Arns Commission demands an explanation from the Minister of Justice regarding “classified” dossier

The Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns Commission for the Defense of Human Rights – the Arns Commission – makes public its vehement repudiation of the existence of a secret action by state agents against public servants and academics who speak out as anti-fascists and in defense of the Constitution. This list of people being monitored is reminiscent in everything, including its number, of the list of “undesirable” people released days after the 2018 election by voters of the winning candidate, in a clear tone of threat against people who proclaim their democratic convictions in statements and by signing manifestos.

What could not be imagined, nor admitted, if the news released today were confirmed, was that the Minister of Justice himself, without any shame, would sponsor an action of surveillance and intimidation, with dossiers, photographs and everything else, using public money, against State employees and professors such as Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, Luiz Eduardo Soares, and Ricardo Balestreri, under the pretext of being anti-fascists.

Professor Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro is, to our pride, a founding member and the first president of the Arns Commission, the first president of the Human Rights Commission of the Brazilian Bar Association of the State of São Paulo (OAB-SP), former National Secretary of Human Rights, former coordinator of the National Truth Commission, former commissioner of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, UN Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Syria, among other national and international credentials that place him among the great names in the history of human rights.

We demand that the Minister of Justice goes public to explain himself about the news, denying it if false, being forbidden to use the argument of “secrecy”, which is a legal mechanism to protect democracy and society, and not to cover up insidious actions against the Rule of Law and those who defend it.