The language of human rights in the brazilian military dictatorship: An analysis of official speeches in the un general assembly
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21527/2317-5389.2024.23.14683Keywords:
human rights, military dictatorship, diplomatic speech, ONUAbstract
This article aims to analyze the use of the language of human rights by the military governments of Brazil during the dictatorship period (1964-1985), through the speeches delivered at the United Nations General Assembly. For this purpose, we relied on the compilation made by Corrêa who gathered the speeches delivered by Brazil in the Regular Sessions of the United Nations General Assembly from 1946 to 2006. The analysis was conducted following the methodology proposed by Pimentel and Panke (2020) for the analysis of diplomatic speeches in political communication. The results reveal that, despite the ideological narratives that sought to emphasize the country's commitment to human rights, the international community perceived the Brazilian military government as a violator of these rights. It is concluded that the language of human rights was instrumentalized by the military governments to legitimize their actions and obtain international recognition, despite the evidence of human rights violations.
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