Hearing on the situation of human rights defenders in Brazil before the Inter-American Commission

Victims of human rights violations, representing the Guarani-Kaiowá indigenous people and the quilombo Brejo dos Crioulos and supported by human rights organizations will testify in the hearing on the situation of human rights defenders in Brazil before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, convened on Tuesday, October 29th at 9:00 am (ET).  Livestream video of this hearing will be available at the Organization of United States (OAS) website.

Genito Gomes, leader of the Guarani Kaiowá of Mato Grosso do Sul and José Carlos Oliveira Neto, president of the Quilombola Association of Brejo dos Crioulos will testify regarding the threats and intimidation they have undergone due to their involvement in the struggle for the right to territory.  These two cases are representative of the long-standing history of human rights violations suffered by these traditional peoples and communities in Brazil.

The leader of the Guarani Kaiowá, Genito Gomes comes from the Guayviry community, located in the municipality of Aral Moreira (MS), along the border with Paraguay.  Nisio Gomes, his  father, was assassinated on November 18, 2011, when the community was attacked by an armed group in which rural producers, lawyers, unions, local politicians, and a private security firm were involved.  This event is under legal proceedings at the federal court of Ponto Porã but, at this time, the Brazilian legal system has yet to punish the responsible parties.

Aside from not having access to territory, a basic condition of the realization of the human right to adequate food, the Guayviry community  also lacks access to potable water, given that the river supplying water to these people is contaminated by agrochemicals from nearby plantations. Since the territory is not regularized, the community does not have access to education because the municipality claims that it does not have an obligation to provide educational services. Likewise, the community lacks quality health services, and furthermore, they live at the mercy of hired armed gangs (pistoleiros), as their geographical location is highly  favorable to the practice of violent armed crimes (along the border with Paraguay).

For over 14 years José Carlos de Oliveira and his community have been fighting for their right to territory, and during this time they have also been the target of threats and intimidation by militias working for large scale landowners.    The quilombo Brejo dos Crioulos, located in the North of the Minas Gerais state, is comprised by about 503 families who demand the return of the land that was progressively  expropriated from them; leading to their confinement in  small areas that failed to guarantee their basic human rights, especially their right to adequate food.

“The hearing will inform the Commission of the agrarian conflict in Brazil, especially those involving traditional people and communities and the legal homologation of the territories. These conflicts have intensified due to the delays in the land titling process. Thus a conflict arises between the economic development model based on the expansion of monocultures, which promotes the grabbing of the land, and the traditional people´s and communities´ resistance and mobilization to defend their right to territory, which is in fact vital to their subsistence and the realization of their right to food, as well as other related rights”, explained the organizations participating in the hearing.

The participating organizations also highlighted that: “Because of their struggle to gain access to and guarantee their ancestral territories, these traditional peoples are victims of systematic threats and violence, which the State seeks to reddress with its human rights defenders protection programs. These programs have played a role in the cases of Genito and José, at the federal and state level respectively; however an adequate response has yet to materialize. Despite the violence and neglect these communities have suffered for years, the protection programs have had difficulty in dealing with the root causes of this problem, which means the risk of conflict is still present. Problems regarding the operational aspects, such as the availability of protective forces are also constantly reported.”

Press Release published by CIMI (Conselho Indigenista Missionário), Justiça Global, FIAN Brazil and FIAN International

More information:

Please join us in our call to the Brazilian authorities to not approve those laws detrimental to the basic human rights of indigenous peoples and traditional communities in Brazil by signing the petition available at FIAN’s website.

More information on the indigenous Guarani-Kaiowá