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In a hearing in the Lower House of Congress, government presents report on human rights that is divorced from reality; document to be sent to UN

The federal government will present on Wednesday, December 7, its official report that will be submitted to the United Nations to guide the third cycle of Brazil’s UPR (Universal Periodic Review), which is scheduled for May 2017. The procedure is mandatory for all UN Member States and it is intended to assess, every four and a half years, the progress of the human rights situation in each country.

The discussion on the document prepared by the Brazilian government will take place in a public hearing in the CDHM (Committee on Human Rights and Minorities) of the Lower House of Congress and it will be attended by representatives of the government and of civil society. In an analysis of the preliminary version published in November, human rights organizations were critical of the report.

According to Camila Asano, coordinator of the Foreign Policy program at Conectas, “the official assessment is flawed for being too superficial and for being silent on matters of extreme importance for the debate on human rights, such as police repression of protests and the freezing of public spending in critical areas such as health and education, a setback that would result from the approval of Amendment 55/16 in Congress”. Asano will represent Conectas at the hearing in the CDHM.

“It is well-known that governments make an effort in the UPR to show that there has been progress in their countries, but the UN requires that a faithful overview of the remaining problems is presented, and the report of Brazil fails in this respect. The Brazilian government dedicates a section to environmental issues, but simply leaves out the collapse of the iron ore tailings dam in the town of Mariana and makes no mention of the human rights and environmental violations that will persist for many decades in the region and all along the Doce River,” she said.

“The preliminary version of the government’s report portrays a country that bears little resemblance to reality if we take into account the setbacks already underway and so many threats that have already been announced. The text is full of figures, lists of policies that have been adopted and the institutions that have been created, but it does not qualitatively analyze compliance with previous recommendations.”

Conectas and other organizations submitted comments and criticisms on the government’s preliminary version and called for more commitment from the authorities to the collection and presentation of the information.

• Click here to read the preliminary report of the government.
• Click here to read the comments submitted by Conectas.

 

In the hot seat

The UPR began in 2008 and takes place in the UN Human Rights Council, which is based in Geneva, Switzerland. Every four and a half years, approximately, each one of the 193 members of the United Nations is reviewed on its human rights situation and receives recommendations from other countries.

These suggestions may or may not be accepted by the State, which has the duty to demonstrate progress from previous cycles. This is the third time that Brazil has undergone the UPR. In the last round, the country received 170 recommendations, of which it only rejected one and partially accepted 10.

Conectas and other organizations participate in the assessment process by submitting independent thematic reports that are compiled by the United Nations and serve to contrast the information contained in the official report.

• Click here to see the eight thematic reports submitted to the UN by Conectas and partner organizations.