling are a (rather extreme) form of lack of implementation. This is distinct from more commonplace failures to implement policies – such as deficiencies in institutional presence, capacity, or procedures that make effective policy application impossible. Through an in-depth case study of the 779 Law in Nicaragua, I confirm major findings in existing scholarship by providing additional evidence that democratic inclusion, transnational advocacy network pressure, and vulnerability to external influence make progressive policy reforms more likely. Additionally, I move beyond current scholarship by demonstrating that progressive policies are also vulnerable to reversal when progressive networks are excluded from policymaking and when the government is less vulnerable to international pressure – both of which vary depending on the stage of the policy process and consolidation of populist authoritarian rule.

Violence against women is a widespread human rights violation and the aggression that women suffer has profound consequences for their well-being (Nussbaum 2005, Weldon 2002). Violence against women is widespread in Latin America, with disturbing new patterns of sexualized torture and violent killings of women (e.g., Alcalde 2010; de Alba and Guzmán 2010; Fregoso and Bejarano 2010; Sagot and Carcedo 2010; Wilson 2014). Recent cases from every region of the world have reached the news, such as rapes in public buses in India, women being stoned for adultery in the Middle East, domestic violence in every country, and campus rapes of women in the United States and beyond. This oppression and suffering undermines women’s capacity to participate in the workforce and fulfill their human capabilities (Nussbaum 2005 and 2011). When women are afraid in their homes and in the streets, it impedes their ability to participate politically -- even in basic ways such as voting or grassroots activism. Recent studies indicate that domestic violence is widespread in Nicaragua, where non-governmental organizations estimate that up to 60% of women have been physically abused at least once by a partner (Echandi 2009). Other reports indicate that 48% of women have been verbally abused by partners (Romero 2009), and that one third of women living with a man have been subjected to abuse during their lifetime (CENIDH May 2010, 164).

Progressive policy initiatives such as the 779 Law in Nicaragua have diffused worldwide in order to improve prevention, protection, and prosecution in cases of violence against women. Most countries have signed onto international or regional conventions addressing discrimination and violence against women, such as the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (also called Convention Belém do Pará) (Baldez 2014; Friedman 2009). To varying degrees, countries have harmonized their domestic laws with the key goals of these conventions, including addressing fundamental inequalities that make women vulnerable to violence and ensuring women’s autonomy and safety (Friedman 2009). It is widely recognized that there is resistance to implementing laws on violence against women (Bevacqua and Baker 2004; Franceschet 2010; Lazarus-Black 2003; Merry 2003) However, there is little scholarship examining how these progressive laws are vulnerable to reform and even reversal. One aim of this paper is to fill this conspicuous gap in the literature.

Author

• Shannon Drysdale Walsh, University of Minnesota Duluth