Description:

Please join our joint Comparative/IR Graduate Workshop as they host Ely Orrego-Torres presents her work on Transnational Religious Networks in the OAS. 

Paper Abstract: In the past years, the emergence of transnational religious networks within the democratic spaces of the main international organization of the Americas, the Organization of American States (OAS), has impacted the involvement of plural and democratic voices in the international arena. Political advocacy by Protestant-Evangelical Christian movements in Latin America extends far beyond the domestic arena. Initially intended as an open and democratic platform to facilitate constructive dialogue between civil society groups and representatives of OAS member states, the Civil Society Dialogue has, in recent years, witnessed a dominance of “neo-conservative” perspectives within the regional forum, becoming the most visible, hegemonic, and prevailing discourse. Despite the influence of transnational religious networks, particularly Evangelical-Protestant Christian groups and “pro-life” organizations, within global governance spaces, new actors representing other, dissenting forms of politics and religion are broadening the discourse at the Organization of American States (OAS). However, in these spaces of global governance, their politics and mechanisms vary significantly between the case studies I have studied. 

How do transnational religious networks mobilize ideas and engage in lobbying, politics, and education in the context of the Organization of the American States (OAS)? In this paper, I delve into this question by turning my attention to two transnational religious networks: the “Ibero-American Congress for Faith and Family” (CIVF) and “Otros Cruces” (NGO that created the “Coalition of Religions, Beliefs, and Spiritualities in Dialogue with Civil Society”).  I argue that CIVF is hijacking spaces of democratic discussions turning human rights discourse upside down to promote their political agendas and seeking to impede the progress and institutionalization of liberal rights within democratic institutions. Conversely, “Otros Cruces” advocates alternative accounts of religious freedom and secularism by recognizing the identities of Indigenous cosmologies and Afro-descendant spiritualities in the Americas. My research methodology draws from ethnographic fieldwork conducted during the OAS General Assembly and Summit of the Americas (2017-2023), employing an ethnographic and interpretive approach to analyze the involvement of religious groups in international organizations.

Ely Orrego-Torres is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Northwestern University and Visiting PhD student at Sciences Po, affiliated with the Centre de Recherches Internationales (CERI) (2023-2024). Her research agenda intertwines political theory and international relations to address questions on religion and politics in the global context. Her interdisciplinary approach relies on critical theories and liberation theologies to account for narratives of religious freedom, political theologies, and secularisms in the history of the present. Her dissertation studies the discourses and practices of religious freedom and secularism in the Americas over the last years (2017–2023) by devoting attention to transnational and regional networks, particularly, the civil society actors participating in the Organization of American States (OAS).