UN and IACHR receive urgent appeal on arrest of firefighters in Alter do Chão

On Wednesday, December 11, five civil society organizations, among them Conectas, sent a complaint to the United Nations and the IACHR (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights) calling for immediate action to be taken with regard to the attempts to criminalize the NGO Projeto Saúde e Alegria (Health and Happiness Project) and the arrests of four firefighters charged with starting fires in the Amazon rainforest. 

In the document, the organizations assert that the police action was unfounded and that it represents a direct attack on the work of non-governmental organizations. “Given the absence of evidence or any signs at all linking these organizations to the fires, it is clear that the investigation constitutes an attempt to criminalize people and organizations that notably work on the preservation of the environment in the Brazilian Amazon,” they argue.

Besides the complaint, the civil society organizations also call for a series of measures from the international bodies, including “That the special procedures mandate holders speak out publicly about the violation of rights in these cases, request information from the Brazilian State and keep abreast of the outcome of the investigations and the criminal case, ensuring the transparency of the procedures and the collaboration between the results of the investigations conducted on the federal and state level”.  

 

•  Read the document in full here