The power of Amnesty International as a non-governmental organization

Sammanfattning: Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have grown significantly over the years and are today considered to be one of the most influential and powerful actors in the world when it comes to defending democracy and upholding various rights. When it comes to human rights, Amnesty International is one of the largest and most respected NGO in the world. Amnesty International works for a world where all the human rights should be respected and can be enjoyed by all the people of the world. Despite the important work of Amnesty International, knowledge of Amnesty International and other NGOs are very limited. The knowledge that exists is considered to be very simplistic, since NGOs are much more complex than one actually thinks. This study is therefore an effort to increase the knowledge and understanding of Amnesty International and NGOs. Using the “Stakeholder theory”, Amnesty International will be analyzed to examine how powerful and effective it is. Various stakeholders in the form of governments in countries and the media will be used to analyze their relationship with Amnesty International in terms of being able to influence. The findings has shown that because Amnesty International lives on donations, they depend on having a high membership base and reputation. Amnesty International prioritizes therefore topics based on how much the interest there are from the public opinion and in the media. This, instead of Amnesty International focusing and working in the countries where the most serious human rights violations occur and take place. Therefore, Amnesty International as a NGO will be weakened in its effort to be effective in changing and influencing the human rights in the world.