Raoni, Marielle, and Wyllys Compete for the EU’s top Award

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Increasing pressure on the Brazilian government, one of the largest blocs of deputies in the European Parliament has submitted the names of three Brazilians to collect the Sakharov Prize, the EU’s leading human rights tribute. The election is held by the European legislature in October.

The distinction had already been bestowed on prominent figures such as Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, and Malala, as well as the Venezuelan opposition and anti-Castro Cuban dissidents.

The Brazilians are the candidates for the Socialist and Democrat Alliance in the European Parliament (known by its acronym S&D), which today includes more than 150 deputies. According to the group, the nominees “represent voices in favor of human rights and the protection of the environment”.

Chief Raoni, who once again toured Europe for support and was nominated as one of the candidates for the 2019 Nobel Prize, was named for his “four decades of crusades to save his homeland, the Amazon rainforest”. “He is a living symbol of the “struggle for life” of the tribes, a struggle to protect their unique culture, which is directly linked to nature itself,” the deputies said.

Claudelice Silva dos Santos, an environmentalist and advocate of human rights, is yet another nominee. “She became an activist after the murder of her brother and sister-in-law, who were killed because of her efforts to fight illegal deforestation and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon forest,” the Europeans explained.

Posthumously, Marielle Franco is also competing. The deputies recall that, as ” an openly gay Brazilian politician, feminist and human rights activist,” she was “a critique of police brutality and extrajudicial executions”. Marielle was executed in March 2018.

The city councilor was also nominated by the Green Party deputies in Europe. The environmentalist bloc also focused on Brazil and put Jean Wyllys on its list.

The nomination of Brazilians comes at an unprecedented moment for Brazil, since its re-democratization. At the UN and in Europe, Bolsonaro’s policies are openly criticized and his position challenged.

Source: Jamil Chade Blog, UOL