The role of Amnesty International in the creation process of the United Nations Convention against torture and other treatments or cruel penalties, inhuman or degrading

• Grant number: 18/16992-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: March 01, 2019
• End date: April 30, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - International Politics
• Principal Investigator: Andrei Koerner
• Grantee: Carla Cristina Vreche
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research has as general theme the performance of NGOs in international relations and their role in international human rights regime consolidation. Its empirical object is Amnesty International (AI) participation in the process of establishing the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT). The case is relevant due to the fact that it was AI's first international thematic campaign and because of its achievements, given that the process outcome was the CAT creation, and a binding international norm of recognized importance, which innovated in protection mechanisms and became an influence in the issue regulation at the most diverse levels. The research objective is to elucidate the factors of agency power and the organization institutional development, from the analysis of its action in context. The research focuses on the Convention creation in the light of AI's strategy of mobilization and political articulation, a non adopted perspective in the literature up to this point. The hypothesis is that the organization's performance was central to the international agenda formation and debate about torture, that it achieved through its mobilization strategies (action repertoires, framing) with which it exerted pressure on States to create the document in its final form. This action was responsible for the AI institutional strengthening, corroborating its agency power. Qualitative methods of case study research will be used, analyzing documents and participants narrative, such as meeting memoirs, reports, reviews and campaign materials. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

VRECHE, Carla Cristina. No safe haven for torturers: Amnesty International's entrepreneurship for the creation of the Convention Against Torture. 2023. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas Campinas, SP.