A dictatorship in the battle for human rights: the 1977 UN High Commissioner proposal and the Brazilian resistance

Abstract

Abstract During the Cold War, attempts to create a High Commissioner for Human Rights within the UN were met with strong support and opposition. In the 1970s, human rights escalated in the public imagination, and in 1977 a new proposal was advanced with backing by the Carter administration, but failed. However, the Cold War does not fully explain how countries like Brazil reacted. Using secret diplomatic documents, we argue that the dictatorial Geisel administration was more concerned with the domestic process of distention and considered the new human rights advance a threat to its political project, antagonizing the High Commissioner proposal by using the same arguments of the USSR, despite its anti-communist rhetoric.

Keywords

• Human rights
• UN High Commissioner
• Brazilian foreign policy
• Dictatorship