Human Rights Bureau under threat
Organizations call for ministerial status to be maintained
Given all the talk about a new ministerial reform, organizations and agencies that form the CNDH (National Human Rights Council) have spoken out in defense of maintaining the ministerial status of the SDH/PR (Human Rights Bureau of the Presidency of the Republic).
According to the organizations, a possible expansion of the SDH through the incorporation of other offices, such as the Women’s Policies Bureau, or even the transfer of the Human Rights Bureau to another ministry, would be cause for concern, since the change could result in the weakening and reduction of the visibility of the specific policies and of human rights.
“The facts that occur around the world and also in Brazil, such as brutal economic inequality, violence against women and against people with disabilities, racism, the slaughter of black youth and the growth of conservative ways of thinking, among other issues, demonstrate that human rights should be placed at the center of political action,” they said in a statement.
The signatories of the document, among them the DPU (Federal Public Defender’s Office), the CNPJ (National Council of State and Federal Public Prosecutor’s Offices), the OAB (Brazilian Bar Association), the MNDH (National Human Rights Movement) and the DHESCA Brazil Human Rights Platform, warned that it would be a setback to change the bureau’s situation, which is why they are calling both for the ministerial status to be maintained and for an increase in public policies to redress, defend and promote human rights.
Click here to read the public statement in full.
