Foreign policy and Human Rights

In the past, countries’ foreign policies were largely subject to government executive branch discretion. Under the rule of law, however, every government act is regulated either by constitutional or international principles. In a democracy, all state branches must be subject to citizen control, imposing policy makers greater transparency in the formulation and implementation of all public policies. But that is not true in most countries in the South Global, limiting the capacity of human rights defenders, academics and NGOs to pressure their governments for foreign policies guided by human rights principles.

In this context, seeking to affirm the prevalence of human rights in foreign policy formulation in Global South countries, Conectas undertakes the following activities:

(1) strengthening southern NGOs’ participation at the UN Human Rights System;

(2) promoting joint advocacy and mobilization among human rights defenders from Africa, Asia and Latin America; and

(3) fostering the creation, at the national level, of formal mechanisms for civil society participation in foreign policy formulation.