Social Movements, International Politics, and the Global Human Rights Regime since 1945

My paper will explore the emergence of the international human rights movement after 1945, and the relationship between domestic social movements and transnational actors. I will ague that the international human rights politics of the this period was both deeply informed by, and simultaneously had a profound impact on, domestic law, politics and social movements. Canada exemplifies the shift away from a narrow Cold War discourse of civil liberties to a broader human rights discourse. The international human rights movement had a more profound impact on Canada than, for instance, on the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. International treaties informed Canadian human rights legislation introduced in the 1970s, which constituted one of the most sophisticated human rights legal regimes in the world. Moreover, a Canadian social movement dedicated to the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights emerged and peaked in the 1970s. This movement was based on an expansive constituency with strong ties abroad, most notably local human rights associations as well as religious organizations engaged in missionary work and development aid. These disparate constituencies were linked by an adherence to expansive human rights principles that influenced social movements’ strategies for change.

The paper will provide an explanatory framework for understanding the post-war international human rights movement by documenting the link between international action and local developments. In essence, a dialectical relationship emerged in the 1970s between domestic social movements and transnational actors within the context of an emerging international politics of human rights. My paper will demonstrate that we can use local social movements and domestic human rights law to show how international human rights norms were received, interpreted and applied domestically and, in turn, how this facilitated Canadians’ increasing engagement, and contribution to, the international human rights movement in the post-war period.