Non-Governmental Organizations and Human Rights Framing in the Global Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Movement

• In Event: 590 - Regular Session. Transforming Institutional Practices of Human Rights

Abstract

Social movement scholars have long acknowledged the importance of framing in explaining social movement dynamics. One frame that is being increasingly utilized in a variety of social movements is the “human rights” frame. To explain the use of frames – including human rights frames – some scholars have emphasized the importance of political and organizational contexts, but few studies use empirical data to test the relative importance of these contexts in a given social movement. Using original data from a sample of 89 NGOs in the sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) global social movement I use multivariate regression analysis to examine the effects of political contexts (e.g., regime repression) and organizational contexts (e.g., goals, strategies, domestic NGO ties to international NGOs, and ideologies) on the use of human rights framing by SOGI NGOs. The findings from the analysis indicate that the organizational contexts related to organizational goals, strategies, and ideology significantly affect the use of human rights framing by SOGI NGOs. However, domestic political contexts or state's integration into the international system do not significantly affect the use of human rights frames by SOGI NGOs.

Author

• Russell Frank Ferri, New York University