Explaining child rights mainstreaming in EU external policy

Abstract

This article examines and explains child rights mainstreaming in European Union (EU) external affairs. It provides a within-case comparison of how children’s rights have been mainstreamed in development aid, common foreign and security policy (CFSP) and external trade policy. While most mainstreaming research have studied mainstreaming as a process of norm socialization, this article draws on hypotheses concerning bureaucratic self-interest that have thus far not been tested in the EU mainstreaming literature. The article finds support for rational functionalist assumptions that actor preferences, external policy competences and resource exchanges between EU institutions and child rights organizations together help explain variations in child rights mainstreaming across sectors and over time. Rationalist functionalism is found useful in explaining under which conditions at sector level mainstreaming is likely to succeed or fail.