Amnesty International, Brazil, and the Incorporation of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR) into the Global Human Rights Frame

Abstract

This article looks into Amnesty International's most controversial issue expansion, the incorporation of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR) in its mission statement. It starts with a discussion on global frames drawing from the sociology of transnational movements to reflect on the weight of the North-South dichotomy in AI's understanding of human rights as expressed in its most relevant documents. To this end, we reviewed the annual reports published by the organization from 2001 to 2018 using issue-oriented category-based content analysis, focusing on the parts of the reports dedicated to Brazil every year. We observed that, while national contexts and local sections do matter, the issues AI's traditional northern sections identify as top priorities remain a structuring aspect in how Amnesty International frames human rights. We therefore observe how relevant international dichotomies are in international non-governmental organizations.