Translating the Global: Effects of Transnational Organising on Local Feminist Discourses and Practices in Latin America

Women's rights advocates' increased participation in international policy arenas is now fairly well documented and many studies have considered the capacity of global feminist organisations to promote changes in gender-related policy at the international and national levels. However, there is little information on the local impacts of feminist activists' advocacy efforts at a global level. This paper addresses this gap, with a focus on the work of Latin American feminists over the past two decades. The notion of 'trans-nationalisation' is central to the paper, referring to the way members of local movement draw inspiration from their interaction with other international activists in the way they frame issues and concerns in their local context. The paper notes that women's rights activists pursue these trans-national linkages as a means to establish personal and strategic bonds of solidarity with others who are marginalised or stigmatised - for example, because of ethnicity or sexuality. Activists have also organised across borders in an effort to create a collective impact on public policy at international and local levels. In this way, trans-national coalitions of non-governmental and governmental actors have been able to put pressure on powerful states and International donors to hold accountable those governments that violate women's rights or resist gender sensitive policy changes.