Human Rights, National Interest and State Brutality: Lessons from Jamal Khassoggi Saga

Abstract

Since the emergence of States on International politics till date, National interest has been the pivot of foreign policy drive of inter-state relations, the world over. Towards this, customs of international law, including Human Rights tenets that demand that states must conform to certain laws and standard within the framework of UDHR. Quite unfortunately however, member states of the United Nations are usually faced with harrowing experience in trying to align their respective national interests with international norms where doing so could put their perceived political mandate in jeopardy. In such situations, States are reported to resort to unorthodox mode of violence and sometimes, resorting to war to protect their national interest. This paper uses the murder of Jamal Khasoggi, a Saudi citizen as case study to answer questions that arise from the fallout of conflict between national interest and human rights with posers such as: where to draw the line between human rights and national interest; who qualifies to champion international outcry against human right abuse and where to draw the line between human rights and national interest? In the end, the paper called for caution in the call for the hangman against Saudi Arabia, a country that is just emerging from the past that was blanketed in secrecy into whatever human right portends in this era.