Short Abstract:

This paper shifts the focus to human rights public institutions at the national level in Brazil and Portugal, in order to explore the concept of domestic institutional capacity for human rights. The theoretical framework of new institutionalism was utilized.

Long Abstract:

Traditional academic, political, and legal discussions have mainly focused on human rights as an international agenda, a topic of judicial conflict, or a concern of social movements. This article shifts the focus to public human rights institutions, particularly those at the national level in Brazil and Portugal, in order to explore the concept of national institutional capacity for human rights. To face this challenge, the article is based on the theoretical framework of New Institutionalism, with special emphasis on the Historical and Discursive perspectives.

We propose an analytical model to understand the national promotion of human rights. In this sense, the government needs to develop a strong and specialized institutional capacity, which involves two main aspects: institutions and public policies. This article analyzes these aspects in a comparative way between official Brazilian and Portuguese institutions and their human rights public policies, proving the importance of paying attention to these to internalize the human rights commitments assumed internationally, in the context of the United Nations.