Think locally — act globally? cultural framing and human rights movements in Tunisia and Morocco

Abstract

This article applies a concept from the political science and sociology theory of social movements to the comparative study of indigenous human rights activism in two North African countries in the 1980s and 1990s, Specifically, the idea of cultural framing is used to explicate why social mobilisation around the rhetoric of human rights was most successful in Tunisia and Morocco during a particular period. Drawing on interviews, documents and secondary material about a prominent human rights movement in each society, the study argues that transnational human rights norms were adapted for local use in these two Arab Islamic societies with fairly little difficulty. The article concludes with discussion of the connection of human rights activism in each country and the divergent path each has taken with respect to contemporary political liberalization.