“The State is complicit”
Brazil is denounced in the IACHR for violations caused by mining; understand the 14 cases
Brazilian organizations, groups and movements denounced in the IACHR (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the OAS) 14 cases that illustrate the environmental and socio-economic impacts of mining in Brazil. One of them is the bursting of the Fundão waste dam, owned by the companies Samarco, Vale and BHP Billiton in the town of Mariana, state of Minas Gerais, in November 2015, which directly and indirectly affected nearly 3.2 million people and contaminated the Doce River drainage basin, one of the most important in the country. The special hearing was held on Wednesday, June 8, in the city of Santiago, Chile.
According to the organizations, the tragedy in Mariana is not an isolated case because it derives from a model of mineral exploration that is repeated with similar consequences all over the country. It is characterized, they explain, by an alliance between the State and mining companies, both through public financing and tax exemptions and through donations to election campaigns.
- Click here to read the report submitted to the IACHR by the organizations.
“The State says it has had a permanent presence in the disaster area, but what we are denouncing is the leading role played by the companies at all times, from the registration of the victims to the receipt of donations from all over the country,” said Raphaela Lopes, a lawyer for the NGO Justiça Global. “It is ridiculous that the company responsible for the disaster is in charge of overseeing the reparations resulting from the same disaster,” she added, in reference to the settlement agreement signed between the federal government, the state governments of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo and the companies that own the dam.
The agreement, ratified by federal courts in May, has been challenged by the organizations because it was drafted and signed without consulting the affected communities. It creates a two-tier structure to manage the resources and projects for the recovery of the Doce River basin and to monitor their implementation: an interfederative committee and a private foundation. In both bodies, the involvement of civil society is limited.
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Navigate around the map and understand the 14 cases denounced by the organizations to the IACHR.
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Brazil’s response to the complaints was given by Homero Andretta Junior, general coordinator of the Office of the Attorney General’s heritage and environment department. Andretta defended the settlement agreement by saying it has put an end to the finger pointing, since the companies have taken responsibility for the disaster, and because it permits the rapid execution of the reparations, since the funds will be managed by a private organization. Finally, he said that the participation of the population is guaranteed through the foundation’s steering committee, which has three seats for representatives of the affected municipalities.
“How is it possible to plan actions to remedy people’s lives without listening to them first?” questioned Letícia Oliveira, of MAB (Movement of People Affected by Dams), at the hearing. “The actions will be taken in the way and in the time the company wants. The State should stand with the victims,” she added.
According to Caio Borges, a lawyer for the Business and Human Rights program at Conectas, the debate on the lack of public participation in the agreement signed between the government and the companies is telling: before and after disasters like the one in Mariana, the communities and vulnerable populations are systematically ignored. “The cases described in the report submitted to the IACHR illustrate that Mariana is not an isolated case and that the situation could worsen with the approval of new laws that further weaken the instruments that society has to control this sector. This is the case with Constitutional Amendment 65/12, which would in practice do away with the environmental licensing process,” he explained.
The amendment mentioned by Borges was approved by the Constitution and Justice Commission of the Senate in April, but due to a requirement submitted by Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, it will need to be voted in the Commission again before proceeding to a full session of the house.
In order to prevent a repeat of tragedies such as the one in Mariana, the organizations made a series of recommendations to the Brazilian government. They include a change in the law to ensure the presentation of human rights impact studies as a condition for the approval of mining projects, the allocation of taxes paid by the companies to health, education and economic diversification policies and the creation of a regulation to establish rights and duties in catastrophic events caused by mining activities. Finally, they asked the IACHR to refer to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights a case to hear and investigate the accounts of the affected communities.
Watch the full hearing:
