Decision-makers’ Use and Abuse of Human Rights - A study into the role of human rights in the political decision-making process leading up to Denmark’s military engagement in Iraq

• Main Author: Jørgensen, Hansine Kryhlmand
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS) 2019
• Subjects: Danish foreign policy; just war theory; activist military politics; human rights; decision-making; Social Sciences; Samhällsvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-21721

The thesis critically assesses the decision-making process leading up to the acceptance of bill B 118 which approved Danish military action in the American-led multilateral coalition ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’. The analysis will use coding through a qualitative content analysis to investigate the potential use and abuse of human rights framework by decision-makers, during this process. Theories of just war, activist military politics and the decision-making theory of perception and misperception are used to provide the foundation for the content analysis, as well as positioning the results in the context of the wider political sphere. Though the nature of the investigation does not allow for absolute conclusions, the findings demonstrated how human rights were indeed used as a tool of both persuasion in the hunt for support and as a means to legitimise actions.