Bachelor Thesis in Peace and
Development Studies
The power of
Amnesty International
as a non-governmental
organization
Author: Alexandra Tjäder
Supervisor: Lennart Wohlgemuth Examiner: Christopher High Term: Fall 2020
Subject: Peace and Development Level: Bachelor
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Abstract
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have grown significantly over the years and are today considered to be one of the most influential and powerful actors in the world when it comes to defending democracy and upholding various rights. When it comes to human rights, Amnesty International is one of the largest and most respected NGO in the world. Amnesty International works for a world where all the human rights should be respected and can be enjoyed by all the people of the world. Despite the important work of
Amnesty International, knowledge of Amnesty International and other NGOs are very limited. The knowledge that exists is considered to be very
simplistic, since NGOs are much more complex than one actually thinks. This study is therefore an effort to increase the knowledge and understanding of Amnesty International and NGOs. Using the “Stakeholder theory”,
Amnesty International will be analyzed to examine how powerful and effective it is. Various stakeholders in the form of governments in countries and the media will be used to analyze their relationship with Amnesty International in terms of being able to influence.
The findings has shown that because Amnesty International lives on donations, they depend on having a high membership base and reputation. Amnesty International prioritizes therefore topics based on how much the interest there are from the public opinion and in the media. This, instead of Amnesty International focusing and working in the countries where the most serious human rights violations occur and take place. Therefore, Amnesty International as a NGO will be weakened in its effort to be effective in changing and influencing the human rights in the world.
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents 3 List of Abbreviations 5 1.Introduction 6 1.1 Research problem 6 1.2 Relevance 7 1.3 Research objective 8 1.4 Research questions 8 1.5 Analytical framework 9 1.6 Methodological framework 91.7 Limitations and delimitations 10
1.8 Structure of the thesis 11
2. Literature review 12 3. Theoretical framework 14
3.1 The basic idea of the Stakeholder Theory 14 3.2 Normative, instrumental, and descriptive Stakeholder theory 15 3.3 Identification and classification of stakeholders 16
4. Methodological Framework 18
4.1 Qualitative Case Study 18
4.2 Abductive approach 19
4.3 Sources and their Validity 20
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5. Background 22
5.1 Description of NGOs in general 22
5.2 Background of Amnesty International 23 5.3 Amnesty International's organization structure 25
6. Findings 29
6.1 The power of the stakeholders 29
6.2 The affecting on Amnesty International's work 33 6.2.1 The Israel / Palestine conflict 33 6.2.2 The Human Rights actions in India 35
6.2.3 The abortion laws in Ireland 37
7. Analysis 40
7.1 The key stakeholders for Amnesty International 40 7.2 Freeman’s five different types of stakes; economic, technical, political,
social and leadership 40
7.2.1 The Israel / Palestine conflict 41 7.2.2 The Human Rights actions in India 42
7.2.3 The abortion laws in Ireland 44
7.3 Classification of the stakeholders as primary or secondary stakeholders 45
8. Conclusion 49
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List of Abbreviations
NGO - Non-governmental organization
UN - United Nations
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1.
Introduction
1.1 Research problem
All around the world, there are non-governmental organizations (NGOs) fighting for a better world. It can be about topics such as creating peace, advocating human rights or protecting the environment. The NGOs play a very important role in getting people involved in these topics and their strong growth in the recent years has contributed to their existence at all levels, from local to global (Karns et al, 2015).
The NGOs have become an important player for many, because through them billions of dollars are distributed to various development partnerships in the developing countries (Tvedt, 1998). There is a picture of them being independent and that they therefore can be involved in the work of creating a balance between the state and the market (Edwards, 2004; Tvedt, 2006). They are also considered to be important as they can be involved in bringing forward voices and opinions from both marginalized and minority groups around the world (Tvedt, 2006).
7 Amnesty International is one of the largest international NGOs working to promote human rights, emphasizing that all the people in the world are born free and of equal value. However, around the world, many people live in fear and oppression where their rights are not upheld. Amnesty International works therefore to prevent and put an end to serious violations of human rights (Amnesty International - Who we are, 2020) with help of naming and shaming campaigns with hope that the governments will be pressured to change the human right situationen in their country (Meernik et al, 2012).
Considering the high numbers of human rights abuses that occur daily all over the world, there are only some nations that receive attention from Amnesty International (Meernik et al, 2012). Some countries that are guilty for many horrible abuses will never get any publicity, while there are other countries who are responsible for only a few abuses that will get much more attention (Hafner-Burton, 2008).
Therefore there are reasons to investigate and try to understand why some countries get condemned by Amnesty International, while others do not. This thesis will try to understand how much power the stakeholders have when it comes to Amnesty International choices of cases.
1.2 Relevance
In the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development, a plan have been provided for how to create peace and prosperity in the world will be done. The goals includes equality between the genders, reducing of inequalities and
8 Amnesty International works to promote human rights and therefore it is important to achieve the Sustainable development goals 2030. However, Amnesty International can not work with all the human rights abuses that occur, which forces Amnesty International to take different choices regarding which issues and cases they want to focus on (Meernik et al, 2012).
This thesis will try to understand on how Amnesty International chooses their cases and how much power the stakeholders have behind these chosen cases.
1.3 Research objective
The objective of this thesis is to make a qualitative case study on the NGO Amnesty International. The aim of the study is to gain a deeper knowledge on how Amnesty International chooses their cases, with a focus on the relationships that exist between Amnesty International and its stakeholders. The thesis will therefore analyze on how different stakeholders and interests affects Amnesty Internationals focus and work.
1.4 Research questions
This thesis will be based on the following questions:
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How much power do the stakeholders have when it comes to which cases Amnesty International chooses to fight and campaign for?9
1.5 Analytical framework
As an analytical framework for exploring how much power the outside have when it comes to Amnesty International choses cases, this research will use the Stakeholder theory. The stakeholder theory is based on understanding that there are different interests and views in an organization that will affect its work. There are also outside parties who may have an interest in the work of an organization, which means that even there it will be a contributing factor to how the focus on the work of the organization will be distributed. Based on the stakeholder theory, various criteria, such as "Freeman’s five different types of stakes; economic, technical, political, social and
leadership" and "the classification of the stakeholders as primary or secondary stakeholders" will be used to analyze the NGO Amnesty
International. The first aspect of the criterion of the theory "Freeman’s five different types of stakes; economic, technical, political, social and
leadership" is about different stakes, which can be used to understand the causes and effects of a relationship between an organization and their stakeholders. The second aspect the classification of the stakeholders as primary or secondary stakeholders” concerns the criterion for classifying the stakeholders, which is based on the stakeholders' own position and interest in relation to the organization's positions. This analytical framework will be used as a guide to increase the understanding of Amnesty International, and thereby helping to improve the knowledge of NGOs.
1.6 Methodological framework
10 International will be understood by using a theory, with the aim to examining how powerful Amnesty International really is in improving human rights in the world. Since this study will be focusing on qualitative methods, a case study will be applied. A case study is good to use since it will provide a deeper understanding of the chosen case. As for the data that will be used in the study, it will be based on secondary sources. This means that the results of the study's research will be limited to the data collected by others on the subject. The secondary sources that are used comes mainly from reports and other written documents from the NGO Amnesty International. It should also be borne in mind when using information from others, the author writes from her own perspective, which means that texts and information can be
influenced in the form of what focus and emphasis is placed on.
1.7 Limitations and delimitations
Regarding the limitations of this study, the research is selected to only
11 really is. Other aspects such as whether or not Amnesty International is needed will therefore not be included in this study.
1.8 Structure of the thesis
In the thesis second chapter ” Literature review” previous research on NGOs and specifically Amnesty International will be described and discussed. In the thesis third chapter "Theoretical framework" the analytical framework will be presented, where the theory "The Stakeholder theory" will be
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2. Literature review
The existing literature and research regarding the NGOs work for better human rights have been developed over the years. Knowledge and understanding of NGOs has been broaden and deepen, but literature
regarding why NGOs chooses to focus on particular countries and cases and which factors that are behind those choices are still limited to some extend.
According to Hilhorst (2003), there is an idea behind why NGOs are choosing to become NGOs and not some other kind of organization. Being an NGO gives a “claim-bearing label”, which means that NGOs are
considered to give more legitimacy to an organization and thus get the stamp of an organization that is “doing good for the development of others”. In opinion polls, this shows very clearly, since people see widely recognized non-governmental organizations as significantly more reliable than both companies and governments (Stroup and Wong, 2017).
13 Gent et al (2015) also describes how the reputation of non-governmental organizations plays a significant role in promoting their operations. NGOs are dependent on their donors to survive, while on the other hand, donors need NGOs to pursue a political goal. A bad reputation for a NGO could be a catastrophe and could, because of that, mean that there will be changes and re-prioritisations in the NGOs political cases and goals, in order to not risk a deteriorating of reputation.
In the article”Setting the Advocacy Agenda: Theorising Issue Emergence and
Non-Emergence in Transnational Advocacy Networks”, Carpenter discusses
this issue why certain issues enter the agenda of human rights organizations while other issues do not. The article addresses the factors that underlie in a situation where organizations choose to take action. One factor is the issue definition, which is about ”that a given state of affairs is neither natural nor accidental, identify[ing] the responsible party or parties, and propos[ing] credible solutions”. The other factor, issue adoption, is based on the issue definition described above and explains how the problem can arise ”when the issue is championed by at least one major player in the broader network” (Carpenter, 2007).
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3. Theoretical framework
This chapter presents the chosen analytical framework for this study, which is the Stakeholder Theory. Different parts of the theory have been
categorized below where they will be introduced and discussed in different ways, in order to then present the criteria that exist in the theory and that will be used in the research.
3.1 The basic idea of the Stakeholder Theory
The basic idea of the Stakeholder theory is defined by Richard Edward Freeman (1984) as “Any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s objectives”. The idea is based on the fact that the organizations themselves should be regarded as a grouping of stakeholders, where the purpose is to manage their interests, needs and views. The management of these stakeholders will be the responsibility for the company's managers who will be considered as responsible for fulfilling this role with the stakeholder management. The managers must both ensure that the company can be managed for the benefit of its stakeholders, which means that the stakeholders rights must be taken into account and that they must have the opportunity to participate in decision-making. There is also a responsibility for the managers as they must lead the organization towards the interests of the stakeholders interest to ensure that the organization has a long-term survival (Friedman and Miles, 2006).
15 companies, family businesses and non-profit organizations in order for the application of the theory to be more comprehensive and better (Freeman et al, 2003).
3.2 Normative, instrumental, and descriptive
Stakeholder theory
According to Donaldson and Preston (1995), there are three different aspects of the Stakeholder theory: descriptive, instrumental and normative. These three different aspects are very related to each other, but on the other hand quite different as they are used for different types of evidence and arguments.
The normative Stakeholder theory can be seen as the core of the theory. The objective of the normative Stakeholder theory is to answering questions such as ”What are the responsibilities of the company in respect of stakeholders?” and “Why should companies take care of other interests?”. This aspect of the theory can therefore be considered to be linked to the moral and value issues that exist within an organization when it comes to achieving different goals (Donaldson and Preston, 1995). For Freeman, great emphasis is placed on the moral dimension that exists in every organizational theory. The relationship that exists between an organization and the stakeholders is largely based on moral commitments. For the organization, this relationship can be valuable because it is a reflection on which values and principles that the organization considers to be important. All organizations should
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3.3 Identification and classification of stakeholders
Identifying stakeholders is an important part of organizational understanding, so that the organization can be run more successfully (Freeman et al, 2010). The stakeholders who participate in the organization's functions are involved in both influencing and being influenced by the organization's own goals and purpose (Noland and Phillips, 2010). According to the instrumental
perspective of the theory, the organization should therefore invest in
engaging a broader group of stakeholders instead of a few large stakeholders. This will help to increase the overall effect on the organization's results (Donaldson and Preston, 1995).
In order to understand the relationship that exists between an organization and its stakeholders, the interests or stakes that exist in each relationship needs to be analyzed. This analysis of interest or stakes can be used to
understand the causes and effects of their relationship (Harrison and St. John, 1996). For Freeman, he describes five different types of stakes; economic, technical, political, social and leadership. The economic stake is about how stakeholders with economic interests in an organization can influence how the organization's financial well-being develops. The technical stake means that stakeholders can have technical effects on an organization. This means that there may be obstacles or enable an organization to, for example, develop new technology or limit technology which may be used by an organization. The social stake from the stakeholders view is about changing the organization's position in a society or giving the population a changed opinion about the organization. On the contrary, from the organization's side, the social stake means that organizations can decide for the stakeholders, for example, which activities and events the stakeholders are allowed to
17 social stake as an organization's social status and the public opinion about an organization contribute and influence the political process in order for a social purpose to be achieved. Based on an organization view from the political stake, an organization can either help or damage stakeholders chances of succeeding in a political area. When it comes to the management stake, stakeholders can influence an organization's management system by forcing them to change how they lead and manage their operations and even may also be forced to change their own values (Freeman, 1984).
There are also different criteria for being able to classify the stakeholders, which is based on the stakeholders position according to the organizations point of view and the type of issues that the various stakeholders promote. There are different models used to classify the stakeholders depending on the type of classification you are looking for. It can be an evaluation of the role or power of the stakeholders to what threat they may pose to the organization (Freeman, 1984). Clarkson classifies the stakeholders by dividing them into groups of either primary or secondary stakeholders. The stakeholders that are classified in the primary group are stakeholders who have a formal or official bond to the organization, where stakeholders can directly influence the success of the organization. The stakeholders who are classified in the secondary group are stakeholders who do not have as strong ties to the organization, such as the media and various interest groups. The big
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4. Methodological Framework
In this chapter, the methodological framework for this qualitative case study of Amnesty International’s powerfulness and effectiveness will be explained and justified. It will begin with an explanation of the choice of case study and the abductive approach. Then the sources and their validity will be discussed, which is finally followed by a discussion of limitations and delimitations in the research.
4.1 Qualitative Case Study
The chosen research method for this study will be a qualitative case study at the NGO Amnesty International. Making the study a case study is useful because it makes it possible to increase the understanding of how powerful and effective a NGO really is. According to Saunders et al (2009) “The case study will be of particular interest to you if you wish to gain a rich
understanding of the context of the research and the process being enacted”. It is also emphasized that the case study method is good for finding answers to "what", "how" and "why" questions, which is necessary in a descriptive and investigative research.
This research will examining and gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of how Amnesty Internationals work actually make a
difference, and how powerful the organization is when it comes to improving human rights in the world. Answers to questions such as ”What does
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made, examines how and why these decisions are implemented and analyzes why various decisions have been taken (Thomas and Mohan, 2015).
To examine the question ”How does the relationship look like between Amnesty International and the state they are working in?”, three different cases will be discussed and analyzed. These three different cases are; the conflict between Israel and Palestine, the human rights actions in India and the abortion laws in Ireland. In all these cases, Amnesty International has been and worked in, but they have developed in completely different ways. This means that the choice of these three cases shows very different but clear aspects of Amnesty International's power as a NGO.
4.2 Abductive approach
An abductive approach will be applied, because an abductive reasoning provides the opportunity to establish a theoretical understanding of the context, which will lead to a more in-depth understanding. Danermark et al (2002) describes the difference between abductive, inductive and deductive reasoning. They make the point that the difference between these arguments is shown when examining which deductions proves. Deductive and inductive reasoning shows that something must be in a certain way, while abductive reasoning only shows how something can be. It is described by Danermark et al (2002) that ”In abduction the case presents a plausible but not logically necessary conclusion”.
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Stakeholder theory. When it comes to a social science research, the rule is usually a theory or a interpretive framework (Danermark et al, 2002).
This chosen approach of abductive reasoning in this research will therefore mean that the results will be influenced by a predetermined theory, which results in that there are not being a definite and validated conclusion (Danermark et al, 2002).
4.3 Sources and their Validity
As for the data that will be used in the study, it will be based on secondary sources. This means that the results of the study will be limited to the information collected from other researchers and experts on the subject. The type of sources that will be collected and used for searching for data on Amnesty International's work will be largely from reports written by Amnesty International itself. Articles and research will also be used from newspapers such as Foreign Policy and the BBC. When studying and using documents that are written from Amnesty International themselves, one must keep in mind that they have their perspective on the subject, which can affect what information is studied and highlighted in the texts. There needs to be an awareness of why the document was written and what the purpose of the information is (George and Bennett, 2005).
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4.4 Limitations and Delimitations
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5. Background
This chapter will begin with a description of the concept of NGOs in general and then have a background on both Amnesty International's emergence and development over the years and how the structure within Amnesty
International looks like.
5.1 Description of NGOs in general
NGOs is used today as a term to be able for describing organizations from a very wide range, as these are organizations that range from both small to large organizations and from very local to very large globally international organizations. (Tvedt 1998; Barrow and Jennings, 2001).
When it comes to defining NGOs, there is no clear definition. The
Cambridge Dictionary (2020) defines NGO as "an organization that tries to achieve social or political aims and is not controlled by a government”. Michael (2004) is on the same track as he defines NGOs as “independent development actors existing apart from governments and corporations, operating on a non-profit or not-for-profit basis with an emphasis on voluntarism, and pursuing a mandate of providing development services, undertaking communal development work or advocating on development issues.”
Tvedt (1998), on the other hand, states that NGOs should not be categorized in a politically or culturally charged way, such as "independent
23 terms are context dependent and there is no information about their
connections to the other parts of the society.
Instead, the definition of NGOs is described by Tvedt (1998) as follows; “for all organizations within the aid channel that are institutionally separate from the state apparatus and are non-profit-distributing.” Tvedt (1998) further describes that ”to be within the aid channel means that the organization gets funding from the aid system; those organizations that get funding are in, and those that do not, are out”.
Since NGOs exist in all forms, from both small to large and local to
international organizations, I believe that Tvedt's definition of NGOs is broad enough to capture all these different kinds of NGO. Tvedt's definition of NGOs also sets clear boundaries, which does that this study will be based on his definition.
5.2 Background of Amnesty International
In the year 1961, two Portuguese students took a toast for freedom and because of this act, they were both sentenced to seven years in prison. For the British lawyer Peter Benenson, this verdict was very outrageous and he wrote to the British newspaper, The Observer, with the aim to launch an international campaign to protect the "forgotten prisoners", and try to get amnesty for the prisoners of conscience that existed around the world (Amnesty International - Handbook, 2002).
24 the name The Forgotten Prisoners where ”The Forgotten Prisoners called on people everywhere to protest – impartially and peacefully – against the imprisonment of men and women around the world for their political or religious beliefs” (Amnesty International - Handbook, 2002).
The campaign with the film ”The Forgotten Prisoners” aroused an enormous attention. In one month, more than a thousand people had sent letters to show their support and commitment. After six months, a group began to form an international movement with supporters from all over the world. The new organization created national bodies in countries and made representations on the conditions for imprisoned persons. The purpose of the organization was to review the international protection of the existence of the human rights with the principle of impartiality and independence (Amnesty International - Handbook, 2002).
Over the years, the organization called Amnesty International grew larger and in the year 1977 their work was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize. In the year 1978, Amnesty International was also honored with the UN Human Rights Award (Amnesty International - Handbook, 2002).
25 Amnesty International has become an important and respected organization in improving the human rights of people around the world. They often act in international debates on human rights issues and participate in work for governments and other organizations. Amnesty International's goal is to fight for a world where human rights are respected and can be enjoyed by all the people and will fight for this to become a reality (Amnesty International - Handbook, 2002).
5.3 Amnesty International's organization structure
Amnesty International describes itself as ”A global movement of more than 7 million people who take injustice personally. We are funded by members and people like you. We are independent of any political ideology, economic interest or religion” (Amnesty International - Who we are, 2020). Of these 7 million people, both supporters, members and activists are included. By Amnesty International the members are defined as ”individuals who pay a membership fee” and supporters defined as ”individuals who make a donation”. For the activists, they are described as the people who ”take part in actions”, which for example, can be an online action in the form of a signature in an electronic petition. The activists actions can also be performed physically as they can participate in various events and demonstrations (Amnesty International - Structure and people, 2020).
26 taken (Amnesty International - Handbook, 2002). Amnesty International - Structure and people (2020) describes the role of the International Secretariat as follows;
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Conducting research and reporting-
Ensuring Amnesty International (AI) speaks with one voice globally about the whole range of human rights themes and situations and their impact on people and communities-
Providing expert legal analysis of our research data, forming the basis of expert lobbying of international government organizations-
Providing endorsed materials to sections for campaigning-
Monitoring AI's financial health-
Supporting and maintaining systems required to ensure that AI is ready to serve 24 hours a dayBy law, the International Secretariat is divided into two different legal entities, which are the Amnesty International Limited ("AIL") and the Amnesty International Charity Limited (”AICL") (Amnesty Internationals - Structure and people, 2020). Amnesty International Charity Limited mainly receives its income from gifts or other one-time donations and encourages Amnesty International Limited to carry out charitable activities on their behalf (Amnesty International Charity, 2020).
The President and Operational Leader of the International Secretariat is the Secretary General. In the Secretary General, Julie Verhaar has the main responsibility for the leadership of the International Secretariat. Her task is to determine the strategic direction of Amnesty International and to be
27 To provide guidance and the provision of leadership, Amnesty International has an International Board. The International Board is the unit that is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the organization fulfills its assignments and visions. It works to ensure that Amnesty International complies its statutes and is involved in formulating strategic plans. In
addition, it reviews the finances and makes decisions on structural changes at international level. (Amnesty International - International Board, 2020).
Amnesty International's highest decision-making body is the Global
Assembly, which consists of representatives of the various member units and international members. The task of the Global Assembly is to approve a global strategy to be used to achieve Amnesty Internationals chosen missions. Thus, it is the Global Assembly that determines the charter, strategy and policies regarding Amnesty International's work. The Global Assembly is also the decision-making body when it comes to electing and supervising the International Board. All the international members together with the International Board are responsible to ensure that the regulations Global Assembly adopt will be followed (Statue of Amnesty International, 2019).
At national and local level, there are different country sections working for Amnesty International. These country sections are found in over 70 countries around the world. The tasks for the country sections is according to Amnesty International - Structure and people (2020) following:
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Lobbying local government-
Campaigning/fundraising/communications within their country/region28
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Recruiting new supporters for the organization-
Conducting own research projects focusing on human rights abuses in their own country – this must be developed from research work carried out by and is agreed by the International Board.The country sections consist of members who come from smaller local groups, such as from a city or a university. The various groups are bound by the vision of Amnesty International and works for the assignments that Amnesty International has taken on to work for, but the groups still have their own choices when it comes to the way they want to carry out
campaigns and fundraising. The groups also have the power to be involved and influence when it comes to making decisions within Amnesty
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6. Findings
This chapter contain data collected on the non-governmental organization Amnesty International that will be examined and discussed in a structured way based on the two research questions: ”How much power do the
stakeholders have when it comes to which cases Amnesty International chooses to fight and campaign for?” and ”How does Amnesty International's work get affected depending on how much power the stakeholders have?”
6.1 The power of the stakeholders
From the beginning, Amnesty International's vision has been ”a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights
standards”. In order to achieve this vision, Amnesty International have been conducting work that focusing on stopping and prevention the abuse of rights that exists around the world. It can be abuse of human rights such as
restricted freedom of expression, discrimination of sexual orientation or violation of mental integrity in the form of abuse and torture (Amnesty International - Handbook, 2002).
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights describes the human rights that are fundamental for a human to be able to live with dignity and development (Amnesty International - Handbook, 2002).
These human rights include;
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Political rights such as freedom of expression-
Economic rights such as the right to work and a good standard of living30
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Civil rights such as equality for everyone infront of the law and the right to be able to love whoever you wantBased on these human rights, which are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is then up to each government in each individual state to ensure that these human rights are fulfilled. Amnesty International has then as starting point in its work to put pressure on the governments of states where these human rights are not respected or
fulfilled. This is to be able to get governments to change their approach and action towards the human rights (Amnesty International - Handbook, 2002).
Regarding Amnesty International's work for human rights, they have
considered that all the different rights are interdependent and because of that affect each other. Amnesty International therefore considers that all the human rights are important, but has only chosen to focus on some of them in their work. The focus of Amnesty International is therefore on ending and preventing the existing violations of physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination. Based on this focus, Amnesty International's main campaign has been targeted at;
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Free all prisoners of conscience-
Ensure a prompt and fair trial for all political prisoners-
Abolish the death penalty, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment-
End extrajudicial executions and “disappearances”-
Fight impunity by working to ensure that perpetrators of such human rights abuses are brought to justice in accordance with international standards31 From the beginning, until the year 1973, Amnesty International's main focus was on counteracting the death penalty. This focus then expanded in the year 1974, when they chose to also focusing on demanding fair trials for the prisoners held on political grounds. In the year 1979, the expansion
continued, to also including demand the cessation of all extrajudicial killings based on political reasons.This expansion of the mandate in Amnesty International made that the insiders started to be worried about their development, that Amnesty International took on issues that were too far from their original focus and mandate. Sir Nigel Rodley, Amnesty International's first legal adviser, noted that ”it was unsustainable for [Amnesty], on the one hand, to insist that, for example, prisoners of conscience be released, while ignoring on the other hand, lethal action by which States could circumvent the need to imprison in the first place” (SIM Utrecht, 2011).
32 In the article ”Why Are the United States and Israel at the Top of Human Rights Hit Lists?”, a survey was conducted to see which factors affected the selected cases of the NGOs. Based on the results of the survey larger
countries got more scrutiny from NGOs such as Amnesty International. However, the size of the population did not seem to play a particularly large role, but countries with larger economies received more focus and coverage from Amnesty International. Something that can be explained based on that ”they carried more weight in global politics and economic affairs, or because their abundant social infrastructure produced more accounts of abuse”. The results also showed that countries that were in the media's focus received more attention from Amnesty International. Because Amnesty International wants to improve its power and efficiency, they will have to respond to the media interest, as ”supply rises with demand; the more journalists who ask about a country, the more information watchdogs will supply” (Foreign Policy, 2009).
For Amnesty International, their core focus on working against government abuse had become obsolete. Times had changed and the development had contributed to, among other things, that there were now also entities other than governments in countries that violated human rights and that the internal conflicts in countries made it more difficult to determine who was to blame. Amnesty International therefore decided that their new strategy would oppose all the human rights violations (Amnesty International News, 2012). The new vision for Amnesty International will therefore be “every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments,” and declares their mission “to undertake research and action focused on
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6.2 The affecting on Amnesty International's work
The NGO Amnesty International operates in more than 70 countries worldwide (BBC, 2020). Based on research and analyzes by experts, Amnesty International selects which topics and countries the organization should invest in and try to achieve a change in (Amnesty International UK, 2020). Below, three cases will be described and discussed; the conflict between Israel and Palestine, the human rights actions in India and the abortion laws in Ireland. In all the three cases, Amnesty International has been involved and worked for change, but their work has yielded different outcomes.
6.2.1 The Israel / Palestine conflict
In the long-running conflict between the countries Israel and Palestine, Amnesty International has been attacked for being biased towards Palestine in its reporting and hence anti-Israel (NGOMonitor, 2020). There are several examples of how Amnesty International has taken a stand on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. Their commitment to oppose Israel can be considered unprofessional as this conflict is very complex and where both sides are very involved in how the situation has developed (NGOMonitor, 2012a). Amnesty International describes itself as “Independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion… it does not support or oppose any government or political system” (Amnesty
34 It was in November in the year 2012 that a lots of rockets were fired at the Israeli civilian population, which resulting in that several people being injured. The attack came from the Hamas, which is the Islamic Resistance Movement, but no statement condemning the attack came from Amnesty International. Amnesty International only issued a statement after Israel resisted the Palestinian attack and killing Hamas' military chief of staff Ahmed al-Ja'abari. Amnesty International issued the following statement on the incident from Israel: “Israel’s assassination of Ahmad al-Ja’abari, the head of Hamas’ military wing has placed civilians in Gaza and southern Israel at grave risk by re-igniting the armed conflict there.” Thus, Amnesty International does not blame the Hamas attack, but only condemns Israel for violating the international humanitarian law (NGOMonitor, 2012a).
With regard to the attacks in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Amnesty International has called on the UN Security Council to "impose an
35 In the year 2012, Amnesty International also released a publication in which it notes that Israelis imprisoning Palestinians without any form of trial. Amnesty International wanted to campaign about the situation of the Palestinians in the conflict between Israel and Palestine and therefore try to direct attention and political pressure on Israel. The publication that Amnesty International released reporting on the situation of the Palestinians was largely based on testimonies from the Palestinians themselves. There were also no checks in the report that the accusations in fact were true or what the Israeli government's responded to this (NGOMonitor, 2012b).
6.2.2 The Human Rights actions in India
In India, Amnesty International's operations have been forced to cease since the Indian government decided that Amnesty International's assets in bank accounts should be frozen, which contributes that the staff in the country have been forced to lay off and all the campaign and research work will be shut down. Avinash Kumar, Executive Director of Amnesty International India, stated that ”For a movement that has done nothing but raise its voice against injustice, this latest attack is akin to freezing dissent” (Amnesty International, 2020a).
Amnesty International believes that this is merely an attempt by the Indian government to end independent investigations into human rights violations (DW, 2020). In India, there are major shortcomings in safeguarding the human rights of the people in the country. In the area of Jammu and Kashmir in India, there is a major problem regarding the fact that human rights
36 forces and the armed groups where it is about everything from murder, rape and various disappearances. The authorities in the Jammu and Kashmir area do not work for human rights themselves, but have itself been involved in the human rights violations by deciding on long-term curfews. These exit
restrictions have been described by Amnesty International as ”restrict people’s movement, mobile and internet service shutdowns curb free expression, and protestors often face excessive force and the use of abusive weapons such as pellet-firing shotguns” (Amnesty International, 2020b). In India, there is also a major problem regarding the widespread violence against women and girls. Many women and girls in the country live under discrimination and violence every day, in both public areas but also in private areas such as in their own homes. It is worst affected for the women and girls in the marginalized groups such as the Dalit and Adivasi. Due to their marginalization in the country, their ability to dare to make their voices heard and hence be able to demand justice is very limited. The gender-based violence that takes place against women and girls in India is underreported as there are systemic and social obstacles such as for example the
marginalization in the country that make changes difficult to implement (Amnesty International, 2020c).
37 There is a great deal of disagreement between the NGO Amnesty
International and the country of India. Amnesty International's various offices in India have been looted several times when statements or reports have been made with accusations against the Government of India. India has strict laws regarding foreign-funded non-profit organizations, with a
particular focus on human rights organizations. Amnesty International has been repeatedly scrutinized by the country's various authorities, where bank account freezes have been implemented. However, this freezing of bank accounts was according to Amnesty International ”the final straw” (BBC, 2020).
Due to India's decision to freeze Amnesty International's accounts, their operations in the country closing down. This shows the power the
governments have in the countries where the NGOs are working in, and that NGOs therefore have difficulties in questioning the governments of the countries in order to continue the work and improve the human rights.
6.2.3 The abortion laws in Ireland
In the country of Ireland there was one of the world's most stringent laws when it comes to performing an abortion. A woman could only undergo an abortion if there was evidence that her own life would be risked in
connection with a birth. In the year 1983, Ireland held a referendum which adopted provisions that "the unborn human" had the same right to life as the pregnant woman. Due to this constitutional provision, access to both abortion and health care for pregnant women became severely limited (Amnesty International, 2017).
38 abortion but was denied because it was forbidden to perform an abortion in her case. The result for the girl was instead that she chose to commit suicide. Following this case, the Supreme Court of Ireland chose to reinterpret and amend the existing provisions on abortion. The Supreme Court ruled that the provisions should be changed so that pregnant women had the right to have an abortion if their lives, but not their health, were in danger, including if there was a risk of suicide (Amnesty International, 2017).
A report by Amnesty International in Ireland in 2015 found out that there were still several violations of women's rights regarding the country's abortion laws. Many women who were pregnant felt compelled to travel abroad just to gain access to basic health care services. For women who were pregnant and wanted to have an abortion, they were also driven to take the help that was only available abroad. However, this help that was available abroad required that one had sufficient financial resources. Pregnant women who were either young or had a limitation in terms of financial resources had to undergo secret abortions where no medical support was provided. Because of this, there are shortcomings in the access to have a safe and legal abortion as a woman, which in its consequence is a violation of human rights
(Amnesty International, 2017).
39 In May the year 2018 in Ireland, a historic referendum was held where it became clear that the country would legalize abortion. The new abortion law means that Ireland offers;
-
A free, safe and legal abortion for most people who require it-
Permits abortion on request to 12 weeks-
Abortion beyond 12 weeks can be performed under limited circumstances40
7. Analysis
In this chapter, the power of the stakeholders to the NGO Amnesty
International will be placed in relation to the Stakeholder theory presented in the analytical framework.
7.1 The key stakeholders for Amnesty International
The NGO, Amnesty International is based on a global voluntary
membership. The organization consists of an international network with both international members, national units and local groups, where everyone works for the vision that every person in the world should be able to enjoy the human rights.
However, Amnesty International's work is also influenced by different other stakeholders who all in their own way wants to be able to influence how Amnesty International's work should look like and develop. The key stakeholders for Amnesty International are Amnesty Internationals own members, supporters and donors, the different governments, the media and the general public.
7.2 Freeman’s five different types of stakes;
economic, technical, political, social and leadership
41 very different. In all the countries in which Amnesty International operates, there is a unique relationship between Amnesty International and the
country. This is the basis for what the human rights situation looks like in the chosen country and what view and opinion the country's government has towards an improvement in the human rights.
7.2.1 The Israel / Palestine conflict
In the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, their relationship with Amnesty International can be described as a political stake based on both sides. As a NGO, Amnesty International has been attacked for being biased towards Palestine and anti-Israel in its reporting (NGOMonitor, 2020). From the Israeli side, this attack on Amnesty International, claiming that they are anti-Israel, may be favorable to them as it may lead to that the outside world gaining more sympathy for them and that they are considered to need more support in the conflict. Amnesty International has made reports in which it has been critical of Palestine, such as when it called on the UN Security Council to impose an international arms embargo on both Israel and Palestine (Amnesty International, 2012a). The critical part of reporting against Palestine has been somewhat overshadowed, which will lead to consequences such as that Amnesty International's reliability will deteriorate.
42 an interest in wanting to help Palestine succeed and win against Israel in the conflict.
In this case, Amnesty International has been working in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. This conflict has been going on for a long time and people from the both sides have been injured and killed. However, Amnesty International's work has developed into a complicated task since the media and the Israeli side have attacked the organization for being biased towards Palestine and anti Israel in its reporting. For Amnesty International's own members, supporters and activists, this means that it will be difficult to carry out any form of actions against any of the sides. An action for the Israeli side, for example, can been perceived as Amnesty International wanting to change the media's stamp of them, while an action for the
Palestinian side could been perceived as Amnesty International continuing to be biased against Palestine. In this case, the media has shown great power in the development of Amnesty International's work, which may be a basis for how the public in both Israel and Palestine and around the world perceives Amnesty International as a NGO.
7.2.2 The Human Rights actions in India
In its operations in India, Amnesty International has worked to improve human rights in the country. The human rights situation in India has been described as containing major shortcomings as there are, for example, both abuse and violence against the civilian population from the country's own security forces along with other armed groups in the country (Amnesty International, 2020b). In its work to improve human rights, Amnesty
43 India, which has resulted in that the Government of India have decided to freeze Amnesty International's assets in its bank accounts. This decision has meant that Amnesty International's operations in the country have been forced to cease and that all the staff in the country have been forced to lay off together with all the campaign and research work being forced to close down (Amnesty International, 2020a).
This situation with the problematic relationship between the Indian
government and Amnesty International shows what an economic stake can look like. The Indian Government considers that Amnesty International's operations are no longer needed in the country, and as a stakeholder with great power, their freezing of bank accounts, influence the economic development of the NGO Amnesty International. In addition, Amnesty International is dependent on grants in its work, which means that with no money, their work cannot continue.
Amnesty International has in response to the Indian government decided to shut down all its operations in the country, but should Amnesty International instead choose to continue its operations and thus take the Indian government into more consideration, this situation could have shown a management stake. As the management stake is about how stakeholders can influence an organization to change its management system, this stake could take place if Amnesty International chooses to agree to demands from the Indian
government about their work and operations in the country. This change for Amnesty International had thus contributed to a change in the organization's own values and views.
44 India lives with their human rights being violated every day, but based on the country's social barriers such as marginalization, these violations will not be taken seriously. For a large part of the population, such as men, human rights are perceived to work well. The large part of the violations that exists in the country comes from the men and it is also the men who have the power in India. Amnesty International's work to try to improve human rights is therefore difficult, as the people in power in the country are not willing to make a difference. Although Amnesty International's own members, supporters and activists works hard, the organization does not have that power to change a country's view without a government's own willingness to change.
7.2.3 The abortion laws in Ireland
In the case of Ireland and their strict abortion laws described in Chapter 5.5.3, Amnesty International has worked hard to change these laws and make abortion in Ireland more legal. Amnesty International launched various campaigns to reach out to the people of the country about how a change in abortion was needed and some years later the country had a referendum where a legal abortion stood as the winner (The Conversation, 2020). This work Amnesty International was able to carry out in connection with making abortion legal in Ireland shows how Amnesty International's relationship with Ireland is an example of a social stake.
The social stake that can be seen in the relationship between Amnesty International and Ireland shows how Amnesty International, with the help of stakeholders, were able to change the country's opinion and position
45 they were forced to seek help abroad to get help with basic health care. As these harsh abortion laws were a violation of the human rights and there were pressure from the people of Ireland, Amnesty International chose to focus on this issue. Amnesty International chose to take a stand on Ireland's abortion law by campaigning for a legal abortion in Ireland. The work Amnesty International contributed with, together with the population, got pressure that the abortion issue gained even a greater focus also by the media. All this pressure and focus together made that the Irish government felt pressured to make a change, as can be seen in their choice to hold a new referendum regarding the issue of legal abortion.
7.3 Classification of the stakeholders as primary or
secondary stakeholders
Amnesty International is created as a global movement with no interest in politics, economics or religion. The organization is made up by several million members who all have an interest in improving human rights in the world. The members are categorized as either supporters, members or activists due to whether they give recurring sums to the organization or only participate in taking actions in the form of participation in various events and demonstrations. Amnesty International is because of that dependent on its members to be able to conduct and carry out its work in different countries (Amnesty International - Structure and people, 2020).
46
broaden their focus and work in order to survive. Due to this limitation, Amnesty International had to increase its membership base in order to retain the power they had created as a human rights organization (SIM Utrecht, 2011).
47
explains how the media has created awareness of this conflict and that Amnesty International must therefore engage in the conflict itself in order to respond to demand from the outside. The publication showed on
deficiencies, but that Amnesty International had to found information to write about in order to provide information to both the media and the people. Everything so that the popularity of Amnesty International popularity would not deteriorate.
The secondary stakeholders can be also be analyzed from another perspective, in terms of Amnesty International's impact from the general public. In the case 5.5.3 where the abortion law in Ireland are discussed, it can be seen how the general public in Ireland was involved and influenced to bring about a change. A large proportion of the female population in Ireland felt violated because they were forced to seek help abroad for abortions and that they also had to have the financial resources to seek that help. The general public in Ireland wanted a change, which led to an increase in interest in the issue in the country and that both the media and Amnesty International chose because of that to focus on the issue, which later contributed to a legalization regarding the abortion.
When it comes to the primary stakeholders for Amnesty International, the government of the country in which Amnesty International operates in belongs to that group. The primary stakeholders have a very great power and can, because of that, have a great influence on how the work for Amnesty International should develop (Clarkson, 1995). Chapter 5.5.2 shows this, as Amnesty International's operations have been shut down due to the
48
speaking out strongly against the country's government and making publications with reports on the serious violations that are going on in the country. In response to Amnesty International's work on change, the Government of India has chosen to freeze the organization's accounts and forcing Amnesty International's operations to cease. As a result, all staff in the country will be forced to resign and all the campaigns and research work will have to be shut down (BBC, 2020). The government of countries, as are primary stakeholder, has a very large power that are absolutely crucial for Amnesty International's work in their chosen countries. Hence, Amnesty International is forced to be influenced and take into account the
governments thoughts in order for their operations and work to be able to live on.
49
8. Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to examine how powerful and effective the NGO Amnesty International really is in its work to improve human rights in the world. The NGO Amnesty International was chosen because it is one of the largest international NGOs working today to promote human rights. Amnesty International as an NGO is independent from both governments and corporations, and also from politics, economy and religion. They have a non-profit basis which means that the organization is based on its volunteers, supporters and activists. This in turn means that it is the organization itself that, based on research and analyzes by experts from Amnesty International's own headquarters, the International Secretariat (IS), chooses which topics and countries Amnesty International should invest in and try to achieve a change in. It is then up to the Global Assembly to approve a global strategy to be used to achieve their chosen missions. The International Board section has the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that the organization fulfills these assignments. At national and local level, there are then smaller groups who are working and campaigning for Amnesty International's selected missions.
From the findings of the study, it can be concluded (research question ”How much power do the stakeholders have when it comes to which cases
50 its focus to address all kind of human rights violations that have arisen. This expansion was the basis for Amnesty International, which is dependent on its supporters, to maintain its large membership base and popularity in the world. Due to this, Amnesty International chose to prioritize issues and topics differently depending on the interest from the outside. This means that it became the issues and topics that the media have the most focus on and that the public has the greatest interest in that receive the most attention from Amnesty International.
An answer to the research question ”How does Amnesty International's work get affected depending on how much power the stakeholders have?” shows that the relationship Amnesty International has with the countries they operates in looks very different. In the cases that are included in this study; the conflict between Israel and Palestine, the human rights situation in India and the abortion law in Ireland, Amnesty International has worked in different ways for change, which has given completely different outcomes. With regard to the case of the abortion law in Ireland, Amnesty
51 International's bank accounts in the country shows how much power certain stakeholders may have on Amnesty International as an actor.
From the outset, Amnesty International was an effective NGO working to improve human rights. They had a clear purpose and goal when they focused on a few selected violations of human rights. Today, Amnesty International is focusing on the whole universe of human rights violations. Due to this, Amnesty International's work has become weakened to be able to influence major changes and provide meaningful facts. The campaigns Amnesty International chooses to work for are prioritized based on the countries and topics that have the highest interest in the media and the general public, as Amnesty International considers to be important to maintain a high number of members and a popular reputation. This choice made by Amnesty
International contributes to that countries that are already receiving the most attention are ending up on Amnesty International's agenda, instead of
52
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