ABSTRACT
Indigenous peoples and Roma have both had success in departing from the mainstream international minority rights protection system to forge group-specific norms through transnational social mobilisation. This chapter will provide an overview of the several commonalities in the process and outcome of their norm entrepreneurship. Indigenous peoples and Roma have used strategic framing of their identities to unite disparate groups across borders and to access new rights in international law. They have used a wide array of political opportunity structures to build transnational advocacy networks and organisational platforms. Intergovernmental organisations such as the United Nations, the European Union, the Council of Europe and the Organization of American States have supported their norm entrepreneurship but have also constrained some of their more ambitious aims. The 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism had a very different impact on each group. Some of the challenges in maintaining transnational social mobilisation are also discussed, including issues of representation and accountability to local constituents. Finally, their success at the international level in norm emergence is contrasted with struggles at the national level for norm adherence with particular reference to the competing material and ideational interests of states at these different levels of analysis.
