Description
Why did the Ethiopian government ratify Maputo Protocol (Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women, 2003) 15 years after it had signed it, and why, once they had done it, they told no one? Constructivist accounts of women’s struggles explain how international norms become domesticated through models of norm diffusion, internalization, and translation. The case of Ethiopia shows that the reality of adopting a normative framework is immensely complex and contextual. This article contributes to an understanding of what happens to international norms in national political contexts. Based on qualitative interviews, the article uses empirical data to understand how international influence, political regime, dominant ideology and the content of the Maputo Protocol (Kang 2015) led to 15-years of contestation, and finally an ad hoc and quiet ratification of one of the most progressive women’s rights legal frameworks in the world. Volatile politics explain the lengthy journey towards ratification and a long list of reservations, but also suggests that the actual ratification was little more than circumstantial.
