Brazil: Bolsonaro’s toxic speech must not become government policy

Brazil: Bolsonaro’s toxic speech must not become government policy

30/10/2018 0 Di Redazione

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Brazil: Bolsonaro’s toxic speech must not become government policy

Reac­ting to the elec­tion of Jair Bol­so­na­ro and Hamil­ton Mou­rão as pre­si­dent and vice pre­si­dent of Bra­zil, Eri­ka Gue­va­ra-Rosas, Ame­ri­cas Direc­tor at Amne­sty Inter­na­tio­nal said:

“The pre­si­dent-elect has cam­pai­gned with an open­ly anti-human-rights agen­da and fre­quen­tly made discri­mi­na­to­ry sta­te­men­ts about dif­fe­rent groups of socie­ty.

“His elec­tion as Brazil´s pre­si­dent could pose a huge risk to Indi­ge­nous Peo­ples and qui­lom­bo­las, tra­di­tio­nal rural com­mu­ni­ties, LGBTI peo­ple, black youth, women, acti­vists and civil socie­ty orga­ni­za­tions, if his rhe­to­ric is tran­sfor­med in public poli­cy.

“With the elec­to­ral pro­cess now over, we all face the chal­len­ge of pro­tec­ting human rights for eve­ryo­ne in Bra­zil.”

Bolsonaro’s cam­pai­gn pro­mi­ses inclu­de loo­se­ning gun con­trol laws and gran­ting prior autho­ri­sa­tion for law enfor­ce­ment offi­cials to kill. The­se pro­po­sals, if adop­ted, would wor­se the alrea­dy dire con­text of lethal vio­len­ce in Bra­zil, whe­re the­re are 63,000 homi­ci­des each year, more than 70% of them from firearms, and poli­ce com­mit appro­xi­ma­te­ly 5,000 homi­ci­des a year, many of which are indeed extra­ju­di­cial exe­cu­tions.

Moreo­ver, Bol­so­na­ro has threa­te­ned Indi­ge­nous Peo­ples’ ter­ri­to­ries, to chan­ge land demar­ca­tion pro­ces­ses and to autho­ri­se major natu­ral resour­ce exploi­ta­tion pro­jec­ts. He has also spo­ken about rela­xing envi­ron­men­tal regu­la­tions and cri­ti­ci­sed Bra­zi­l’s envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion agen­cies, thus endan­ge­ring the right of all peo­ple to a heal­thy envi­ron­ment.

Bra­zil has one of the highe­st rates of kil­lings of human rights defen­ders and acti­vists in the world, with dozens kil­led eve­ry year for defen­ding rights that should be gua­ran­teed by the sta­te. In this gra­ve con­text, the president-elect’s sta­te­men­ts about put­ting an end to acti­vi­sm and clam­ping down on orga­ni­sed social move­men­ts pre­sent a very like­ly risk to the rights of free­dom of expres­sion and pea­ce­ful assem­bly gua­ran­teed by natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal law.

Bol­so­na­ro and Mou­rão, who are both mem­bers of Brazil’s mili­ta­ry reser­ve, have also publi­cly defen­ded sta­te cri­mes com­mit­ted under the for­mer mili­ta­ry regi­me, inclu­ding tor­tu­re. This rai­ses the pro­spect of a regres­sion in the pro­mo­tion of human rights, sin­ce the end of the mili­ta­ry regi­me and the adop­tion of the Fede­ral Con­sti­tu­tion of 1988.

Eri­ka Gue­va­ra-Rosas said:

“Brazil’s public insti­tu­tions must take firm and deci­si­ve action to pro­tect human rights and all tho­se who defend and mobi­li­se for rights in the coun­try. The­se insti­tu­tions have a key role to play in pro­tec­ting the rule of law and pre­ven­ting the pro­po­sals from mate­ria­li­sing.  

“The inter­na­tio­nal com­mu­ni­ty will remain vigi­lant in hol­ding the Bra­zi­lian sta­te to its obli­ga­tions to pro­tect and gua­ran­tee human rights.”

Amne­sty Inter­na­tio­nal UK

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