Human Rights Foreign Policy: A Skeptical Perspective

Abstract

This article critically reviews Czech human rights foreign policy (HRFP). It makes a conceptual distinction between three possible types of HRFP: pragmatic, neo-conservative, and cooperative. It then reviews Václav Havel’s neoconservative HRFP which shaped Czech HRFP. Following this, the role of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) is discussed with a focus on an attempt to transform the neoconservative HRFP to a more cooperative format. The article concludes with a reflection on the impossibility of a credible HRFP.