ABSTRACT
During recent decades, and particularly since the 1970s, a number of states have incorporated the promotion of human rights and democracy into their foreign policy goals. This integration goes beyond mere discourse and has been reflected in a series of institutions and mechanisms and in certain practices [Forsythe, 2000; Vincent, 1989]. Spain is no exception to this evolution. Its entry into the European Community in 1986 was decisive in developing this field of action. But although human rights have been incorporated into the foreign agenda, we can hardly speak of a true ‘policy’ that has been planned in a comprehensive manner, nor can we claim that it embraces all of the spheres of foreign action. True, progress has been made in the (weak) institutionalization of this field of policy, actions are being carried out as a result of international obligations in multilateral forums and certain isolated initiatives of promotion can be detected: a ‘selective indignation’ decided on a case-by-case basis.1 But in general, all of this falls far short of making human rights an axis of foreign policy. Here, the expression ‘human rights foreign policy’ will be used for convenience to refer to the set of considerations and actions by the state in this field, or to ‘a choice among priorities’. As Baehr says: ‘It means that a government will have to decide whether and when it will give a higher priority to human rights over other foreign policy considerations, such as national security, foreign trade and development cooperation. Such policy considerations may conflict with each other’ [Baehr, 1996:23].
