In June of last year, Brazil was condemned by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and considered responsible for violating the rights to truth and protection of the family of Gabriel Sales Pimenta, a young lawyer murdered in 1982 at the age of 27. Acting in defense of the rights of rural workers, he was shot when leaving a bar in the city of Marabá (PA). More than 40 years later, the Inter-American Court pointed out serious failures of the Brazilian State, which did not adequately mobilize to clarify the circumstances of the crime and punish those involved, given that eyewitnesses and other means of proof were available. The sentence, in addition to establishing compensation amounts to be paid to Gabriel’s family, notes that the work of human rights defenders is “fundamental for the strengthening of democracy” and establishes a series of determinations for the country. One of them is the revision and strengthening of the Program for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Communicators and Environmentalists. Almost a year after the conviction, compliance with the determination has been demanded by the Brazilian Committee of Human Rights Defenders (CBDDH). Despite promises from the federal government and the alignment of some guidelines, the entity sees a delay in implementing measures agreed upon in meetings. At the beginning of last week, the discontent was exposed in a new meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship (MDH). Protection The MDH’s Protection Program for Human Rights Defenders, Communicators and Environmentalists covers the entire national territory and institutes various mechanisms to guarantee the integrity of those who are at risk or the target of threats. They are activists who act, for example, in support of the homeless population, riverside dwellers, indigenous peoples, quilombolas, children, women in situations of domestic violence, vulnerable immigrants, targets of racial and gender prejudice, workers in degrading environment and victims of armed violence or violations committed by state security forces. They defend the right to land, housing, work, health, education and decent treatment. Inclusion in the program may occur at the request of the interested party itself or at the request of civil society entities, the Public Ministry or other public bodies that are aware of the threat. Among the various mechanisms provided for, there is the monitoring of investigations and the provision of legal and psychological assistance. In exceptional cases, the coordination of police protection and the provisional removal of the person from their place of work for up to 90 days is foreseen. “We live in a country that records extremely serious situations of human rights violations. So it is urgent that we strengthen the protection mechanisms”, says activist Sandra Carvalho, who works at the non-governmental organization Justiça Global and is a member of the CBDDH. The committee has existed since 2004 and is made up of 45 entities and social movements from all over Brazil. According to Sandra, the main demands are parity between civil society and the government in the program’s deliberative council, the approval of a law to institutionalize it, the creation of a national protection plan and reinforcement in the budget. Contacted by Agência Brasil, the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship did not respond. Cases “The need for an effective protection program takes place in a context in which, unfortunately, we have a very high incidence of threats and murders in Brazil”, evaluates Sandra. Although she observes that the largest number of cases occur in the countryside, she highlights the growth of occurrences in urban areas. The most emblematic, in recent years, was the murder in 2018 of Rio councilwoman Marielle Franco and her driver, Anderson Gomes. The parliamentarian was leading a mandate focused on human rights when she was shot dead in Rio de Janeiro. In rural areas, occurrences with major repercussions involve the murder of the North American missionary Dorothy Stang in Pará in 2005 and more recently that of the indigenist Bruno Pereira. A career employee of the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai), he and British reporter Dom Phillips were killed last year in an ambush in Vale do Javari, in the Amazon. Most cases, however, gain less spotlight. Data from the United Nations (UN) on murders of human rights defenders between 2015 and 2019 place Brazil in second place in the ranking of countries with the most cases. During this period, 1,323 occurrences were recorded worldwide, 174 of which in Brazilian territory, which corresponds to 13% of the total. The figures were presented at a public hearing in the Chamber of Deputies in September 2021 by Anastasia Divinskaya, representative of UN Women, and Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. On the occasion, they noted that Brazil, although expressing formal support for the recommendations on the subject in international forums, has not implemented several measures. The international organization Global Witness also recently released a survey that reveals a worrying scenario. Of the 227 murders of land and environmental defenders around the world in 2000, 20 were in Brazil. The country’s numbers are only surpassed by Colombia, Mexico and the Philippines. The report notes that the data is partial and does not capture the true scale of the problem, as not all cases are reported. History The first version of a Program for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders was launched in 2004, during the first term of President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, meeting the demands of organizations involved in the CBDDH, created in the same year. The text was constructed from a working group and had the participation of civil society. According to the UN, human rights defenders are “all individuals, groups and organs of society who promote and protect universally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms”. This concept is absorbed by the protection program. In the version currently in force, it also includes two specific categories: communicators who disseminate information with a view to promoting human rights and environmentalists who act in defense of the environment and natural resources. According to the federal government website, there are currently 506 people enrolled in the program. Over time, however, gaps were being diagnosed by the entities. Changes also generated discontent. “President Dilma, shortly before her impeachment, signed a decree that ended the possibility of social participation in the deliberative council of the protection program. process”, lamented Sandra. A new decree was edited in 2019 by then-president Jair Bolsonaro. Social participation was re-established, but in a non-parity way: of the nine seats, six would be filled by representatives of bodies linked to the government. “We, civil society organizations, do not accept it because that would be a lack of possibility of effective participation”, says Sandra. According to her, the program has been weakened over the last few years, emptied of resources and is undergoing a process of dismantling. In the same period, tensions grew due to the proliferation of hate speech in politics and the paralysis of the demarcation of indigenous lands, the titling of quilombola territories, agrarian reform and urban housing policies. “During the government of Jair Bolsonaro, who had a public stance against the defense of human rights, we had a very strong precariousness of the protection policy. So, as soon as the work of the transition team of the Lula government began, the committee prepared a letter describing the situation and then we held some meetings to discuss different points”, adds the activist. Demands In addition to equal social participation in the deliberative council, the organizations want the approval of a bill that will allow for greater institutionalization of the protection program, currently supported only by decrees. A proposal has been pending in the National Congress since 2007. But as discussions have dragged on for a long time and several changes to the text have already been made, the committee believes that it no longer meets the demands of the current context. Therefore, they defend the elaboration of a new project, to be sent to the National Congress with an urgent request. The organizations also want a greater contribution of resources by the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship and the elaboration of the National Plan for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Communicators and Environmentalists, as already determined by the Justice in the scope of a public civil action filed by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF). Through it, all the guidelines for the protection program at the national level would be defined. “We had some meetings with the elected government and Minister Silvio Almeida. We reached an agreement around an inter-ministerial decree that creates a working group to prepare this national plan. And another decree that provides for parity between civil society and the State in the deliberative council of the protection program. Our demand is due to the fact that we are feeling that there is a delay in this process. Six months have passed since the new federal government took office. The texts of the decrees were prepared and are ready, in agreement with society But within the government, something is blocking and bureaucratizing this process”, evaluates Sandra. Next week, between the 5th and 7th of June, the National CBDDH Meeting will take place in Brasilia. The minister was invited to speak at the opening and is expected. “He confirmed his presence. The expectation is that he will arrive with the good news that the decrees have been signed”, concludes the activist.
Agência Brasil
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