Doce River disaster on the agenda

Event at the UN to discuss the bursting of Samarco’s waste dam and setbacks in Brazilian environmental legislation

Resplendor (MG) - Imagem aérea mostra a a lama no Rio Doce, na cidade Resplendor ( Fred Loureiro/ Secom ES)

Brazil is at a dramatic juncture in its democracy given the situation of serious human rights violations that has deteriorated since the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff last year, with numerous laws pending in Congress that loosen environmental legislation in favor of private interests.

These strong threats of setbacks are occurring even though we recently witnessed one of the worst environmental crimes in Brazil’s history – the bursting of an iron ore waste dam owned by Samarco (a joint venture between Vale and BHP Billiton) in November 2015. The case has become symbolic of the problems in the relationship between business and human rights.

In this context, Conectas, MAB (Movement of People Affected by Dams) and RIDH (International Network of Human Rights) are organizing the event “Social and environmental conflicts and setbacks in the legal framework in Brazil: the symbolic case of the Doce River basin”. The seminar will take place in Geneva at the headquarters of the UN Human Rights Council as a side event to its 35th regular session.

The seminar can be watched live on Facebook, starting at 10 am (Brasília time), on the pages of RIDH and Conectas.