Pact for Life and for Brazil

For the first time in Brazil’s history, the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), the Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns Commission for the Defense of Human Rights (Arns Commission), the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC), the Brazilian Press Association (ABI), and the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC) have united around a Pact for Life and for Brazil, in the duty to alert and represent Brazilian civil society. The organizations have joined forces to call for the union of the entire Brazilian society, all its citizens, governments, and powers of the Republic, and form a broad alliance to face the serious health, economic, social, and political crises that the country is experiencing.

“It is time for the chorus of the lucid to take the stage in Brazil, asserting the option for scientific choices, policies, and social models that put the world and our society in a new time, indeed,” says the text signed by the presidents of the six entities mentioned above.

The document, signed by Dom Walmor Oliveira de Azevedo (president of CNBB), Felipe Santa Cruz (president of the Federal Brazilian Bar Association – OAB-Nacional), José Carlos Dias (president of Arns Commission), Luiz Davidovich (president of ABC), Paulo Jeronimo de Sousa (president of ABI), and Ildeu de Castro Moreira (president of SBPC) will be delivered today, April 07 and World Health Day, to the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, the president of the Federal Senate, David Alcolumbre, and the president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Justice Dias Toffoli, as well as to state governors.

According to the entities, the moment demands from everyone, but especially from governors and representatives of the people, "the exercise of citizenship guided by the principles of solidarity and human dignity, based on a mature and co-responsible dialogue, in the search for joint solutions for the common good, particularly for the poorest and most vulnerable. Finally, they also call on Brazilians to join the Pact.

"The development of this Pact for Life and for Brazil is urgent. May it be embraced by the entire Brazilian society in its diversity, its creativity, and its vital power. And may it strengthen our democracy, keeping us unrelentingly united. We will not let them steal our hope for a better future," says the document.

April 15 Update: More than 100 organizations have already signed the document, in support of the Pact for Life and for Brazil.

Image: Projeto Mapa Brasil Afrotech – State University of Campinas