ABSTRACT
In 1976, Jimmy Carter was elected President of the United States and he pledged to reorient American foreign policy to one that placed a primacy on the promotion and protection of human rights. In 1986, the Foreign Ministers of the then European Community signed a Declaration on Human Rights and Foreign Policy. After the 1997 General Election in the United Kingdom, the late Robin Cook, who was then the new Foreign Secretary, announced that Britain would pursue an ethical foreign policy, which included upholding the rule of law, the promotion of democracy, and the protection of human rights. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, the main aims and objectives of international and domestic human rights NGOs were to protect all or some of the human rights found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights through a variety of strategies, including setting international standards, lobbying governments and intergovernmental organizations, providing legal opinion and legal advice, carrying out programmes to help affected groups, and providing direct assistance to victims of human rights violations (see Welch 2001a; Landman and Abraham 2004). These examples of pronouncements from governments, inter-governmental organizations, and nongovernmental organizations all share the common theme that some form of ‘purposive social action’ (Merton 1936) will lead to a positive outcome for human rights or have a positive impact on human rights.
