This research project will enhance our understanding of transnational advocacy in the area of human rights and international criminal law. The study will collect archival documents and conduct interviews with legal experts to critically examine the new international crime of "forced pregnancy." This legal innovation, now codified as a crime against humanity in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, was meant to respond to crimes such as those committed by militias during the war in the former Yugoslavia, who raped women with the purpose of making them pregnant. Despite the heinous nature of this crime, new legal concept emerged as a result of heated negotiations and out of a highly politicized process of competing advocacy claims in transnational civil society. While much has been written about the outcome of that process, little literature analyzes the political dynamics of the negotiating process itself.
The PI will interview activists from both progressive and conservative positions who participated in the Rome conference in order to better understand that process and the legal outcome. In particular, the PI wants to understand why the crime was codified as a crime against women only, while the children's rights dimension of the forced pregnancy issue was largely ignored. The analysis will enhance our theoretical understanding of how new legal concepts are constructed and shaped in multilateral fora. In terms of broader impact, the research will inform transnational advocacy around human rights and international criminal law. It will also create a standard by which scholars can more reliably code documents on international legal norms.
