世界上以國際援助提升民主化與人權並非是近期的現象。儘管在援助上需要一些微妙的條件，國際組織與已發展中的自由民主仍然經常使用援助來提升良善治理。但在近20年間，援助的重點已經放在民主與人權的原則上。儘管目前已經有研究持續發現國際對民主及人權的援助的效果很低，但是目前為止還沒有找出可被接受的解釋。此研究以感知差異和非傳統援助的能力為基礎，致力於找出更進一步在國際援助上，對於無法有效促進民主及人權的解釋。本研究以甘比亞與歐盟的關係進行個案研究，如果甘比亞與歐盟對於民主與人權的感知有明顯的不同，另外甘比亞也可以接受無條件援助，因此本研究假設歐盟的國際援助對甘比亞將僅有些許的影響。本研究結論是，甘比亞與歐盟對於人權的感知有很大的不同；再者，本研究發現有條件援助在促進民主與人權上的效果，會造成無條件的援助無法發揮其功能。 關鍵字：國際援助、民主化、人權 / The use of foreign aid to promote democracy and human rights around the world is not a recent phenomenon. International organisations and developed liberal democra-cies have often used aid to promote good governance albeit with subtle conditionali-ties. In the last two decades however, there have been emphasis in the conditioning of aid to democracy and human rights principles. Even though studies continue to unrav-el the low effect foreign aid have on democracy and human rights promotion, there is yet no agreeable explanation why this is so. In this research, I seek to advance an ex-planation based on perception difference and availability of other non-traditional do-nors as causal for the low effect of foreign aid on democracy and human rights pro-motion. Using a case study of The Gambia–EU Relations, I hypothesised that EU foreign aid will have little impact, if The Gambia and EU perception of democracy and human rights are significantly different and The Gambia can access aid from other non-conditional donors. The study concludes that while The Gambia and EU have no significant perception difference of democracy, there is important difference of human rights perception. Moreover the study found that conditional aid effect on democracy and human rights promotions is thwarted by non-conditional aid Key words: foreign aid, democracy and human rights