Setback in foreign policy
Organizations criticize Foreign Ministry’s new guidelines
The CBDHPE (Brazilian Human Rights and Foreign Policy Committee), a coalition formed by a number of organizations, has identified signs of setbacks in the field of human rights and social participation in the new guidelines announced for Brazilian foreign policy by the interim foreign minister, José Serra.
In an open letter published on Wednesday, May 25, the committee criticized the lack of any initiatives within the Foreign Ministry to expand information channels and dialogue with society, and pointed out that “only the so-called ‘productive sectors’ have been considered for the ‘intense, broad and solid’ consultation”.
Although the guidelines do indeed mention the defense of human rights, the organizations expressed grave concern with the weight that the issue will have in the pragmatic approach announced by the ministry. “Human rights cannot inhabit the discourse merely as rhetoric, and this will happen if Brazil does not give prevalence to them in the handling of its international relations – including trade relations – as determined by Article 4 of our Federal Constitution,” they said in the letter.
As an example, they mentioned the omission in Serra’s inaugural speech of Brazil’s role in the immigration and refugee crisis in different parts of the world today.
The committee further stressed the importance – also overlooked in the new guidelines – of Brazil’s participation in multilateral human rights bodies, such as the UN (United Nations) and the OAS (Organization of American States).
“A real commitment to the human rights agenda requires the highest consideration by this ministry for regional and international human rights obligations, including compliance with the decisions of bodies such as the Inter-American Court and the ratification of long-pending instruments such as the Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families, the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic and Social Rights and the Arms Trade Treaty,” they said.
The Brazilian government is also responsible for the financial sustainability of the IACHR (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the OAS). More than half of the Commission’s budget comes from voluntary contributions from countries, although the last payment by Brazil, of just US$10,000, was made in 2009. This week, the Commission announced that due to a severe financial crisis, it will suspend hearings and working meetings and lay off nearly half of its staff.
Click here to read the public statement.
