LAUSR

Abstract Studies on the global history of human rights often identify the use of this concept as a recent trend in contemporary ideologies, linked to the decline of revolutionary movements in the Western world after the 1960s. This framing, however, tends to overlook phenomena of hybridization between revolutionary prospects and appeals to human rights in actual social movements and intellectual debates. This article focuses on the case of Argentine mobilizations for human rights. It demonstrates that the use of “human rights” in mobilizing discourse was discussed among revolutionary activists, and actually fostered by an emerging network of revolutionary lawyers with a heterodox reading of Marxism. The article first shows how law became a major tool for revolutionary action in the early 1970s, transforming lawyers into key actors in the spread of radical activism in Argentina. It then analyzes the first debate on the use of the concept of human rights among revolutionary lawyers, who opposed orthodox Marxists and members of the so-called “New Left” in 1972. Finally, the article shows that this original debate paved the way to an increased use of human rights in the discursive repertoire of Argentine revolutionary activists.