Human Rights, Violence, and Civil Society: Canadian Civil Society Organizations Challenge Canadian Foreign Policy in the Americas

This chapter examines the vital role played by Canadian civil society organizations (CSOs) in promoting recognition of the connections between human rights and peacebuilding in Latin America since the 1970s. The chapter examines how Canadian CSO advocacy promoting human rights and peacebuilding in Latin America has evolved over time, and what are the discursive, material limitations of this activism as well as its capacity to influence state action. To do so, the chapter draws upon the work of Margaret Keck and Katherine Sikkink on “transnational advocacy networks” (1998), as well as critical assessments of their work, to evaluate the role of Canadian civil society. While there are some points of convergence between the Canadian government and non-governmental organizations, there are also deep differences, particularly around the ways in which neoliberal policies and free trade agreements violate or undermine human rights in partner countries, and the role of Canadian mining companies abroad. This analysis displays that civil society advocacy is not necessarily “voluntary, reciprocal and horizontal” as Keck and Sikkink argue, but is shaped by prevailing power relations within Canada between the state and civil society, and between Global North and Global South.