Debates in international assemblies can become heated at times. This is reflected in the language used by speakers and the emotions expressed in their speech delivery. Scholars interested in international assemblies have not yet, however, taken full advantage of video recordings to systematically study debates from this perspective. This study draws on quantitative text analysis methods and recent developments in automated emotion recognition to analyze the content and delivery of speeches in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Given that international debates on human rights norms are highly emotionally charged, this is a promising context for studying emotions in international assemblies. Initial results suggest that emotions come more to the forefront in debates on proximate topics and are especially detectable for speakers with direct stakes in the debated topic. Thus, we contribute to our understanding of the role of emotions in international assemblies and shed light on variation in the type and intensity of expressed emotions across topics and countries. We also propose a framework for how these vast quantities of video data can be automatically processed in the future. Moreover, the study provides novel insights into the degree of international polarization of different human rights norms, which leaves observable traces in delivery of speeches in the UNHRC.