Mobilizing Principles: The Role of Transnational Activists in Promoting Human Rights Principles

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Abstract
During the 1980s, an estimated 70,000 Salvadoran civilians were killed, abducted, or tortured by state security forces or paramilitary organizations. Across the border in Guatemala, between 1978 and 1989 the government was responsible for the death or disappearance of over 100,000 civilians, mainly indigenous peasants, while approximately 450 rural villages were razed by the armed forces. 1 In response to these atrocities, a network of internationally based nonstate actors targeted the governments of El Salvador and Guatemala. Diplomatic pressure was brought to bear by the United States and European governments, and by the United Nations and the Organization of American States, largely due to activists’ mobilizational efforts. Until the 1990s, both the Salvadoran and Guatemalan states, whether under military or civilian rule, were able to ignore this pressure and [End Page 905] continue violating international human rights law, in part because the human rights system lacked strong implementation or enforcement mechanisms.

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