Global governance and how norms travel : the case of gender based violence in Russia

Abstract

The main purpose of this thesis is to understand why international norms on gender based violence are not completely accepted in Russia and thus are not fully incorporated into the Russian legislation framework. Considering how norms can be localized and what mechanisms exist and can be used by international observers in order to press states to adopt international norms, it became possible to consider the case of traveling norms on gender based violence in Russia. The main assumption is that the reasons why norms on gender based violence are not fully adopted in Russia are rooted in the domestic context, in other words in a set of internal factors like regime, legislation, traditions and religion. I will show that there is no domestic legislation on gender based violence, which means that international norms have no “ground” to be localized in. Besides this, the strong influence of the gender stereotypes and traditionalism of the Russian authorities, along with the role the Russian Orthodox Church, can also be considered as the obstacles for norm localization.