Translating Domestic violence norms in five countries of East Central Europe

This chapter looks at norms translation processes in the field of domestic violence. Using data from five countries of East Central Europe (ECE): Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Romania, proposes a multi-pronged cross-directional international influence model that challenges traditional top down understandings of international influence. I argue that international influence is not direct, linear and top-down but constructed and negotiated in processes of interaction between international actors and domestic agents, where translation processes influence the direction of policy change. International influence provides content to reforms through defining, communicating and monitoring norms, and through facilitating the production of evidence for domestic violence as a policy problem. In order to understand the nature of international influence, we have to look beyond norms transfer at two additional mechanisms through which it impacts domestic policy processes. First, international influence can create ‘political opportunities’ to enable domestic mobilization for policy change. Second, domestic agents are key in translation of international norms. Enabling such agency becomes critical in processes of norms translation. The chapter shows how international influence understood along these lines contributes to variation in policy progress achieved in different contexts.