Brazil’s indigenous and Afro-Brazilian populations face serious discrimination: UN human rights chief

BRASILIA (13 November 2009) – The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Friday that Brazil’s “impressive” array of laws and policies, designed to promote human rights and improve the socio-economic situation, are not being properly implemented with the result that indigenous people and Afro-Brazilians in particular are facing serious discrimination, injustice and violence.

 

“Millions of Afro-Brazilians and indigenous people are mired in poverty and lack access to basic services and employment opportunities,” Pillay said in a statement at the end of her week-long visit to Brazil. “Until that changes, it will hamper Brazil’s progress on many other fronts.” She urged officials to focus on the full implementation of existing laws, plans and policies to address discrimination. “The fundamental measures are in place, but are not being properly implemented,” she added.

 

The High Commissioner praised the country’s Constitution and fundamental legal framework, saying they “form an impressive foundation of human rights protection.” She noted that the government has taken a number of important measures, both at home and abroad, including the establishment of special Secretariats on human rights, women’s policies and racial equality, and the adoption of ambitious programmes to reduce poverty, increase access to education, eliminate discrimination and fight against hunger.

 

She praised this week’s passing by the Brazilian Congress of a “very important” constitutional amendment designed to provide free universal education to children aged 4-17 and to increase resources for education. “Many of Brazil’s biggest problems are rooted in poverty and discrimination, and a truly universal secondary education system is essential if there is to be major improvement in these areas,” she said.

 

She also praised Brazilian leadership at the international level, citing as an example the Memorandum of Intent she had signed with the Foreign Minister of Brazil on Wednesday. This, she said, is “a very forward-looking document geared to sharing Brazil’s human rights experience and expertise – in tandem with that of my office – with other countries interested in receiving such assistance.”

 

Turning to some of the major problems in Brazil, Pillay described the situation of indigenous people as “astonishingly invisible,” and noted that she had not seen a single indigenous person among all the many state and federal officials she had met during the visit. “That is very indicative of their continued marginalization,” she said. “There have been important advances in terms of legislation to protect the rights of indigenous people, but the implementation of that legislation at the state level, in particular, seems to be lagging badly. For the most part Brazil’s indigenous people are not benefitting from the country’s impressive economic progress, and are being held back by discrimination and indifference, chased out of their lands and into forced labour.”

 

She noted that there are also very few Afro-Brazilians in positions of authority, and added that Brazil’s sizeable Afro-Brazilian population is “facing similar problems in terms of implementation of socio-economic programmes and discrimination which prevents them from competing on equal terms with other Brazilians.” This was particularly striking in the country’s northern Bahia state, “where three-quarters of the population are Afro-Brazilian, but hardly any of the top administrators.”

 

She also noted that the main victims of the violence plaguing Brazil’s urban areas are Afro-Brazilians, and pointed out that “one of the main causes of their deaths is the use of excessive force by law enforcement officials, and rogue militias, as well as by the gangsters and drug dealers.”

 

She welcomed some new initiatives at Federal and State levels that prioritize working in partnership with communities affected by violence, but insisted that “effective measures are urgently needed to combat extrajudicial executions, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”

 

Pillay acknowledged that Brazil’s police faced a difficult task in trying to maintain law and order, and said “they too have been suffering far too many casualties.”

 

“But the way to stop violence is not by resorting to more violence,” she said. “Instead it is to win the trust of the communities where the violence is taking place. That will never happen at the point of a gun. A key element to winning trust is applying justice fairly. The Government needs to establish a clear policy to combat impunity. All allegations of human rights violations need to be promptly and thoroughly investigated by independent authorities and, where there is sufficient evidence, perpetrators must be prosecuted – irrespective of whether they are gangsters or policemen.”

 

“The astonishingly high rate of homicides in Brazil’s overcrowded prisons, and allegations of widespread torture and inhumane conditions are alarming and unacceptable,” she said. “Equally disturbing is the fact that the vast majority of those incarcerated are Afro-Brazilians.

 

The High Commissioner, who on Wednesday visited a police project dealing with domestic violence, also expressed concerns about the “very high levels of violence directed at Brazilian women,” and said she hoped more could be done “to help women all across the country make use of the laws and projects designed to protect them.”

 

Pillay noted that Brazil is “the only country in South America not to have taken action to confront abuses committed during the period of military rule.” While recognizing this is a politically sensitive subject, she said there are ways of dealing with this “which avoid reopening the wounds of the past and help to heal them instead.”

 

“Torture, however, is an exception,” she said. “International law is unequivocal: torture is a crime against humanity and cannot be left unpunished. The fact that the torture that took place in the military era has still not been dealt with by Brazil means that the proper, clear disincentives to commit torture now and in the future are not in place.”

 

Noting that Brazil will invest heavily on infrastructure for the forthcoming World Cup and Olympics, Pillay suggested this could be done “in such a way that it will bring lasting benefits to the poorest and most marginalized urban inhabitants.” She cited a number of examples including “public transport systems that will help the inhabitants of favelas travel to places of employment long after the World Cup and Olympics are over.”

 

“This is an opportunity that Brazil should not miss to turn a vicious circle of violence and discrimination into a virtuous one,” she said. “It may cost more initially, but in the long-term such investment could pay immense dividends for the country as a whole.”

 

During her visit, the High Commissioner met with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and a wide range of ministers and officials at the federal and state levels. She attended Brazil’s annual national conference on human rights defenders and met with a wide range of civil society representatives in the three cities Salvador, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia. She also visited an isolated community of Afro-Brazilian descendants of slaves in Bahia state, and one of Rio de Janeiro’s poverty-stricken favelas.