Unpacking Norm Complexity in North-South Relations: EU-Brazil Relations and human rights

Due to a changing international order and increasing normative divergences between countries from the Global North and the Global South, debates about human rights norms are becoming complex and plural. An example of such north-south complexity is the EU’s relations with Brazil. Both actors' endeavour to cooperate in human rights within multilateral settings but are often at odds with each other in bilateral and inter-regional spaces, such as in the negotiations of the EU–Mercosur Association Agreement. Within the last few years, the relationship has come to a political standstill, often reflecting conflicting norms in sensitive policy areas, notably in the intersection of human rights, trade and environment. Simultaneously, both parties often highlight their shared norms relatively to other global actors. Given this background, this paper aims to shed light, both empirically and theoretically, on how and under what conditions conflicting norms matter in the practice of European external action and, in particular, in its relationship with Brazil; a Global South rising power. This question helps us understand the EU's external action towards Global South countries, and possibly the long-lasting dynamics of North-South normative relations. While norms can be placed front and centre in the relationship, they can also be cast aside in the pursuit of geostrategic and geoeconomic interests in the quest for one’s own autonomy. Drawing upon an extensive literature review of European and Brazilian foreign policies and International Relations, to be complemented by semi-structured interviews with diplomats and civil society actors, the paper aims to offer a theoretical framework which takes into account how norm complexity is structurally manifested in a north-south relationship, and how it is particularly relevant in historically sensitive areas of foreign policy, namely in human rights protection of minorities, such as indigenous peoples, and the environmental governance of the Amazon rainforest.