Human Rights Norms Diffusion through Transnational Advocacy Networks: LGBTI+ Rights as a Case

Abstract

Transnational actors that have established their own borderless space stemming from glocal links build advocacy networks that aim to spread the common good. Keck and Sikkink examine these actors that intend to change state behavior either with direct or indirect pressure through the Boomerang Model and advocate a simultaneous top-down and bottom-up pressure by local and transnational networks to force states to implement human rights norms. This paper questions to what extent the Boomerang Model could work at the local government level rather than the central one in diffusing human rights norms. The case study in this article shows that when the norms related to LGBTI+ rights as a part of human rights are exerted on municipalities through the Boomerang Model, they create social interaction and get diffused in more effectively.