The Role of the United Nations General Assembly in the Norm Life-cycle

In the last few decades the study of norms coupled with a constructionist approach has brought new insights into the area of international relations. The UNGA is the premier global IGO making it an important and interesting topic of study in terms of global legislation. This research fills a gap in the literature, which does not sufficiently cover the relationship between norms and the (United Nations General Assembly) UNGA. The case studies here yield individual and comparative results which may help to answer broader questions dealing with both global governance and international relations. This research finds that the UNGA is able to play an influential role in the norm life cycle, which is expanded from Finemore and Sikkink's (1998)iteration. The type of issue, the type of promoting state, and the type of state benefiting from the norm all seem to play a role in the level of UNGA participation as well as how and when the UNGA participates in the norm life cycle.