Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at the norm diffusion on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and how the survivors of “Comfort women” in South Korea have strategically engaged with it. Such process led to the recognition of the survivor’s agency which expanded the possibilities and opportunities for their activism.

Paper long abstract:

This study examines the global norm diffusion on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) focusing on the case of the survivor’s movement of “comfort women” in South Korea. “Comfort women” were exploited by the Japanese imperial army as sexual slaves during the Asia Pacific war and the failure to include these women’s voices during peace process has denied their right to justice and reparation. The paper traces the norm life cycle (Finnemore and Sikkink 1998) for CRSV and how “comfort women” themselves contributed to the discourse as norm entrepreneurs.

Furthermore, I analyse how this process at the global level affected norm diffusion in the domestic arena and changed the portrayal of the survivors in South Korea. The norm emergence offers the space for collectives to participate and engage in the discourse as norm entrepreneurs, allowing the norms to be diverse and inclusive of the various local context. When such a norm is adopted, it provides actors with more legitimacy that helps them to push for change in each of their domestic environments.

In this case, the survivors’ strategic engagement with both global and local arena, have shifted the domestic interest on “comfort women” from nationalistic agenda to women’s right and peacebuilding. Linking the literature on norm life cycle, agency, and recognition, I argue that the active participation of “comfort women” in global norm change process led to the recognition of the survivor’s agency which expanded the possibilities and opportunities for their activism, allowing the survivors to exist as a complex individual.