Clashing frames: human rights and foreign policy in the Brazilian re-democratization process

Abstract

Abstract This article deals with the use of rights in the Brazilian foreign policy in the late 1970s. Two main arguments are advanced: there was a novel understanding of rights that clashed with the traditional statist one, and the Brazilian strategies were less a complete rebuttal of rights language and more a reading of rights as a possible threat to the Abertura process.

Keywords

• Human rights
• Brazilian foreign policy
• Ernesto Geisel administration
• democratic transition
• Brazilian military regime