Monday, October 27, 2008

The Role of Governments

As it was the case in other aspects of the agenda setting process, identifying the states who acted as norm leaders in the issue of SEA is difficult. Nonetheless, two states can be highlighted as potentially important contributors of the issue. Although I was not able to locate specific information about the role that the USA played in UN documents, I nonetheless came across with articles that highlight the active role that the US has played in urging the UN to take significant steps towards dealing with SEA. Another state who arguably has played a significant role was Jordan whose Permanent Representative to the UN, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein, was assigned by Kofi Annan as his “Adviser on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by UN Peacekeeping Personnel”. States where UN Missions were deployed understandably played an active role in for instance, conferences and workshops such as in the case of Sudan. However, it is difficult to interpret their involvement as attempts to become a norm leader.

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