This research contributes to the field of global governance studies from a critical perspective by analyzing the sexual and reproductive rights (SRR) agenda at the regional level, examining the processes of consensus-building within the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR). The overall objective is to examine the dynamics of political consensus-building during the period from 2000 to 2020 to identify the factors that underlie and influence the progress of negotiations that recognize these rights. We seek to understand the extent to which these regional organizations contribute to this construction; to this end, this study focuses on a non-conventional agenda and actors, as the SRR and transnational civil society networks, which have been largely overlooked in mainstream academic studies of International Relations and governance.

SRR are a set of rights that promote people’s freedom to choose a healthy sexual life and to make autonomous reproductive decisions free from discrimination and violence. While sexuality and reproduction are two different aspects of people’s lives, they are interrelated because reproductive rights must take into account the realization of sexuality and gender relations. The analytical framework of governance and the critical postulates of feminist theories in International Relations form the theoretical framework of the research, given that the topic is a social issue rooted in historical and global gender inequality, an issue that is often neglected and rendered invisible on the margins of dominant academic discussions in the field. Thus, we find that disputes surrounding this agenda involve elements that transcend the exclusive positions of States. For example, when states’ position is antagonistic, those seeking to build consensus propose strategies to reach agreements, in contrast to those who oppose them, whose strategy is to block the discussion.

The SRR agenda is an issue that also involves a multiplicity of actors, at different levels of government and scales of discussion, who engage with different spheres of authority, revealing a multidirectional interplay between the ideas and actions that emerge and have repercussions on global politics. Given the magnitude of this object of study at the global level, this thesis proposes a regional-scale approach based on the observation of the dynamics of consensus building among government and civil society actors regarding the SRR agenda within the OAS and MERCOSUR during the specified period.

This analysis based on the cases of the OAS and MERCOSUR demonstrates that the dynamics of policy-making extend beyond the exclusive domain of states, paving the way for the inclusion of relevant and non-traditional actors. In both organizations, despite their notable differences, when it comes to political consensus that recognizes SRR, the actors and topics of debate tend to coincide. Furthermore, while these organizations have institutional procedures and content frameworks that have contributed to building consensus on gender issues, they nevertheless face certain limitations when it comes to deepening discussions on SRR, as I described in previous study (Ferretto, 2021). For this reason, this research seeks to understand how the SRR agenda is negotiated, which issues achieve consensus, which do not, and why, in order to contribute to knowledge on this social issue from a novel framework that diverges from international studies.