Protecting Human Rights in a “Post-Unilateral” International Society: The Localization of Global Norms and the Limits and Prospects of Global Governance

Abstract

In analyzing the process of norm diffusion, this contribution addresses the question of why the global problem of human trafficking remains one for the most serious human rights violations despite the existence of an anti-trafficking norm embedded in a global human rights regime. In arguing that the violation of human rights indicates the structural limits of the current global governance system, this study explores ways of how to explain the paradox of norm violations in parallel existence of globally adhered norms, and wishes to synthesize the current theoretical body of norm scholarship with new insights stressing the importance of local value and belief structures in the process of norm internalization. Thus, arguing for a culture-sensitive ‘bottom-up’ constructivism we will apply this model in reconsidering the case of human-trafficking. Here we emphasize the importance of cognitive factors beside the well studied economic incentives as underpinning causes of the trafficking problem. Considering the implications of a stronger emphasis on local values we will extend our argument in reconsidering the formation of transnational advocacy networks as carriers of global norms through introducing the notion of co-governance, before bringing the discussion back to its starting point in discussing the prospects of global governance in addressing the subject of norm protection.