ABSTRACT
Will major democracies from the developing world assume a bigger role in shoring up liberal values in an era of Western decline? South Africa’s record on the UN Human Rights Council since 2006 suggests that the answer is a resounding no. India and Indonesia’s actions on the Council were as unfriendly to human rights as South Africa’s. Brazil, prior to the election of Jair Bolsonaro, stood apart from the aforementioned three countries for its stronger support for international human rights. South Africa’s failure to support human rights on the Council, is compounded by anti-imperialism, a disposition that is inimical to the liberal order. South Africa’s actions, a case of a liberal country consistently behaving illiberally, thus call into question the belief in international relations theory that there is an alignment of domestic political society and foreign policy values.
