Public Note #35 – Our struggle for human rights continues!

Mr. President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro, made, on May 17, another outrageous statement, which demonstrates a lack of public ethics and a lack of dignity to occupy the position of head of government in a country like Brazil – which is currently mourning the over 450,000 lives lost to COVID-19.

By making accusations against previous governments, Mr. President stated in an official ceremony that the Ministry of Human Rights of previous administrations lent itself to indoctrination and to the worst of left-wing practices, in addition to sheltering people involved with pedophilia. He did not miss the opportunity to once again criticize the National Human Rights Plan (Plano Nacional de Direitos Humanos – PNHD3, in Portuguese). In addition, as characteristic of him, he attacked people based on frivolous insinuations, warning that he was acting this way “so as not to get in trouble”.

His conduct on this occasion is not surprising since his government is the one that: promotes fake news; maintains a parallel cabinet, known as the “office of hate”, operating within the Planalto Palace; propagates anti-science views; spurned WHO’s vaccines and guidelines; exposed the Brazilian people to the sorrowful title of the top ranking country regarding the number of deaths by COVID-19 in the world; and that is currently being investigated by a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (Comissão Parlamentar de Inquérito – CPI, in Portuguese), in addition to having been denounced in international forums and courts.

However, with his mind exclusively and obsessively focused on the 2022 elections, the President is already intensifying the use of a well-known rhetorical device to inflame his supporters: targeting reputations in a cowardly and vile way, without any evidence to support his rhetoric.

The Arns Commission, along with many other civil society entities in Brazil, bears witness to the serious setback in human rights that the country is experiencing under the current administration. The evidence is abundant: repeated attacks on the rights of Indigenous peoples and traditional populations; the growing degrees of violence ultimately seeking the extermination of the Black population, due to the reiteration of racism; the increase in domestic and gender-based violence; the environmental catastrophe; the inhumane treatment in the prison system, as well as the dismantling of the national mechanism for preventing and combating torture; the encouragement of armamentism; the criminalization of social movements and their leaderships; the successive affronts to institutions and the Democratic Rule of Law.

Faced with such a serious situation, the President should try to understand what is happening in the country and refrain from attacking governments that, yes, created national human rights policies; encouraged state plans in this field; stimulated society participation in the implementation of public policies, many of them internationally awarded and which made Brazil a prominent voice in the Inter-American and international human rights systems – although this is no longer the case today.

The Arns Commission, which proudly counts on distinguished human rights defenders in Brazil and worldwide, among its founders, will continue to work tirelessly, guided by one conviction: History will remember those who gave their lives to protect human dignity but will be merciless to those who defend torture, intolerance, and hatred.

Photo: Folhapress