In the mid-1990s, when the United Nations adopted positions affirming a woman's right to be free from bodily harm and to control her own reproductive health, it was both a coup for the international women's rights movement and an instructive moment for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) seeking to influence UN decision making.

Prior to the UN General Assembly's 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence against Women and the 1994 decision by the UN's Conference on Population and Development to vault women's reproductive rights and health to the forefront of its...

International organizations have once more become subjects of investigation for a whole range of scholars: political scientists, international relations specialists, organization theorists, and policy experts alike. The end of the Cold War, increased globalization, and the intensification of regional and functional cooperation all have produced a greater interest in the role of international organizations, and rightly so, since they increasingly take part in global governance as over-burdened governments become more and more willing to transfer responsibility to them or need to work...

Comparing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the United Nations and the European Union across a range of different issue areas, this volume examines how the choice of venue and institution affects the strategies of NGOs.

Despite significant differences with respect to their scope, membership as well as their institutional rules, the authors find that the UN and the EU have surprisingly similar effects on civil society organizations and regulate access in such a way that it significantly constrains the agency of NGOs. Highlights include:

• A...