Since the eruption of the Arab Spring, the Middle East is in a fragile situation with major ongoing conflicts. Saudi Arabia is an important regional actor in the political turmoil of the Middle East but is also a violent offender of human rights. This raises questions about the capacity of UN in terms of influencing the development of human rights in Saudi Arabia. This is a qualitative case study that will be based on established theories in international relations, realism and liberalism but also the rentier state theory. International institutions has evolved especially since the fall of the Berlin Wall but realists claim that it is a smaller version of the power structure of the international system where hegemonic powers rule and set the agenda. The lack of resources and fundings of the UN combined with its intergovernmental structure makes it vulnerable to states' interests and willingness. On the other hand, liberals claim that liberal norms and ideas have had an impact on states' behaviour. In the case of Saudi Arabia, there are certain factors that have caused the delay of human rights such as the UN: s unwillingness to put much effort on human rights during the Cold War. Another theory is that rentier states like Saudi Arabia finance the state with the help of their oil resources. Therefore, the citizens cannot demand democratic legitimacy from the ruling family that due to the rentier system, can treat the state as their private property. Certain opinions that can be supported by realist notions are that hegemonic powers are and were not as interested in implementing human rights in the Middle East as they were in establishing control over resources. Other possible factors are Saudi religious legitimacy and regional institutions with its own norms and also, a static religious interpretation of Islam, namely, Wahhabism.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-49225 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Olsson, Karolina |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för statsvetenskap (ST) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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