From now on, everything will be different. This is the message that the Brazilian minister of Human Rights and Citizenship, Silvio Almeida, wanted to convey this week when he was in Geneva, Switzerland, participating in meetings of the UN Human Rights Council.
Valeria Waycorrespondent of RFI in Geneva
“It’s not just because I want to, it needs to be different. It needs to be different, first of all, because of what everyone has seen, which have been these last four years. That is, four years of shame. Shame on us Brazilians in general, shame on the history of Brazil, on what Brazil built best. It may seem that everything we talk about is full of ambition, but without ambition there would be no need for us to be here today, to contribute to a new Brazil”, he told RFI.
The minister explained that his visit to Geneva had the “intention of reconnecting Brazil with the international human rights system, which is a very important stage for Brazil’s political activities”. He says he believes that “this reconnection is very important for the renewal, for the reorientation of the national human rights policy”
“In recent years, Brazil has suffered a series of losses due to this withdrawal. I think that many of the achievements that Brazil has had in terms of human rights are the result of this dialogue, this debate in which Brazil not only received a series of important subsidies for the construction of its national policy, but Brazil also contributed a lot to the world , to demonstrate that there are other perspectives in relation to human rights, other than those perspectives conducted from a vision of the North of the world”.
Yanomamis: concern over Damares candidacy
The minister views with “great concern” the candidacy of Senator Damares Alves, former minister of human rights, for a vacancy on the commission that monitors the Yanomami crisis. He remembers that she was a member of the Bolsonaro government that neglected assistance to the Yanomami. This demonstrates, according to Almeida, a “serious problem of Brazilian institutionality”.
According to the minister, “we are not capable of establishing forms of containment of this type of action, of movement that, in fact, has the purpose of undermining, of discrediting the very institutional actions in favor of human rights”. He says that a report with the conclusions of the investigations carried out on the situation of this indigenous population, resulting from visits by the teams to Roraima, will be released next week.
“The report that will demonstrate all the things that were done and not done and that resulted in this tragedy. We found some documents that demonstrate that there was a refusal to send emergency aid to the Yanomami peoples. There was even a court order from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that determined the taking of measures to guarantee life, survival, which was not complied with, “he said.
According to the minister, all the conversations at the United Nations were aimed at showing that Brazil has a series of projects that demand international support. He also said that what he asked for and what they asked of him at meetings and meetings at the UN was the same thing: cooperation.
“Ask the States and their representatives and international organizations to support this new vision that the new Brazilian administration brings, which is to think about human rights issues from a perspective that takes into account the economic issue, the need to strengthen democratic mechanisms, combat hate speech. At the same time, we were asked for the same thing. What was asked of us is what we also asked for: cooperation in the effort so that we could make a coordinated human rights policy”.
Strengthen the social protection system to face slave labor
When asked about the situation of the more than 200 workers rescued from slavery, the minister said that this episode “is far from an isolated case”. According to him, “Brazil still has a series of problems that lead to the reproduction of this type of violence against workers”. He also said he was not surprised by statements from the companies themselves.
“The fight against slave labor involves strengthening the workers’ social protection system. We need to strengthen workers’ representations, unions. This is what will ensure that workers are not at the mercy of this type of exploitation”.
According to the minister, a meeting is scheduled to discuss the possibility of revising the national plan to eradicate slave labor.
He says that Brazil is a country forged in authoritarianism, in the economic dependence that generates inequality and in racism. “Any and all human rights policy that is thought of has to take into account the racial issue”, said he, who wrote the book “Structural Racism”. “I am the first black man to be Minister of State for Human Rights in Brazil. For me, it is a most relevant ethical and political commitment”.
War in Ukraine: “Some ghosts are still very much alive”
Regarding the war in Ukraine, the minister stressed that Brazil’s position “prioritises the opening of spaces for dialogue, conversation, understanding, which is the only way, in fact, to end a conflict of this magnitude, which is by calling people to talk, but never compromising with human rights violations”.
“The fact that Brazil is open to dialogue does not mean that Brazil does not recognize that there is a violation of human rights. It does not mean that Brazil is silent in the face of this and it does not mean that Brazil has a position of, let’s say, neutrality in the face of human rights violations”.
According to the minister, this is a war “that interests all of us, from all over the world”. The conflict in Ukraine also exposes, according to him, “some faces of humanity that we did not want to face, such as the instrumentalization of human rights policy for the interests of specific countries, racial selectivity”.
“I think this war is sadly demonstrating that some ghosts that we thought had been overcome, especially after the disasters that humanity has already known, are still very much alive”.
a global war
Silvio Almeida also said that in every context of war human rights are violated and those affected “are workers, minorities, women, girls, the people who suffer most in any and all wars. I’m talking about people suffering from all those involved in the war.
“I believe that this war is not a regional war, it is not a war that only involves Europe. It is a war that, in my view, has global contours, and that makes each one of us, in all parts of the world, affected by it and, therefore, we have the responsibility to put things back in their proper place” .
Visit of UN rapporteurs to Brazil: “I have nothing to hide”
On the last day of the mission in Geneva, Minister Silvio Almeida met with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, and invited him to Brazil. The visits of UN rapporteurs, who have not been to the country for years, should be resumed.
“This government has no problem with visits by rapporteurs because I have nothing to hide, nothing, quite the contrary. We believe that opening up the human rights situation in Brazil is something that favors us because it makes us have to take the necessary actions to protect our people, ”he said.
Questioned by a foreign journalist if he had intentions of running for president in the future, Almeida was a diplomat. “President Lula gave me the honor and mission of being Minister of State for Human Rights and Citizenship in my country. That’s a burden, but it’s an honor. And what are my intentions? The first is to honor the confidence that the president has given me and my most ambitious intention at this moment is to be the best Minister of Human Rights and Citizenship that Brazil has ever had. That’s my intention. If I do that, I think I’ve already fulfilled a beautiful role and my ancestors were very proud of me”.
Almeida also spoke of the need to resume certain debates, such as the relationship between human rights and the economy, human rights and democracy, “the effective political participation of minorities, of those who are affected by decisions that are taken in the political sphere. Increase the possibility of popular participation, for example, “so as not to turn humanity into a club”, which only a few can join, “those who don’t look like the majority of people who live and lead their lives in the global South”.