Why do advocacy organizations focus on some issues rather than others? Issue selection is an important area of study given that advocacy organizations have limited time and resources and thus many potentially important issues go ignored. Yet issue selection remains an understudied question in the scholarly study of advocacy organizations. In this article, the author draws on historical data, interviews, and a database of statements by major human rights advocacy organizations to examine one particular historical puzzle regarding issue selection: Why advocacy organizations have focused on the recent conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan rather than the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, even though more people have died in the Congo. The author finds that advocacy organizations select issues not based on their severity but based on framing, political opportunities, and organizational resources.
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