Supranational Political Opportunities as a Channel of Globalization of Political Conflicts. The Case of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Abstract

Contentious politics is undergoing a process of change. Many instances of protest testify to this. We all have in mind the deep involvement of environmental organizations from all around the world in the 1992 Rio Conference or that of feminist and human rights organizations in Peking in the world conference on the condition of women. More recently, we have witnessed the extraordinary mobilization against the use of landmines. This campaign has mobilized hundreds of organizations from virtually every continent. In the same vein, the decision taken by the French President Jacques Chirac to resume nuclear weapons testing in Mururoa provoked the reaction of many organizations in different parts of the world. A further sign of this change is the spread of transnational social organizations (see Smith et al. 1993) in various countries. The case of Amnesty International, World Wild Fund (WWF) or Greenpeace are the best known examples. These organizations are not only creating mobilization structures in different countries, but are also organizing world campaigns on specific issues, campaigns held in all the countries where the organizations are present and which mobilize thousands of people.

I would like to thank Cédric Dupont, Marco Giugni, Alice Landau, Mayer Zald and the editors for their comments and suggestions on previous drafts. I am also grateful to Reymonde Martineau from the United Nations for giving me valuable information.