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
Course code: 2FU33E
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.

Keywords: NGO, Amnesty International, powerful, effective, stakeholders

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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 9

1.7 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

4.4 Limitations and Delimitations 21

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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

Reference list 52

4
List of Abbreviations

NGO - Non-governmental organization

UN - United Nations

UNSCR 1373 - UN Security Council Resolution 1373

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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).

However, this description of NGOs can be considered to be very one-sided,

as it has been argued that NGOs are more complex than one might think
(Hilhorst, 2003; Tvedt, 2006). NGOs have been judged to be a creation of
processes between different actors. Due to this, they are considered to have
ideologies and national contexts involved to influence how the NGOs will be
formed and developed. Because of this, there are different interests that
contribute to how NGOs work and what they focusing on (Hilhorst, 2003).

6
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
promoting of peaceful and inclusive societies (UN, 2020). To achieve these
sustainable development goals, it is recognized that human rights is an
essential part of the work, (OHCHR, 2020) since many of the Sustainable
development goals are based on the human rights (UNDP, 2019).

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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:

- How much power do the stakeholders have when it comes to which cases
Amnesty International chooses to fight and campaign for?

- How does Amnesty International's work get affected depending on how

much power the stakeholders have?

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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

As a methodological framework, this study will be an abductive study, as the

research is based on an analytical process where the NGO Amnesty

9
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

focusing on Amnesty International. The choice to only focusing on one NGO
is to increase the understanding of the specific case, which means that the
study will not be representative of all the NGOs working to improve human
rights in the world. The NGOs are different and the choice will therefore
affect the result obtained. If the same study had been done on another NGO,
it could have come to different conclusions. The research on Amnesty
International as a NGO, which enables understanding to be improved, means
that this study can contribute to strengthening the overall knowledge of the
power of NGOs together with others studies on the same subject. Another
limitation of the study is that the research is done as a desktop study, which
means that I have to rely on the information that is found and collected.
When it comes to delimitation in the study, the research will only focus on
how powerful and effective Amnesty International's work for human rights

10
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
described in more detail. In the fourth chapter "Methodological framework"
in the study, the methodological framework for the study will be presented,
which is a qualitative case study with abductive reasoning. This method will
be described in the chapter and discussed how it is used. In addition, data
collection will be addressed and discussed in this chapter. For the fifth
chapter "Findings", it will begin with a description of the concept of NGO
and a background of the NGO Amnesty International, with their history and
development over the years. This chapter will also include the findings
themselves, where a presentation of the data that has been found about
Amnesty International will be described and discussed. In the sixth chapter
"Analysis", these findings will be presented and analyzed according to the
analytical framework and the Stakeholder theory. For the last chapter
"Conclusion", an overview of the results of the study will be presented in
relation to the research questions.

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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).

Despite this high level of public trust in NGOs, Stroup and Wong claims in
the book ”The Authority trap: Strategic choices of International NGOs” that
”in order to retain their authority, INGOs such as Greenpeace, Oxfam, and
Amnesty International refrain from expressing radical opinions that severely
damage their long-term reputation”. They argue that NGOs must pay a high
price, in forms of compromises and priorities, in order to retain the power
they have developed over the years to be involved and a part of the decision-
making. The power the NGOs have are therefore used to make small-bore
reforms instead of major radical changes, to maintain the equilibrium that is
needed to preserve their status (Stroup and Wong, 2017).

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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).

Based on this, there is a lack of major and significant research on how the
NGOs' relationships with their stakeholders affect their work and operations.
A gap in the research can be identified, and this study will therefore try to
investigate how NGOs, which in this case is represented by Amnesty
International, are affected by different stakeholders in terms of influencing
their focus and work.

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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).

Application of the Stakeholder theory to a non-governmental organization is

unusual as there is a misconception that the Stakeholder theory should only
be applied to large multinational organizations. The Stakeholder theory also
needs to be applied to other types of organizations such as smaller

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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
therefore define the basic moral principles they want to adopt and then use
these principles as a basis for making decisions (Freeman, 1984).

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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
participate and influence in. The political stake goes hand in hand with the

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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
difference between the primary and secondary stakeholder group is that the
primary group has more power to influence an organization, to either success
or failure which the secondary stakeholder group does not have (Clarkson,
1995).

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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
Amnesty International's organization structure look like?” and ”How does
the relationship look like between Amnesty International and the state they
are working in?" will therefore need to be answered. A case study makes it
possible to study this as the method examines why specific decisions are

18
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”.

When it comes to using an abductive reasoning, there are requirements that

must be followed. There must be 1) an event / phenomenon, which this
research refers to the NGO Amnesty International. This first requirement is
also related to the second requirement 2) a rule, which in this case is the

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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).

The data collected for the study comes largely from electronic databases such
as Google Scholar and OneSearch, but also from articles and reporters from
Amnesty International.

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4.4 Limitations and Delimitations

As for the limitation of this method and study, it is about that this research
will only be focusing on the NGO Amnesty International, which means that
the work will not be representative of all the NGOs working to improve
human rights in the world. There is also a delimitation in that the thesis will
focus on how powerful and effective Amnesty International's work for
human rights is. This means that other aspects such as whether Amnesty
International is needed or not or what Amnesty International can do to
improve their work will not be included in this thesis.

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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
organizations" or "private voluntary organizations". The use of these terms is
not considered to capture the full spectrum of different organizations as the

22
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).

Peter Benenson wanted that all the people around the world would protest
against the governments to force them to make an action and change. The
Observer magazine listened to this idea and released a full-length film with

23
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).

Today, Amnesty International has been around for more than 50 years and
have more than 7 million followers worldwide. They have gone from being a
large London-based organization to having regional offices in both Africa,
the Asia-Pacific region, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and the
Middle East. Their campaigns to establish an International Criminal Court
(ICC) paid off when it was introduced in the year 2002 to bring those
responsible for crimes such as genocide and war crimes to justice (Amnesty
International - Who we are, 2020).

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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).

Within Amnesty International, the International Secretariat (IS) is the hub

and is described as the "professional heart of Amnesty International". The
International Secretariat is the headquarters of Amnesty International, which
means that this is where research on human rights violations is coordinated.
Many of the campaigns carried out by members around the world have also
their start here. In the event of a violation of human rights, it is also the
International Secretariat that decides what kind of measures that should be

25
taken (Amnesty International - Handbook, 2002). Amnesty International -
Structure and people (2020) describes the role of the International Secretariat
as follows;

- 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 day

By 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
responsible for the relations Amnesty International has with their national
units (Amnesty International - Secretary General, 2020).

26
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:

- Lobbying local government

- Campaigning/fundraising/communications within their country/region
- Developing strategies for media work

27
- 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
International, as they can participate in the annual general meetings and
contribute to the international consultations (Amnesty International -
Structure and people, 2020).

28
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;

- Political rights such as freedom of expression

- Economic rights such as the right to work and a good standard of living
- Social / cultural rights such as the right to education

29
- Civil rights such as equality for everyone infront of the law and the right
to be able to love whoever you want

Based 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;

- 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
standards
(Amnesty International - Handbook, 2002)

30
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).

Amnesty International also became more interested in increasing its

membership base in order to become an even larger and more important
NGO. This meant that questions and topics were given different priorities
depending on what interest there was from outside. In a study from the
Journal of Peace Research by Howard et al (2007), they described how the
media greatly influences NGOs prioritization of cases. They write about how
”many social movement scholars believe that the most influential activists
are those capable of packaging their concerns in ways that appeal to the
media”. In the strategic plan for Amnesty International between the years
2016 - 2019, they also state that the organization have to communicate their
message more effectively by using TV, internet and social media more
frequently (Amnesty International - Theory of Change, 2020).

31
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
preventing and ending grave abuses of these rights” (Amnesty International -
International statue, 2020).

32
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
International - Who we are, 2020). Yet it is Israel that is disproportionately
condemned by Amnesty International (NGOMonitor, 2012a).

33
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
international arms embargo on Israel, Hamas and Palestinian armed groups
in Gaza” (Amnesty International, 2012). The Islamic resistance movement
Hamas commits a lot of war crimes and crimes against humanity against
Israel, which are considered to be ”a sovereign country legally acting to
defend its citizens from deliberate attacks on civilians”. Hamas has also been
appointed by countries such as the European Union, the United Kingdom and
Australia, to be a terrorist organization (NGOMonitor, 2012a). There are
international laws that cover topics of prevention of the financing and
execution of terrorist acts, and according to the UNSCR 1373, all arms
transfers and support to terrorist organizations are strictly prohibited (UN
Security Council Resolution, 2001). Amnesty International's course of action
of equating the Israeli and Palestinian attacks can be considered as inmoral,
since Israel uses its weapons to defend its civilian population while the
Palestinian terrorist group Hamas uses its weapons for deliberate attack the
Israeli population (NGOMonitor, 2012a).

34
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
violations are not investigated and thus do not result in any punishment. The
civilian population in the area has to endure abuse from both the security

35
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).

Amnesty International is working in India to improve the human rights of the

people. In its publications, Amnesty International has reported on the use of
excessive force and torture in Kashmir, while the same time calling for the
release of all activists and journalists. In response to Amnesty International's
statement, India chose to freeze Amnesty International's accounts in the
country. The Indian government claimed that Amnesty International had
violated the law regarding foreign donations. India's Home Minister stated
that "India, by settled law, does not allow interference in domestic political
debates by entities funded by foreign donations” (BBC, 2020).

36
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).

In the year 1992, a case occurred in Ireland where a 15-year-old girl had
become pregnant after being raped. The 15-year-old girl wanted to have an

37
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).

Amnesty International worked hard to promote an legal abortion in Ireland.

One of their campaigns was titled to "SHE IS #NOTACRIMINAL" and
circulated around all kinds of media. The campaign was about different
stories from pregnant women. The campaign was the result of interviews
conducted by Amnesty International in Ireland, where women and their
husbands were asked to share their experiences of the country's limited
abortion laws (Amnesty International, 2015).

38
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 circumstances

Amnesty International's work showed that change can take place. The
country Ireland, which a few years ago had one of the most stringent
abortion laws in the world, has today changed its abortion laws. In Ireland
today, abortions are provided by more than 300 doctors and a majority of the
maternity hospitals in the country perform abortions (The Conversation,
2020).

39
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

The non-governmental organization Amnesty International works and has

operations in more than 70 countries around the world (BBC, 2020). In all
their operations around the world, they are working for the improvement of
the human rights. However, the work and operations they perform may look

40
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.

Conversely, Amnesty International may have political thoughts in mind if

they chooses to take a stand for or against one of the parties to the conflict.
Giving disproportionate criticism of Israel as described in Chapter 5.5.1 with
the example that Amnesty International only made a statement about the
conflict after Israel had resisted the Palestinian attack (NGOMonitor, 2012a)
may mean that Amnesty International wants to limit Israels chances to
succeed in winning the political battle that exists in the conflict between
Israel and Palestine. On the other hand, Amnesty International may thus have

41
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
International has reported and published documents against the Government
of India to urge them to improve human rights more in the country (BBC,
2020). The Indian government opposes Amnesty International's view of

42
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.

When it comes to the various stakeholders in the conflict, it seems that the
government in India has the most power to be able to influence Amnesty
International's work. Parts of the population (minority groups and women) in

43
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
regarding the abortion issue. A large part of the female population in Ireland
felt that the abortion laws were too harsh in the country, which made that

44
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).

From the beginning, Amnesty International had only its main focus on
countering the death penalty, but over time the organization chose to expand
the focus to also include fairer trials and to demand that all the extrajudicial
killings that was based on political reasons should be repealed. Amnesty
International's work was very limited and they felt that they therefore had to

45
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).

In order for Amnesty International to increase its popularity and membership

base, the organization needed to take into account and prioritize its work
based on the interest that existed from outside on the various issues in human
rights. In this case concerning the NGO Amnesty International, one can see
how the media is used as a secondary stakeholder to influence their work in
both directions (Howard et al, 2007). For the countries that had priority and
focus in the media, they received more attention from Amnesty International.
This is because of ”supply rises with demand; the more journalists who ask
about a country, the more information watchdogs will supply”. The role of
the media meant for Amnesty International that their prioritization of cases
was in countries where the media had shown the most attention, instead of
where there was the most repression and violations of the human rights
(Foreign Policy, 2009). The relationship between the media and the NGO
Amnesty International can also be seen in Chapter 5.5.1, where the conflict
between the countries Israel and Palestine is discussed. The conflict between
Israel and Palestine is a conflict that has been ongoing for a long time and
has received a lot of media attention, which has meant that Amnesty
International itself had to get involved in this case. Amnesty International
has released publications with reports from the conflict on how, for example,
Israelis have imprisoned Palestinians without receiving any form of trial.
This publication would campaign to draw attention to the situation of the
Palestinians in the conflict and thus try to create political pressure on Israel.
However, the publication turned out to be largely based on testimonies from
Palestinians themselves and there was no verification that the accusations
were in fact true (NGOMonitor, 2012b). For Amnesty International, this

46
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
Government of India. In the country India, there are very large human rights
shortcomings, in the form of both widespread violence against women and
long-term curfews for certain parts of the country. Due to these human rights
violations, Amnesty International has worked hard in India for a change by

47
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.

Even Amnesty International's own supporters, members and activists belongs

to the primary stakeholders. Amnesty International is a global movement
with over 7 million people included. All the groups are involved in the
organization's activities and work, which can be seen in Chapter 6.2.3, where
Amnesty International's campaigns contributed to a change regarding the
country's abortion laws. Both supporters, members and activists have a
strong connection to the organization and they are considered to play a major
role in how Amnesty International's development will continues.

48
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
Amnesty International chooses to fight and campaign for?”) that Amnesty
International had from the beginning a vision about a world where all people
should be able to enjoy the human rights. Based on this vision, Amnesty
International has worked to stop human rights violations by putting pressure
on governments where the violations occur. Amnesty International has
chosen to focus their work on counteracting government abuses carried out
in connection with the death penalty and imprisonment of prisoners of
conscience. However, over the years, Amnesty International has broadened

49
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
International's work showed that the organization could be involved and
contribute to change. The country Ireland, which for a long time had one of
the most stringent abortion laws in the world, had now changed its laws
allowing more legal abortion through among other the work of Amnesty
International. In the case of the conflict between the countries Israel and
Palestine, Amnesty International has been accused of being biased towards
Palestine in its reporting, which may have contributed to the deterioration of
Amnesty International's credibility as a NGO. In addition, in the case of the
human rights situation in India, Amnesty International's operations have been
forced to close down in the country. This is because of the Government of
India does not agree with Amnesty International's report on how the human
rights situation in the country looks like. India's decision to freeze Amnesty

50
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
focusing and working where the most serious human rights violations are
taken place. Despite Amnesty International have weaknesses in their ability
to be enough powerful and effective, Amnesty International shows the
importance of their work and that with their help human rights can be
improved in many places around the world.

51
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