The Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo and Influences on International Recognition of Human Rights Organizations in Latin America

Abstract

The Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo are perhaps the most well recognized human rights organizations to emerge in Latin America following the wave of political violence that occurred in the latter portion of the twentieth century. While multiple Latin American organizations have similar characteristics as the Mothers and Grandmothers of Argentina, notably the fact that each organization is composed of family members searching for their disappeared relatives, the Mothers and Grandmothers gained international celebrity at levels unmatched by other organizations. Their unique status is in part due to the conscious decisions and strategies employed by the women in order to gain recognition, but also due to conditions outside their control. Through this combination of deliberate decisions and immutable circumstances, gender and feminism, political actions, and the impact of foreign actors served as the most important factors influencing the recognition of the Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo.