Sweden, Amnesty International and Legal Entrepreneurs in Global Anti-Torture Politics, 1967–1977

Abstract

Torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners was the iconic human rights issue of the 1970s. Scholars credit Amnesty International and other non-governmental organizations for the growing public outcry and for the international diplomacy that led to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984). Little is known about the dynamics between civil society and governments in this process. This article examines Sweden’s anti-torture efforts and its entanglement with Amnesty International, its Scandinavian neighbors, and the Netherlands. With varying levels of commitment, these governments issued inter-state complaints against Greece at the Council of Europe in 1967, drafted and secured the adoption of a UN declaration against torture in 1975, and initiated the decision to make a convention in 1977. On several occasions, Sweden took charge, reflecting its new ambitions in human rights as part of its emerging ‘active foreign policy’. Tracking specific initiatives, the article brings into focus an often-forgotten group of states, uncovers the dynamics between these and NGOs anti-torture efforts, and reveals the central roles of the legal entrepreneurs who designed and timed initiatives from within their government’s foreign ministries.