The place of human rights in the foreign policy of Cameron’s conservatives: Sceptics or enthusiasts?

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explain the place of human rights in the foreign policy thinking of David Cameron's Conservatives (2005-2016). The article asks three interrelated questions: First, what role has human rights come to acquire in international political discourse? Second, did the Conservative Party's view on the place of human rights result in a change to their approach to foreign policy on humanitarian intervention? Third, to what extent was there a tension between increasing scepticism towards the Human Rights Act and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights and the Conservative Party's approach to foreign policy? The authors employ a mixed methodological approach which combines hermeneutic textual analysis of speeches from leading Conservatives with semi-structured, elite interview material from four former Conservative Foreign Secretaries.