Russia as Conservative Norm-entrepreneur at the United Nations

This Paper (co-authored with Ksenia Medvedeva, who will not be presenting in Oslo) explores the moral conservative leadership role assumed by Russia in the United Nations Human Rights Council. Whereas the Russian-led initiative on “Promoting human rights through traditional values” has already been treated in the literature, this paper looks at the continuation of Russian norm-protagonism at the UNHRC. This continuation happened in a series of resolutions from 2014 onwards dedicated to “The Protection of the Family”. The Paper is based on a quantitative analysis of the voting results and submissions in relation to both debates as well as on qualitative findings based on literature, documents and interviews.