‘What Is Your Real Red Line?’

Since the signing of their strategic partnership, the European Union and Brazil have been long-standing partners in the UN Human Rights Council. However, with the election of Jair Bolsonaro, this political partnership came to a standstill between Brussels and Brasília due to his challenging the international human rights regime and the European Union’s role in it. Yet, in Geneva, their co-operation in co-sponsoring resolutions continued. Against this background, this article asks, how did European and Brazilian diplomats continue their bilateral co-operation in the United Nations Human Rights Council during the government of Jair Bolsonaro? To trace the logic of relational practicality behind how Brazilian and European frontline diplomats continued their co-operation despite contestation, this article draws on an analysis of 157 co-sponsored resolutions between 2007 and 2022, along with thirteen semi-structured interviews with European and Brazilian diplomats.