EU at the UN: The Effects of its New Rights Agenda on International Social Structures

This study seeks to determine the effect of the EU’s human rights agenda on the international institution of human rights, and the resulting effect on interstate society. To do this, the study examines the way the EU has promoted new norms of gender and the family at the ECOSOC third committee. Using Barry Buzan’s concept of vanguard theory of international social structures, it identifies a trend toward more contested norms that require coercive measures to promote as human rights. As illuminated by the vanguard theory, this is likely to result in the weakening human rights as an international institution, and precipitate a more pluralist international society