Par Engstrom

Brazilian Foreign Policy and Human Rights: Change and Continuity under Dilma

This article evaluates the degree of policy change and continuity in human rights and foreign policy in the early Dilma Rousseff administration in Brazil. The smooth succession of power that Dilma’s election represented suggests significant policy continuity with her immediate predecessor Lula da Silva. In human rights, however, there have been some early indications of policy shifts. Four particularly salient dimensions of both change and continuity in the areas of human rights and foreign policy are examined: Brazil’s role as advocate for global governance reforms; its efforts to foster South-South relations; the character of Brazil’s power projection; and its regional leadership role. The article also evaluates the emergence of Brazil as a pivotal player in global governance and assesses the implications for Brazilian foreign policy engagement with international human rights. Brazil will have to manage increasing expectations that the country should play a more active and forceful role in shaping the development of the international human rights regime.

Introduction: Rethinking the Impact of the Inter-American Human Rights System

This chapter introduces the central themes of the book and argues that the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS) is activated by political actors and institutions in ways that transcend traditional compliance perspectives and that have the potential to meaningfully alter politics and provoke positive domestic human rights change. The chapter identifies key gaps in existing human rights scholarship, particularly in relation to the IAHRS, and outlines three core perspectives on the System’s impact on human rights. It offers a synthesis of the key findings of the volume, and provides reflections on the future prospects of the System by locating it in its broader global context.

Mobilising the Inter-American Human Rights System: Regional Litigation and Domestic Human Rights Impact in Latin America

This chapter draws on theoretical insights from the literature on social movements and legal mobilisation to develop an analytical framework for understanding both how the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS) fosters transnational litigation and how such mobilisation affects domestic human rights change. The chapter also empirically examines patterns of human rights litigation before the IAHRS, the System’s responses and the impact of such mobilisation. Building on the analysis of petition data, the chapter provides an in-depth qualitative assessment of key litigating human rights organisations in Peru, Colombia and Brazil. Overall, Engstrom and Low argue that organisations with a strategic vision that recognises both the potential and the limitations of the System are best placed to leverage IAHRS mechanisms and jurisprudence to achieve human rights impact.

Institutional change and the Inter-American Human Rights System

ABSTRACT This article introduces the special issue of the International Journal of Human Rights on institutional change in the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS). In doing so, it identifies the main concepts and ideas central to understanding the institutional change the IAHRS has experienced over the past six decades. Since the adoption of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man by the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1948, the IAHRS has undergone a series of institutional changes and transformations that have affected and been affected by the System’s normative leanings, rules of procedure and institutional design, as well as by the position of the System within the broader landscape of the Americas. This special issue explores these changes from a variety of angles, including the process of change in historical context, normative and legal changes in the Inter-American Court’s jurisprudence, and the changing relationship between the IAHRS and other regional and international human rights institutions. This special issue features contributions and insights from the disciplines of history, law, and political science, among others.