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Local Agency in ‘Global’ Spaces? The Engagement of Iraqi Women’s NGOs with CEDAW

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Spatializing Peace and Conflict

Part of the book series: Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies ((RCS))

Abstract

The fight for women’s rights in different regions of the world has given rise to a process of ‘global norm creation’ (UN Women 2009). CEDAW is a milestone in this process, which aims to improve the reality of so-called ‘local’ women in various countries. This very distinction between the ‘global’ and the ‘local’ has become commonplace in the practice and discourses around women’s rights. From a critical feminist perspective, global instruments are regarded as hegemonic and distant from local realities. The same argument is prominent in critical approaches to peace and conflict studies where critics of the so-called ‘liberal peace’ argue that the promoted forms of peace follow definitions and preferences of the global North, and that local perspectives and practices are neglected and agency withdrawn from local actors.

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Authors
  1. Annika Henrizi
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lund University, Sweden

    Annika Björkdahl (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Center for Conflict Studies, Philipps University Marburg, Germany

    Susanne Buckley-Zistel (Professor) (Professor)

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© 2016 Annika Henrizi

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Henrizi, A. (2016). Local Agency in ‘Global’ Spaces? The Engagement of Iraqi Women’s NGOs with CEDAW. In: Björkdahl, A., Buckley-Zistel, S. (eds) Spatializing Peace and Conflict. Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137550484_7

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