Deploying the Engagement Policy: The Significance of Legal Dualism in Norway’s Support for Human Rights Treaties from the late 1970s

Abstract

Leadership in human rights was added to the 'engagement policy' in Norway's foreign policy from the late 1970s, and the country emerged as a supporter of initiatives to draft new human rights treaties. This paper compares Norwegian participation in the drafting of three key human rights treaties in the 1980s in order to examine the significance of its dualist legal system in contributions to these efforts. Based on parliamentary negotiations, archival materials of the ministries involved, and private papers, the article argues that Norway's dualist legal system, as practiced at the time, enabled the government to ratify human rights treaties quickly and also informed the state's disposition towards different human rights projects long before any ratification took place. In other words, it facilitated impulses to pursue ideologically and politically desirable projects under the rubric of international legal norms. 1 The authors wish to thank anonymous reviewers and the participants at the conferences and workshops named in the introduction to this special issue for valuable feedback. We also thank Anders G. Hamre for research assistance in the early phase of preparing this article. Norwegian language sources that appear as quotes and concepts in the text and footnotes in English have been translated by the authors. Titles of books and sources in the footnotes appear in the original languages.

Innsats for kriminalitetsofre: Realitet eller retorikk?

“…I en artikkel drøftes hva som kalles et nordisk menneskerettsparadoks -et avvik mellom den retoriske tilslutningen til internasjonalt menneskerettighetsarbeid og viljen til å sette de samme prinsippene ut i livet hjemme. 109 Norske forhandlere på 1980-og -90-tallet forventet ikke at internasjonale konvensjoner ville ha saerlig betydning for norske lover og praksis. Målet var å bedre forholdene ute i verden, mens holdningen var at vi i Norge allerede oppfylte våre menneskerettslige forpliktelser.…”