Resisting human rights through securitization: Russia and Hungary against LGBT rights

Abstract

Contributing to the literature on norm resistance and backlash, this article explores the phenomenon of norm immunization, that is, the creation of legal barriers by a state with the purpose of fending off a transnationally diffusing norm by blocking its local advocacy. How do norm immunizations occur? What conditions facilitate or hinder this process? Focused on the area of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights, the article’s main argument is that a state’s immunization against these rights is undertaken through the securitization of nontraditional sexual orientations and gender identities. The article applies the theorized securitization mechanism to the (attempted) immunization against LGBT rights in Russia and Hungary in the last decade and identifies the relevant differences between the two cases to inductively sketch a general explanation of the success and failure of norm immunization attempts.