Abstract
This chapter explores how the social and political actors populating the UN Forum on Minority Issues promote intersectional approaches as part of transnational advocacy efforts concerning the situation and collective action of minority women. A framing analysis builds on studies that looked at how intersectionality has been used in activism and mobilisations (Roth, 2021; Evans and Lepinard, 2020; Terriquez et al., 2018; D’Agostino, 2018). Two sources of discourses of the UN Forum on Minority Issues are analysed—Independent Expert and Special Rapporteur reports and Forum statements. The chapter finds that, first, most references to intersectionality pertain to the experience of minority women and at times to other intersectional categories. Second, the vast majority of discourses adopt a frame of intersectionality that makes visible the marginalisation and vulnerability of minority women, but some discourses do politicise minority women to promote their agency in terms of participation, decision-making, and empowerment. Third, intersectional lenses are more likely to be reflected in statements by Special Rapporteurs, advocates, and activists rather than states and international governmental organisations (IGOs). Overall, the chapter demonstrates how attention to the intersectional frames used by and on behalf of minority women in global governance spaces discloses opportunities for realising solidarity, resistance, and transformation.