Abstract

GORDILLO GARCIA, Johan. Rights Language and New Legal Opportunities for Social Change: Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad and the General Law of Victims. Rev. mex. cienc. polít. soc [online]. 2020, vol.65, n.239, pp.291-321.  Epub Jan 31, 2021. ISSN 0185-1918.  https://doi.org/10.22201/fcpys.2448492xe.2020.239.71133.

This article aims to contribute with empirical evidence to the growing literature focused on legal mobilization. First, it analyzes the use of rights language to frame collective claims; second, it discusses the outcomes of social movements specifically concerning legal frameworks. It studies the case of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD), which achieved the enactment of the General Law of Victims (LGV) in a context in which the official narrative focused on criminalizing victims of violence. Through process-tracing, I analyze the reasons for which the MPJD focused its efforts on getting the LGV passed and what factors influenced the achievement of that goal. The results indicate that the LGV was conceived as an instrument capable of promoting social change by expanding legal opportunities. Similarly, its enactment can be explained through the framing of discourse around the figure of the victims, the strategic capacity of the movement’s leadership and the structure of political opportunities.

Keywords : Legal mobilization; structure of legal opportunities; social movements; rights language.