Sweeping Charges Made by ‘Human Rights Watch’ Against Bolsonaro’s Government

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The 30th edition of the International HRW (Human Rights Watch) World Report, released on Tuesday, January 14th, in New York, devotes nine of its 652 pages to Brazil.

In the document, the NGO denounces what it calls the “carte blanche” granted by Jair Bolsonaro’s government to the illegal deforestation of the Amazon and the encouragement of police lethality. In a note, the Planalto said it will not comment on the report.

Bolsonaro’s attacks on the press, praise of torturers and denial of the dictatorship’s crimes were also highlighted by the NGO as examples of how Brazil “has taken on an agenda against human rights, adopting measures that place the already vulnerable populations at greater risk”.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) is a non-governmental organization with a worldwide presence founded in 1978 in the United States. In Brazil, the NGO was established in 2014 and has a strong presence in fighting police violence and violence against indigenous peoples.

The HRW produces reports on human rights violations around the world and denounces governments that disregard these rights.

The NGO’s report highlights, however, that the Brazilian judiciary and Congress have prevented some of these policies from becoming a reality.

The report uses data from the Brazilian Public Safety Forum from 2014 to 2018 (one year before the onset of Bolsonaro’s government) to show that the number of people killed by police officers has been gradually increasing and reached a record 6,220 victims in 2018.

Concurrently, the number of police officers killed has been dropping steadily since 2016.

Police lethality in the state of Rio

In the field of actions, the report criticizes the proposal sent by the Planalto to Congress that provided for the “exclusion of illegality”, overturned by the legislature. The proposal provided that police officers who killed for “excusable fear, surprise or violent emotion” could see their prison sentences pardoned. The document also mentions the inclusion of police officers in the presidential Christmas pardon.

Rio de Janeiro, where police killed 1686 people between January and November 2019, an all-time record since the assessment began in 1998, was also included in the report.

According to the HRW, Governor Wilson Witzel (PSC) encouraged police lethality by taking away the bonus provided in the event of a reduction in deaths from police actions.

The measure was challenged at the Supreme Court (STF) by the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) last year, and the governor of Rio denied that its security policies are unconstitutional.

“Free hand for Deforestation”

“Bolsonaro’s government granted a free hand to these networks (of illegal deforestation of the Amazon) by cutting resources and undermining the power of environmental bodies,” says the report.

“President Bolsonaro’s attack on environmental enforcement agencies is placing the Amazon and those who defend it at risk. Without any evidence, the government has NGOs, firefighters, and indigenous peoples to blame for the fires,” says Maria Laura Canineu, director of Human Rights Watch in Brazil.

According to the HRW, deforestation in Brazil grew 80 percent between January and mid-December. “Concurrently, the number of fines for illegal deforestation issued by IBAMA, Brazil’s main federal environmental body, dropped 42 percent in 2019”.

The HRW further states that as of January 7th this year, no conciliation hearings had been held by the Ministry of the Environment in the context of administrative fine proceedings.

While the hearings do not take place, the fine proceedings remain inactive and, consequently, the infractions are not charged.

The document further mentions the authorization granted by the Ministry of Agriculture for 382 new pesticides.

Attacks on the press and denial of the dictatorship

The chapter on Brazil in the HRW’s world report highlighted that “Bolsonaro has repeatedly attacked civil society organizations and independent media. According to the NGO, the president “issued verbal attacks on media and reporters whose coverage did not please him.

Without providing evidence, the president denied that journalist Miriam Leitão was tortured by the military and denied that the dictatorship killed and disposed of the body of Fernando Santa Cruz, father of the OAB’s president Felipe Santa Cruz, for instance.

While defending the dictatorship and denying its crimes, the president, through resignations and nominations, undermined the Political Dead and Missing Persons Committee, which interrupted its activities of searching for the missing and rectifying death certificates of dictatorship victims, and the Amnesty Committee, which rejected 92 percent of the requests for reparations that were under trial.

For the HRW, the rhetoric about the past has influenced the fight against torture today. Reports of torture in prisons under federal intervention in Pará were ignored by Bolsonaro and the government tried to paralyze the National Mechanism for Preventing and Fighting Torture. Measures, for the time being, reverted by judicial decision.