This diploma thesis attempts to provide an analysis of the human rights discourse in Japan and Japanese foreign policy. The author analyses the most important current issues (falling under the category of first-generation human rights) including: Korean minority issue, discrimination against persons of burakumin origin, gender issue and the topic of comfort women. In the second part of the thesis, the author explores the human rights discourse in the foreign policy of Japan. With the help of his research conducted in 2013 in Tokyo among diplomats, academics and NGO representatives, he examines three possible approaches to explain the current state of affairs: a national interests approach, a constructivist approach (cultural conditionality) and a policy-making approach (taking into account the role of intrastate actors).

The following Bachelor’s thesis is analyzing contemporary advocacy for more women in diplomacy by the United Nations (UN), with the help of framing theory. More specifically, it examines, (1) how is the absence of female diplomats represented as a problem? (2) What is represented as the causes of that problem? And finally, (3) what is represented as the solutions to that problem? The thesis examines one UN body: UNITAR, which is the only body that focus on the promotion of women explicitly in diplomacy. This is a single case study with a qualitative approach, and makes use of framing theory, based on social constructivism. Through gathering of outward-focused documents from UNITARs webpage, it has been observed that UNITAR frames the absence of women in diplomacy as an inefficiency problem. The argument is that by promoting more women in foreign policy, there will be greater productivity, enhanced economical growth and less poverty. The main causes of the problem are represented as a mix of societal, individual and organizational barriers. The solution to the problem is represented to be mainly training of individual women to improve skills needed to successfully carry out diplomacy, but also, to a lesser extent, training of organizations to inforce a gender mainstreaming approach. Key Words:  Women in diplomacy, framing, United Nations, women in foreign policy, international campaigns.