Exceptions, Competing Norms, and the Robustness of the Gender Equality Norm

• In Event: Making and Breaking the International Social Contract Protecting Human Rights

Abstract

This paper identifies an overlooked dimension of contestation: Norm withdrawal. Norm withdrawal entails a defensive move not unlike those associated with norm antipreneurs. However, unlike these actors, those seeking to withdraw from the behavior a norm dictates engage with it from a position of relative weakness because the norm has already crossed the emergence stage. Moreover, they might themselves attribute validity to (their own interpretation of) the rising norm. Norm withdrawal does not seek to preserve or restore the normative status quo ante but to establish an exemption for specific actors. Actors do so by challenging prevailing interpretations of the norm with reference to other norms with competing prescriptions. Despite their relatively limited goals, the impact of withdrawal on the robustness of a norm can be significant. It can be negative if it creates an exception so significant that it erodes all common ground among relevant stakeholders, thus undermining the norm’s structuring power. Yet, norm withdrawal can also have a positive effect on norm robustness. Similarly to applicatory contestation, norm withdrawal can help better define what constitutes an acceptable interpretation of the norm and the behavior it prescribes and over whom, encouraging compromise and thus strengthening the norm in a world of enduring differences. To illustrate the concept of norm withdrawal the paper applies it to the analysis of states’ reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Author

• Lucrecia Garcia Iommi, Fairfield University