Transnational Legal Activism and Counter-Hegemonic Globalization: Brazil and the Inter-American Human Rights System

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to reflect on law and counter-hegemonic globalization through an analysis of the increasing use by human rights NGOs of international human rights law. Focusing on the case-study of Brazil and the Inter-American Human Rights System, the paper discusses whether transnational legal mobilization carried out by human rights NGOs contributes to a larger counter-hegemonic movement of globalization. By invoking international human rights systems to act upon the national juridical-political arena, human rights NGOs have the potential to re-politicize law and re-legalize politics. Although not directly challenging neoliberal globalization, the strategies of human rights NGOs can be viewed as an attempt to reconstruct human rights norms beyond an individualistic and liberal conception of transnational litigation and of human rights.