Translating Global Norms into Local Action: The Campaign Against Gender Based Violence in Africa

International organizations such as the United Nations have prioritized law reform in the campaign to end gender-based violence. This has resulted in the passage of progressive gender-based violence laws in many states that are recovering from conflict. With Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire as case studies, this paper analyzes the role of international organizations and local women’s organizations in law enforcement at the domestic level. Drawing on over three hundred interviews conducted in both countries, it probes the relationship between international organizations and local women’s nongovernmental organizations and the influence that these two sets of actors have on police enforcement of gender based violence laws. The paper argues that the engagement of the UN and of women’s organization has differed in both countries leading to variation in police responses at the street-level.