ABSTRACT
Even though many observers characterize the Cairo conference as a paradigm shift in the field of global population policy in the sense that the language, assumptions, and norms supporting population control were supplanted by the language, assumptions, and norms supporting reproductive rights and health, there are no analyses which address how this unexpected outcome succeeded in revolutionizing the field. This chapter provides an overview of the case study and explores theoretical questions regarding norm change, norm emergence, and the utility of UN global conferences in general. Moreover, it explicates the five integral processes in the model of normative change. It discusses that some of the reasons normative change in this issue area was exceedingly difficult, which will provide an overview of this issue area. The flurry of ideas and norms-related theoretical and empirical work has been dominated by constructivists in the last decade. Yet rationalists, neorealists, and neoliberals have also focused attention on norms.
