Joint note on the Brazilian government’s statement at the UN Human Rights Council

The Arns Commission and Conectas, remote participants of the 44th session of the UN Human Rights Council, express their perplexity and disagreement with the statements made by the Brazilian government in Geneva. After the statement of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, expressing her concern with countries that deny the seriousness of the new coronavirus by citing Brazil, Burundi, Nicaragua, Tanzania, and the United States, the Brazilian delegation took the floor twice to defend what today, in our judgment, is indefensible.

Divided into three topics, the Brazil that emerges in the diplomatic speeches – one of them in response to civil society organizations, among them Conectas and the Arns Commission – shows a total disconnection with the real Brazil:

The Bolsonaro government's announcement of emergency aid with the provision of stimulus checks for 50 million people ignores the delays and countless difficulties of access experienced by thousands of people.

The generic statement that measures have been taken to sustain economic activity does not reflect the fact that they have been insufficient to minimize the deepening recession and unemployment of approximately 13 million people.

Food and financial security for the most vulnerable, another aspect of Brazilian propaganda, ignore the real situation experienced by Indigenous peoples, homeless people, low-income women who head families, the Black population, and residents of peripheries.

As for the Unified Health System (SUS), so praised in Geneva by official authorities, this is not the merit of a government that is not even committed to saving lives or to correcting the chronic underfunding of the system for more than a decade. The Unified Health System is an achievement of the Nation.

The Brazilian diplomacy assured that the country lives in a “vibrant democracy”, but it needs to be rectified: it is actually a resilient democracy.

It is no small thing that is demanded of Brazilians today, who are confronted every day with the escalating death toll from COVID-19, the irresponsible official questioning of WHO guidelines, and, above all, the lack of horizons for the majority of the population – especially, and as usual, the poorest and most vulnerable ones.