Organizations demand accountability for right violations in environmental disasters
Em Barcarena, vazamento de resíduos causou danos ao meio ambiente e a comunidades.
In a hearing this Thursday, May 10th, at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), organizations called for protection and reparations for communities whose have endured human rights violations by corporations.
During the hearing, representatives from civil society presented a report with directives and practices to be implemented by governments and corporations to prevent and reduce socio-environmental impacts from large development and infrastructure projects, as well as from extractive activities. Beyond this, the organizations called for transparency when reporting information and for the effective participation of impacted communities.
“Human rights due diligence measures could have prevented local communities from suffering harms related to hydroelectric dams and extractive activities, as is happening in the cases of Belo Sun and Barcarena,” Jefferson Nascimento, advisor in the Development and Socio-environmental Rights program at Conectas, highlighted.
For Jefferson, in the case of the Belo Sun project, the lack of an effective impact evaluation and due diligence has caused grave violations, even before the formal start of the project. These violations include threats of human rights defenders. “In Brazil, human rights are not fully considered in the process of granting environmental licensing. This leads to numerous violations,” he complemented.
Along with Conectas, the following organizations participated in the hearing: DAR (Rights, Environment and Natural Resources), Dejustica, Observatorio Ciudadano, IACR (The International Committee of Animal Registry), PODER (Organization, Development, Education and Research Project) and DPLF (Foundation for Due Process).
