Public Note #2 – In support of the Waimiri Atroari people

The Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns Commission for the Defense of Human Rights – the Arns Commission – publicly manifests its support and solidarity to the Waimiri Atroari people, which once again is claiming respect for its people, territory, and traditions, and demands compliance with ILO Convention 169 regarding the rights of Indigenous peoples in what concerns the State’s duty to carry out prior and informed consultation when proposing measures that affect these peoples.

The threat that currently looms over this people stems from the Manaus-Boa Vista Electricity Interconnection Program, due to the construction of the Tucuruí Transmission Line. Controversial since its inception, this project envisages the installation of 250 electricity transmission antennas along a wide zone within the Indigenous reserve, with evident human, environmental, socio-economic, and cultural implications.

The attention of the Arns Commission is drawn to the determination and speed with which the Bolsonaro government intends to start the construction works of the transmission line, presenting it to the Brazilian society as a work of “interest to the national defense policy”, without consulting the Waimiri Atroari people, in clear non-compliance with Article 6 of ILO Convention 169, which establishes that governments shall “consult the peoples concerned, through appropriate procedures and in particular through their representative institutions, whenever consideration is being given to legislative or administrative measures which may affect them directly”.

The Waimiri Atroari people were almost decimated in the near past, due to the construction, through violent methods, of the BR-174 highway. Out of around 3 thousand individuals, at some point, only 350 had survived. Although apparently they are not protesting against the transmission line project, they claim the right to be heard, as explicitly established by ILO Convention 169.

ILO Convention 169 was ratified by the Brazilian State in 2004. According to the well-settled jurisprudence of the Federal Supreme Court, the human rights treaties signed by Brazil have a supralegal juridical status. It is worth mentioning that human rights, as well as the resulting obligations established by these treaties, once ratified cannot be restricted or derogated even by a law, let alone by a measure of administrative nature.

According to the Arns Commission, starting construction works in the lands of the Waimiri Atroari people without carrying out prior consultation within the legal framework and according to specific consultation protocols represents a serious violation of this people’s human rights, which should be prevented by any means. Non-compliance with ILO Convention 169 remains a threat to all Indigenous peoples in Brazil.

We request that the Waimiri Atroari be immediately listened to regarding Roraima’s electricity program, as required by ILO Convention 169. We also demand our courts judge the lawsuits already filed by the aforementioned Indigenous people. And we hope justice will be done in a way that is not only compensatory but especially restorative, since this people is entitled to, according to Article 231 of the Federal Constitution, its “original rights to the lands they traditionally occupy”, and so that they do not continue to suffer serious violations to their rights.

Photo: Amazônia Real/PAC