Civil society repudiates intimidation of human rights defenders at the UN

Cases of disrespect and censure of Brazilian citizens during a United Nations event need to be investigated

Jean Wyllys participates in parallel event at the 40th Session of the Human Rights Council (Photo: Conectas)

In a notice, Conectas Human Rights, along with other civil society organisations expressed repudiation of the censure and disrespect suffered by Brazilian citizens who participated in panels at the 40th Session of the Human Rights Council, in March this year.

The first case was of the Ambassador, Maria Nazareth who abruptly interrupted the activist and ex-councilman Jean Wyllys’s speech. Ironically, he was talking about new forms of authoritarianism during the event held at the UN headquarters in Switzerland. Four days later, in a different event at the UN headquarters in Vienna, the researcher and secretary of the PBPD (Brazilian Platform on Drugs Policy), Luciana Zaffalon, was interrupted and discredited by a man who identified himself as the General Coordinator of the Federal Police, while she was presenting data on the current situation in Brazil regarding a reform of the drugs policy to bring it into line with human rights and damage reduction.

“We urge the United Nations to pursue these cases of intimidation, calling for the Brazilian state to avoid and abstain from all acts of intimidation and reprisal against those who are cooperating with the United Nations in investigating these cases, and to hold the culprits accountable and offering reparation to Mr Wyllys and Mrs Zaffalon.” The note concludes.

See here the full letter published by Conectas.