Editorial – Brazil: Blackening the political agenda with gender perspectives in the 2022 elections

Editorial – Brazil: Blackening the political agenda with gender perspectives in the 2022 elections

Brazil, October 06th, 2022 – On October 2, Brazilians were heading to the polls to define the political scene for the next four-years in Brazil. These elections have sparked several episodes of political violence. In recent weeks, it has become clear that this violence is not only directed towards candidates, but also to voters, especially when they defend agendas considered progressive and linked to human rights. The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality), as a non-partisan organization, expresses deep concern around the challenges of a guaranteed Brazilian democracy, freedom of expression, and political participation during the election period.

Recent cases reveal the extreme brutality and attempts at silencing. For instance, on September 26, in Cascavel, Ceará, a man was stabbed to death after being asked about his vote and declaring that he would vote for former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Councilman and candidate for federal deputy, Renato Freitas, even had his mandate revoked by the Chamber of Curitiba, which was reinstated after the decision of the Federal Supreme Court that recognized the presence of structural racism in the act. Both situations point out that conservative practices are strategically implemented through the promotion of hate speech and the persecution of any opponent of their government, creating greater democratic disparity.

Fear has become an anti-human rights political tool, and as it has been denounced by Brazilian social movements, political violence is exacerbated when it permeates through the black and LGBTI+ population. Black, transvestite, and transgender women are systemically impacted through political violence as a way of making their political participation unfeasible, through use of offenses, threats, public humiliation, and intimidation.

We know that poverty in Brazil involves class, race, and gender and that this part of the population is still underrepresented in the spheres of power, whether in Congress, political parties, or state and municipal governments. Considering the importance of centering the racial agenda in the electoral debate and also in the government’s public policies, through this editorial we highlight the following: in a country whose population is mostly black (56%), with an unpayable historical debt between Afro-descendants and indigenous peoples [1], the political agenda needs to be darkened: the intersectional racial debate needs to be effectively incorporated in order to build political accountability for social inequality.

Debate around blackening the political agenda also means discussing the support and strengthening of black candidates committed to the racial agenda. TSE data show that, of the 28,966 candidacies registered in the court, 14,497 are from black people. However, a few days before the elections, most political parties had not reached the minimum percentages of transfers from the electoral fund to black candidates, who had received only 36% of the fund’s resources. It should also be noted that, on one hand, in the few electoral debates of presidential candidates, the racial agenda was not addressed, moreover among most Brazilian states, the candidates with real possibilities of winning the presidential and congressional elections are white and cis-heterosexual men.

Therefore, we highlight some political reflections that we consider urgent and necessary to break with the paradigms of violence proposed by the current discriminatory, racist, sexist and LGBTIphobic structure. Furthermore, this is a call to the political class and the social movement to, without fail, demand that any construction of public policies include the intersectional racial perspective of 2022-2026.

Black women: Racialization of the Maria da Penha Law and political plan for care economy

The most recent data show that in Brazil, between 2009 and 2019, the number of homicides against black women increased by 2%, while the number of homicides against non-black women fell by 26.9% in the same period. Thus, even after the implementation of the Maria da Penha Law, rates of violence continue to disproportionately affect black women. For these reasons, the black women’s movement claims the need to racialize the legislation for the construction of public policies that contemplate their safety.

The insertion of a social justice plan aimed at black women presents a reparatory path within a culture of hatred and violence against women. The current patriarchal structure needs to recognize the precarious living conditions and food insecurity in which most black women live in. We must not forget that a woman (black domestic worker) was the first death victim of COVID-19 in Brazil.

Racialization of the public security debate and federal accountability in the face of police lethality

As long as the racial agenda is not incorporated into the culture and militarized structure of public security in Brazil, the criminalization of the black population will continue to deepen in the country. It is essential that criminal justice practices seek new ways to combat violence and reduce mass black incarceration. In Brazil, the state does not take responsibility for the fundamental rights of its population and encourages violence through massacres and the reproduction of militias.

The number of licenses to carry weapons, expanded during the Bolsonaro government, and grew 325% in three years. In this way, we focus on the creation of collective strategies that seek a new public security policy to mitigate racist police violence, and encourage the collection, systematization, and referral of violations by state agents, especially in the favelas and peripheries of the state country.

Cartography of violence against LGBTI+ bodies in Brazil

It is important to remember that the LGBTI+ political agenda is not disconnected from the racial agenda, on the contrary, the violence data reflect that black trans women are the biggest victims of cruel murder in the country. Therefore, we focus on the transversality of public policies that can contemplate the LGBTI+ population in its particularities. It is necessary that data collection be a governmental responsibility and that a collective agenda be put into practice that starts from a sociocultural and educational reorganization, in which LGBTIphobic practices are in fact held accountable and do not remain unpunished. It is necessary to remove Brazil from the regrettable record of being the country that kills the most LGBTI+ people in the world and, for that, a governmental commitment to the rights of this population is necessary.

Religious racism: Implementation of a strategic plan to contain violence against African-based religions

In a secular state, the discourse that uses religion to legitimize and promote violence, as well as express prejudice, needs to be fought against. We express strong concern especially in a scenario of advancing neo-Pentecostal fundamentalism. Religion should not reverberate a culture of hatred and intolerance against other religions. In Brazil, we know that this hatred is directed especially towards practitioners of religions of African origin, and in recent years there has been an aggravation of what many terreiros and organizations have called religious racism. Thus, we urge the defense of the rights of African-based religions and traditional peoples of the country.

Indigenous peoples: representation and defense of Amazonian territories

We emphasize that the claims for the racialization of public policies contemplate, in their entirety, the ethnic-racial demands of the Brazilian population. Therefore, the native peoples and quilombolas need the new government to meet their specificities and protect their territories. Environmental racism occurs from the devastation of the Amazon Forest and indigenous and quilombola territories. This includes the disruption of sanitary and housing conditions of peripheral communities that live on slopes and riversides. Indigenous underrepresentation, whether in parliaments or in any other decision and power space, is leading to yet another decimation of many peoples, and exploitatively benefits agribusiness and mining companies.

The indigenous call for the end of the time frame is just one of the survival strategies in which they continue to denounce the massacre of their communities by miners. The increasing destruction of the Amazon rainforest continues to be denounced by activists and human rights defenders– a fact that has led Brazil to enter the UN’s “dirty list” as a dangerous country for these leaders. Thus, we insist that this governmental intimidation imposed on civil society with the closure of civic spaces cease, and we continue to demand that the next government reactivate committees and councils that value the preservation of human rights.

Implementation of international agreements that value the fight against structural racism

Since May 2021, Brazil has ratified the Inter-American Convention against Racism, Racial Discrimination and Related Forms of Intolerance (CIRDI) and, as a next step, the government must implement the Convention. With the status of constitutional amendment, the CIRDI also deals with economic and social rights, representing a legal instrument that allows a new horizon for projects of historical reparation and representation.

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Over the last few years, Race and Equality has been working in Brazil to strengthen civil society organizations in the fight against racial discrimination and gender inequalities, fostered by current exclusionary policies and the growth of hate speech. Since then, as a human rights organization, we have continued to denounce human rights violations in the country. Difficult challenges continue to arise as civil society encourages the government to incorporate the intersectional racial debate.

Race and Equality will continue to monitor the Brazilian State and bring to light, at the international level, patterns of violations that are repeated at the expense of vulnerable populations. We are all responsible. There is no possible neutrality in a society who is the agency for change. Voting, in its democratic process, is the exercise of the right to change, and at this moment, an exit door for hate speech.

 

[1] Black, quilombola and indigenous population

Afro Latines Advocacy Week: Race and Equality brings organizations from Brazil and Colombia to Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., September 27th 2022 – From the 27th to the 30th of September, the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) brings human rights organizations from Brazil and Colombia to Washington, D.C., working to promote and defend the rights of the Black and LGBTI+ population.  In order to promote an exchange of political advocacy strategies between the Afro-Latine and the Afro-American movements, the meetings will take place within the framework of Black Caucus Week; an annual conference of Black U.S. Congress that aims to boost and debate the civic engagement of the Black population. In addition, the delegation participates in academic meetings with U.S. civil society organizations and private meetings with congress members and state departments.

The Brazil-Colombia delegation present in Washington D.C is formed by the organizations: Geledés – Instituto da Mulher Negra (BR) that will be represented by Rodnei Jericó da Silva, Coordinator of SOS Racismo;  NGO Criola (BR) with the presence of the Project Coordinator, Lia Manso;  Somos Identidad (COL), with the Founder Johana Sinisterra and the Legal Representative Sandra Milena Ibarbo;  and the Asociación Nacional de Afrocolombianos Desplazados (AFRODES – COL), with the presence of Coordinator Luz Marina Becerra.  Representing Race and Equality, the Executive Director Carlos Quesada; Zuleika Rivera, Senior Officer of the LGBTI Program and Brazil Program Officer, Nathaly Calixto, will be present at these meetings.

In this exchange among Black Pan-American organizations, the Latin American organizations aim to take the Black and LGBTI+ perspectives of the global southern diaspora for an effective political impact, as well as exchanges of good practices so that they can move together to achieve plural racial justice. It’s important to emphasize that, for Race and Equality, these meetings are an opportunity to promote strategies of structural political changes with an intersectional bias; as Brazil is in the electoral period, Colombia’s President values racial agendas and, this year, the U.S. Congress goes through midterms elections.

“It’s precisely in this configuration that we empower organizations to act with political implications. Being able to talk to Black U.S. Congress members about the Latin American racial agenda is one way to influence the Biden administration, because it needs a congressional majority to pass its agendas.  It is in this sense that we plan to ensure and strengthen international human rights agreements on racial and gender justice and, in this case, there’s nothing better than organizations to guide the demands of their countries,” says Carlos Quesada.

Brazil and Colombia: In Search of Racial Justice

As the U.S. academic community seeks to understand and foster studies on the Black diaspora, the BRA-COL delegation will meet with academics and students at Howard University to share the efforts of regional civil society organizations in defending human rights. The idea is to show that even though racism is a global issue, the different sociocultural dynamics and the deficit economic contexts produced by centuries of colonialism, impact primarily on the most vulnerable populations in Latin America and Afro-Caribbean. In this case, to make known the racial and gender equity agenda of these organizations, can stimulate studies that provide, in  the future, the construction of equitable global public policies.

Brazil, for example, has the highest murder rate of LGBTI+ people in the world, and this incidence rate cross-referenced from an intersectional perspective is highest in trans-Black women in vulnerable situations. The organizations Geledés and Criola, together with Race and Equality in Brazil, conducted a survey monitoring the closure of civic spaces, in which they mapped that the rise of an ultraconservative agenda has generated attacks on the Brazilian democratic system, criminalization of human rights defenders and the immobilization of citizen participation councils and associations. With this, there are growing attacks and hate speech against Black women and elected LBTIs who intend to participate in the political life of the country.

In Colombia, for years the Afro-Colombian community has suffered a process of marginalization and vulnerabilization, and the civil society and Afro-Colombian leaders have denounced the existence of a geographical apartheid reinforced by structural and institutional racism.  This same structure resonates in erasing the struggle for the existence of ethnic peoples, which reinforce that civil rights in the country must be thought of in multiethnic and multicultural perspectives, taking into account how racist violence impacts these territories and racialized bodies. Similarly, for Colombian LGBTI+ people, the scene of gender and racial violence continues to increase: from January to June 2022,  354 victims of  sexual orientation assaults were recorded, 324 of whom suffered some physical abuse and  229 suffered these abuses within their own families.

The excessive use of police force in both Brazil and Colombia is a complaint presented to international human rights mechanisms.  The armed conflict in Colombia and police forces in Brazil intersect in the profile of their victims: Black people in vulnerable living conditions in territories whose presence of the state is marked by police violence. In Colombia, at least 1,144,486 people who identified themselves as part of the Black population were recorded as victims of armed conflict, according to data from the National Information Network, which corresponds to 38.38% of the total. In Brazil, the Brazilian Public Safety Yearbook points out that of the total of 6,145 deaths by police intervention, in 2021, 84.1% were Black and 15.8% were white.

Why the Black population is seen as a threat

In addition to this question and many others that permeate the racist structure that found the police corporations of Latin America, Race and Equality in partnership with organizations in Brazil and Colombia, continue in a regional project to confront and denounce racist police violence in both countries.  In the face of this meeting in Washington, D.C., police violence that intersects with the Black and LGBTI+ populations will also be the subject of meetings to placate this colonial modus operandi, in which Black bodies are exempt from the presumption of innocence and, because they exist, are victims of all violence and seen as a threat, whether in Latin American countries or Anglo America.

In view of this, racism, gender-based violence and LGBTIphobia pose the real threat to a system of oppression that disrespects inalienable human rights and international treaties that value their guarantees. For this, Race and Equality with the BRA-COL delegation intend to denounce to the American Congress members the current milestones of violation of the rights of the Black population and LGBTI+ Latin America. The exchange of these dissenting voices reaffirms the purpose of further denouncing racism and its different forms of violence that prevent the full exercise of citizenship, freedom of expression and the right to development of these countries as a call for partnership and inclusion of the Black population of all the Americas.

Brazilian delegation participates in the pre-sessions of the UN-UPR in Switzerland with recommendations on racial discrimination in Brazil

Brazil, September 15th, 2022 – With Brazil’s review approaching in the 4th Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) promoted a series of meetings, in July and August, along with civil society organizations that work on issues of race, gender and sexual orientation in Brazil, including Embassies in Brasília and their respective Permanent Missions, in Geneva, Switzerland. The Universal Periodic Review is a mechanism developed by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council to assess the human rights situation in each of the UN member countries.

The meetings in Geneva took place between August 29 and September 2, and the following organizations participated: Grupo Conexão G de Cidadania LGBT de Favelas (RJ), represented by the current Director General Gilmara Cunha, a trans woman, community leader, and activist of human rights; NGO Criola (RJ), with the presence of Mônica Sacramento, the Institution’s Project Coordinator; Marielle Franco Institute (RJ) with its Executive Director Anielle Franco; Geledés – Instituto da Mulher Negra, represented by Nilza Iraci, Coordinator of Political Incidence. On behalf of Race and Equality, the Executive Director, Carlos Quesada; David Veloso, Human Rights Consortium Coordinator; Gaia Hefti, Advocacy Officer in Geneva; and Leilane Reis, Race and Gender Officer of Brazil all took part in the meetings.

Due to the importance of demonstrating at the regional and international level the current framework of human rights violations in the country, in addition to seeking to raise awareness around the need for more targeted recommendations for the black population, LGBTI+, and indigenous peoples, this delegation has actively participated in human rights mechanisms by sending reports. The agenda in Geneva represented a continuity of the work of political incidence in Brasilia. There were five days of meetings focusing on the visibility of the current situation of racial discrimination in Brazil, leading to the Permanent Missions, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and Independent Experts’ specific recommendations on the subject.

Geneva Agenda

On August 30, several Brazilian organizations were selected by the UN Human Rights Council to speak on the situation in the country during the pre-session of the UPR, and propose the recommendations to the Brazilian State, who was also present at the event, with its Permanent Mission. It should be noted that the Report of the Brazilian State for the evaluation of the IV cycle of the UPR was only published on the eve of the pre-session of the UPR, leaving civil society in the dark regarding what information was published. Representing the Brazilian delegation, Anielle Franco was invited by the organizer of the pre-sessions, the NGO UPR Info, to speak on the intersections of police brutality and racism in Brazil. The activist brought to light the recent massacres in Rio de Janeiro and the murder of the young black, pregnant woman, Kathlen Romeo.

“These are cases that indicate that the death of the black population in Brazil is a systemic issue, promoted by the Brazilian authorities and covered up by the police forces. Instead of investigating the massacres and discriminatory violence against the Afro-Brazilian population, the Brazilian government and police try to legitimize these police operations and attack Brazilian human rights organizations, such as the Marielle Franco Institute.”

On August 31, the International Day of People of African Descent, Race and Equality held a hybrid event entitled, “Racial Discrimination in Brazil: Violence against the Black Population and Indigenous Peoples.” The event was attended by the delegation present in Geneva and aimed to make the recommendations made by these organizations for the 4th cycle of the UPR visible to the general public, expanding beyond closed meetings with Embassies and Permanent Missions. In addition, the event was also an important tool of international political advocacy for the construction of networks and partnerships between Brazilian and international organizations.

The Brazilian delegation had the opportunity to take the recommendations to the Ambassador of Chile in Geneva, Claudia Fuentes Julio. They also met with the Embassies of Canada, Australia and Argentina, the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica, France, Germany and Colombia, and with Gay McDougall, Rapporteur of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which is responsible for monitoring the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Faced with the current picture of violations presented, a review that will take place in November this year, charging the Brazilian State for covering up the racial issues in the country.

It is important to highlight that the delegation provided ample space for listening and dialogue in meetings with experts from UN treaty bodies, experts on afro-descendant peoples, and experts from the mechanism on police violence created by the UN in 2021. In addition, the Brazilian delegation was received by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) who is charging the Brazilian State for neglecting the well-being of the black, indigenous, and LGBTI+ populations.

International Incidence: The Paths to Geneva

The task of illuminating the ongoing human rights violations in the country for international mechanisms and their support is a major commitment for Race and Equality with civil society organizations in Brazil. For this, technical training work and support to these institutions are necessary so that their complaints and demands arrive instrumentalized to the Experts and Rapporteurs of each international body; this work is called advocacy and/ or political incidence. During the Race and Equality event in Geneva, the Executive Director, Carlos Quesada, stressed the importance of the daily construction of advocacy strategies in Brazil, “to train grassroots organizations to promote political actors through a technical training methodology so that these organizations can generate sustainable structural changes.”

Thus, in order for the Brazilian delegation to be received with its recommendations in Geneva, it was necessary to hold a meeting in Brasilia, with the Embassies of the countries that will review Brazil in the 4th cycle of the UPR, and the other Embassies present at the UPR Human Rights Council. The meetings in Brasilia took place from July 27 to July 29, and were attended by: Gilmara Cunha, General Director of the Grupo Conexão G de Cidadania LGBT de Favelas (RJ); Marina Fonseca, Anthropologist and Political Advisor at the NGO Criola (RJ); Fabiana Pinto, Sanitarian and Coordinator of Incidence and Research at the Marielle Franco Institute (RJ); and Rodnei Jericó, lawyer and Coordinator of SOS Racism of Geledés (SP). Representing Race and Equality were present: Leilane Reis, Officer of the Race and Gender Program and, Adriana Avelar, Incidence Officer in Brazil.

The meetings in Brasilia were with the Permanent Missions that evaluated Brazil in previous periods in themes of interest to the group that are connected with the current and fragile Brazilian democratic system: European Union, United States, Norway, Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, Australia, Argentina, UK, Colombia and Chile.

The organizations sought to make visible the current regulatory frameworks that have exacerbated the vulnerability of black, indigenous and LGBTI+ populations in Brazil since the last review of the UPR, taking into account the precariousness of life due to the effects of the pandemic. Based on the recommendations made by the Embassies visited, the following themes were discussed: violence against the LGBTI+ population, police violence against the black population, black women’s health, closure of civic spaces, and indigenous peoples’ rights. The intention was to establish a dialogue with recommendations for the next cycle, to point out the social markers in force in Brazilian society and to be able to highlight the real situation of human rights violation in Brazil.

The work of political incidence is actively built-in partnership with Brazilian organizations, it’s necessary to be connected with the political and legislative proposals of the Brazilian Government so that effective action can be taken to ensure the construction and implementation of international treaties and agreements. The purpose of the route from Brasilia to the pre-sessions of the UPR in Geneva is to welcome the recommendations of the Brazilian delegation during the review of Brazil at the UPR session, which will take place on November 14, at 2:30 pm (Geneva time), and at 9:30 am (Brasília time).

What are the next steps?

The UPR is a UN mechanism in which State Parties evaluate State Parties. Therefore, UPR, along with civil society can impactfully highlight the human rights violations in Brazil and influence the evaluating states to accept its recommendations in the assessment process. As mentioned earlier, Brazil also delivered its report, in which it said it had consulted civil society on the human rights situation in the country. With this, an analysis based on advances, setbacks, and good practices is performed from all information received and, finally, the evaluated State must apply the recommendations of its peers.

If the recommendations of the Brazilian delegation are accepted and promoted by the State Parties during the UPR, the next task is to present them to the new Government that will take office in 2023, so that it becomes aware of the work of political incidence of civil society organizations. From there, the recommendations should be ratified and implemented in Brazil’s four-year public policies. Thus, civil society carries the responsibility to monitor compliance with the agenda in combating racial discrimination granted in the UN Universal Periodic Review. Race and Equality follows alongside these organizations to monitor and pressure the government in applying the international agreement.

Finally, to collaborate with the United Nations Universal Periodic Review mechanism, Brazilian organizations supported by Race and Equality propose, among others, the following recommendations addressed to the Brazilian State:

I) Ensure the occurrence of investigations into crimes committed against LGBTI persons in favela territory, enabling the collection of public data on such crimes.

II) Take urgent measures to curb and eradicate police violence at any stage of action by civil police, military, and armed forces in carrying out missions on Brazilian soil.

III) Recreate participatory councils and collegiate groups that allow participation and indigenous social control in the formulation, monitoring, implementation, and evaluation of indigenous policies of the Brazilian State in the areas of territorial management, education, health and culture, alongside the establishment of programs and measures to prevent and punish racism, discrimination, and violence against indigenous peoples, and to promote ethnic and racial equality, autonomy, and the right of peoples to be different.

IV) Conduct the implementation of the National Plan for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and institutionalizing the Protection Program for Human Rights Defenders, Communicators and Environmentalists (PPDDH) by expanding its structure in the 26 states of the country and DF, establishing budgets, regulations and specific strategies for the reception and follow-up of cases of black, trans, and transvestite women human rights defenders, representatives of traditional peoples and communities; create indicators for monitoring and judicial mechanisms for the accountability of their main violators, highlighting the use of police brutality and militarized groups employed to suppress rights and freedoms of expression, association, belief, assembly, and political participation in Brazilian civic space.

V) Ensure access to reproductive health services, including ensuring that abortions are carried out under the conditions provided for in current legislation, without bureaucratic obstacles or embarrassment to people who are pregnant and seek care, giving special attention to the situation of black pregnant and parturient women who suffer from the impact of institutional racism on maternal health.

Complexo da Penha Massacre: Human Rights organizations appeal to the IACHR to end police violence

Brazil, May 27th, 2022 – The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality), Marielle Franco Institute, Geledés – Black Women’s Institute, Observatório de Favelas, Justiça Global and Casa Fluminense denounce to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the Complexo da Penha Massacre, which took place this Tuesday, May 24, during a police mega-operation in Rio de Janeiro. The communiqué sent to the IACHR calls for the protection of community residents to be guaranteed and for the extensive monitoring of reported situations of violence. So far, there are registered: 25 dead and 07 injured in the Complexo da Penha Massacre.

  • 25 people killed were taken to the Getúlio Vargas Hospital.
  • 01 body of a woman was taken directly to the Legal Medical Institute (IML)
  • 01 person killed was taken to the Emergency Care Unit of Complexo do Alemão with 08 gunshot wounds
  • 07 injured were taken to Hospital Getúlio Vargas

This extreme violence reflects the result of the public security policy of the current Governor of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Claudio Castro, who, since his predecessor, Wilson Witzel, does not respect the decision of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) that determined the State must comply with the ADPF 635, known as ADPF das Favelas. Until now, the State Government has not presented any plan to reduce police lethality; it didn’t install GPS equipment, audio and video recording systems in police vehicles or on the uniforms of officers; and as a result of these current massacres, it has set no limits on lethal force. As a result, black bodies, from favelas and outskirts, experience constant scenes of terror and even their homes become a place of fear and insecurity for all families.

According to reports, agents from the Special Operations Battalion (BOPE) and from the Federal Highway Police (PRF) entered the Vila Cruzeiro Complex at 4:00 am, firing shots with helicopters and armored tanks as support. The operation took place throughout the day and, despite the active movement of civil society organizations urging the public authorities for a ceasefire, the operation continued on its terroristic course. In this regard, the signatory organizations urge the IACHR and other international human rights organizations to constantly monitor police violence in Brazil.

It is unacceptable to continue the current security policy that goes against the basic principles of human rights, such as the right of living and housing, in addition to State protection. It must be mentioned: this massacre is yet another demonstration of the structural racism present in the actions of the Brazilian police.

We regret the lives lost and sympathize with the various families of Complexo da Penha, who once more experienced the presence of the State in their territories with violence, deaths, scarcity and tears. In light of the foregoing, we share the requests to the IACHR:

  1. To publicly comment on this case, through a statement and monitor the situations of violence reported in this document;
  2. Request the Civil Police of the State of Rio de Janeiro to carry out technical investigations on the spot, with the elaboration of reports on ballistics and possible signs of torture on the bodies, ensuring the duty of publicity of the state’s action;
  3. Demand that the State (RJ) and Federal Public Ministry investigate the police operation responsible for this massacre, including the specific need to observe possible signs of alteration of the crime scenes, as well as the impediment of residents and activists to manifest about what happened;
  4. That the State (RJ) and Federal Public Ministry provide information to the families of the victims of the massacre and keep them informed about the investigations;
  5. Considering what was determined in ADPF 635 regarding the absolute exceptionality in carrying out police operations, that is, the premise that such incursions should only occur in extraordinary situations of immediate and concrete danger to life, which cannot consist of a generic allegation about the current calamitous situation of public security in the State of Rio de Janeiro and/or on the need to repress drug trafficking and criminality, allegations that underlie the human rights violations implicit to public security policy in Brazil. It is requested that the state of Rio de Janeiro be notified of non-compliance with the criteria determined in ADPF 635;
  6. Maintain direct communication with the Brazilian government inquiring about the measures adopted to combat police violence, considering the numerous cases publicized by the Brazilian press and by the aforementioned civil society organizations.

Race and Equality launches the ‘Kátia Tapety Political Training School’

Brazil, May 06th, 2022 – On May 10 (Tuesday), at 5 PM, the International Institute of Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) promotes the launch of the Kátia Tapety Political Training School.   The inauguration will be at the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro (MAM) and will be attended by the distinguished councilor, Kátia Tapety, and serve as well as a space for dialogue with women parliamentarians and representatives of social movements and civil society organizations.  The Kátia Tapety School of Political Training is the result of a project supported by the Open Society Foundations and the partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Brazil.

Faced with the current political scenario in Brazil, involved in hate speech, attacks and persecution of parliamentarians and human rights defenders, whose targets are black and indigenous women – cis and trans, and the growing spread of fake news; Race and Equality created a School of Political Training that aims to prepare women (black, LBTI, indigenous and quilombolas) to participate safely and democratically in the electoral process in 2022.  To confront political and electoral gender violence, the organizations Associação Nacional de Travestis e Transexuais (ANTRA), Articulação Brasileira de Lésbicas (Red ABL) and Rede Nacional de Negras ee Negros LGBT (Red Afro LGBT), will be responsible for the nomination of pre-candidates from their networks to participate in the School of Political Training.

Thus, through technical and pedagogical training, classes will be held in a hybrid manner, from May to September, to serve women social leaders from all over Brazil who eventually have an interest in applying for an elective position in the country. The programmatic content also includes practical training so that candidates have the tools to face authoritarian policies and the necessary instrumentalization to claim their rights.  In this sense, the Kátia Tapety School of Political Training emerges as an instrument of strengthening and democratic protection to achieve full legitimacy and decision-making power in its political agendas.

“The growth of gender-based political and electoral violence in Brazil has become increasingly alarming.  In March 2021, Race and Equality, together with other organizations, denounced cases of several currently elected councilors before a hearing at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and, unfortunately, we continue to urge the Brazilian State to protect these women. The Kátia Tapety School of Political Training was born from this urgency to promote the active participation of women in politics in a safe and democratic way so that they have full autonomy to defend themselves from violence and guarantee their rights”, explains Carlos Quesada, Executive Director of Race and Equality.

About Kátia Tapety

Kátia Tapety was the first trans councilor elected in Brazil, in 1992, in the city of Colonia de Piauí – PI.   Various data indicate that, in fact, Kátia Tapety was the first trans woman elected to legislative office in Latin America, at a time when there was still a refusal to talk about guaranteeing civil, political and social rights for trans people. Born and raised in the country’ interior, Tapety saw and felt the effects of the military dictatorship, accompanied by the process of redemocratization of the country and, just four years after the promulgation of the citizen constitution of 1988, was elected the councilor with the highest number of votes in the municipality of Colonia do Piauí, in the rural area of Piauí.  In her political career she was appointed councillor in 1992, 1996 and 2000; Mayor of Colonia do Piauí in the biennium 2001-2002; and was finally elected vice-mayor in 2004.

Today, at the age of 74, and with an incredible life trajectory in the country that kills the most trans people in the world, Tapety faced racism and transphobia, leaving a legacy of rights and a path of openness to reach achievements for black, travesti and transgender women throughout Brazil.  Therefore, for Race and Equality, honoring her represents a process of rescuing not only memory, but mainly democratic ties. Kátia Tapety reminds us of the post-dictatorship hope that flourished in Brazil in the 1990s and of one of the milestones of the Brazilian constitution – promoting development and social equality without discrimination of any kind – and that today, more than ever, is urgent.

The Kátia Tapety School of Political Training has as its principle the unique desire to form more and more Katias throughout Brazil and around the world, strengthening civil participation in spaces of collective decision, expanding and improving democratic tools and contributing to the reduction of gender and race asymmetries in political participation at the regional, national and global level.

Agenda:

Launch of the Kátia Tapety Political Training School

Date and time: May 10th (Tuesday), 5pm to 7:30 pm (Brasília time)

Place: Cinematheque of the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro (MAM)

Panel 1: Collective trajectories for the political participation of black, indigenous and LBTI women

Participants:

Rosângela Castro – Afro LGBT Network

Bruna Benevides – National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals (ANTRA)

Michele Seixas – Brazilian Lesbian Articulation (ABL Network)

Panel 2: Articulations and strategies of black, indigenous and LBTI women to strengthen democracy in Brazil

Participants:

Kátia Tapety – Honoree and First Trans Afro Councilor  of Brazil

Samara Pataxó – Legal Advisor of the Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) and Head of the Center for Inclusion and Diversity of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE).

Roberta Eugênio – Lawyer and Researcher at the Alziras Institute

Keila Simpson – President of the National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals (ANTRA)

The event will be broadcast live via Zoom and Facebook Live and will feature simultaneous translation into Spanish and English (zoom only)

Zoom Link: https://bit.ly/3s5FS3x

*All safety protocols for COVID-19  will be required and carried out

*The event is not open to the general public

Protecting the Rights of Afro and Traditional Quilombola Brazilians: A Conversation Led by the Collective of Black Entities of Brazil

Washington DC, March 10, 2022 – The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race & Equality) and The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) cordially invite you to the following event: “Protecting the Rights of Afro and Traditional Quilombola Brazilians: A Conversation Led by the Collective of Black Entities of Brazil”.

Over the past decade, the crisis of police violence in Brazil against Afro and traditional Quilombola Brazilians has exacerbated exponentially. It is a known statistic that a Black Brazilian youth dies every 23 minutes in the country, yet there has been no accountability on behalf of the state. Likewise, the lives of traditionally Black peoples, like the Quilombola communities and those of Afro-Brazilian religions such as Candomblé, continue to be threatened daily, and the state has again lacked in enforcing accountability and protecting the rights of these communities. The Collective of Black Entities (CEN), a national entity of the Brazilian Black movement, has initiated several programs to bring media attention to the crisis and support Black Brazilians who have been wrongfully incarcerated. The CEN was founded in 2003 in Bahia, the capital of Salvador, and is present today in seventeen Brazilian states and three Latin American countries. 

Join us for an event on Monday, March 14 at 2:00 p.m. with Marcos Rezende and Yuri Silva, who will discuss the state of police violence against Black Brazilians and the struggle to guarantee the rights of these marginalized communities.

Event Details:
Monday, March 14, 2022

2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. EST

In-person event at Race and Equality’s DC Office:

1620 Eye (I) St, NW, Suite 925

Washington, D.C., 20006

RSVP for in-person attendance by sending  a message to: calixto@oldrace.wp

This event will also be live streamed through Zoom: Register on Zoom

Simultaneous interpretation from Portuguese to English will be available.

Panelists:

Marcos Rezende – Founder Collective of Black Entities

Yuri Silva – National Coordinator Collective of Black Entities

Moderator: Nathaly Calixto – Race and Equality Brazil Program Officer 

Closing of Civic Spaces: Race and Equality, Criola, Geledés and Iepé in favor of the democratic participation of black and indigenous civil society

Brazil, February 23, 2022 – the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) through the Latin American Human Rights Consortium, joined Brazilian civil society organizations: Criola, Geledés – Instituto da Mulher Negra and the Institute for Research and Indigenous Training (Iepé), to make visible Brazil’s situation regarding the participation of organized civil society in civic spaces. Focusing on black and indigenous populations, the research aims to produce a report to denounce, before international human rights mechanisms, the current regulatory frameworks that restrict freedom of association, limit freedom of expression and extinguish channels for civic participation in the country.

In view of the current global climate of democratic tensions, Latin American countries have been facing an uptick of restrictions and attacks that threaten the participation of organized civil society in decision-making spaces. In other words, with the closing and/or tightening of civic spaces, restrictive measures aggravate the harsh conditions that civil society organizations have faced every day for decades, including arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and murders of human rights defenders.

Added to this difficult scenario, the COVID-19 pandemic has particularly affected the region. Although some countries are among the highest numbers of infections and deaths in the world, the unequal distribution of vaccines, poor access to health services, the sharp drop in employment, and the lack of social protection systems, reveal that institutional weaknesses and structural problems that affect, especially the most vulnerable populations, have intensified. Under the pretext of maintaining security, the pandemic has also been used by governments in the region to impose greater restrictions on movement and freedom of expression, further limiting spaces for civil society to participate.

For David Alvarez Veloso, the Regional Race and Equality Coordinator for the Human Rights Consortium, this project is of paramount importance for the development and strengthening of democracy in the countries where civil society organizations play an active role in political and social life. It is also important to document and make visible the increasing restrictions and obstacles that have reduced spaces of participation. “With the support of the Consortium of Human Rights, and thanks to the work of organizations such as Criola, Geledés and Iepé in Brazil, among others, we have comparative and updated information on the effects these measures have on the different populations of the country. In this way, it is possible to empower leaders to strengthen the protection of human rights and articulate advocacy strategies at national and international levels, in order to end restrictions on citizen participation,” explains Alvarez.

Brazil and the history of threats to civil society participation

Towards the end of the dictatorial period in Brazil, civil society began to achieve voice and citizen participation to build new perspectives for a full democratic rule of law. In 1988, with the validity of a new Federal Constitution, a political conjecture came into force that valued more transparency of data, information, public budget and, also, as a new window of opportunities and rights for historically excluded groups, such as black, indigenous and LGBTI+ populations. However, since 2014, with the approval of constitutional amendments in the Dilma Roussef government – such as the anti-terrorism PEC and the sanctions related to state security until the coup d’état in 2016, which led to her impeachment – civil society’s relations with the State have intensified deeply.

These restrictive measures represented a blow to civil society because public demonstrations came to be understood as manifestations contrary to the interests of the State. However, what has been denounced by organized civil society is that during the current government of Jair Bolsonaro, the spaces for dialogue and guarantee of rights are practically null and for human rights defenders involve a dynamic of persecution, violence, surveillance and even death. The organizations denounce that even without a military decree or legal order to close civic spaces, the current relationship between the Executive and civil society prevents the debate of agendas and the presentation of social demands. In short, there is no dialogue.

Consequences for black and indigenous populations in Brazil

In November 2021, Race and Equality launched the webinar, “Closing spaces for participation: threats to civil society in Brazil, Honduras and Guatemala,” which was attended by representatives of civil society organizations, together with the vice president from Costa Rica, Epsy Campbell Barr, to denounce and outline proposals for the regional strengthening of civil society. The virtual event was attended by Lúcia Xavier, General Coordinator of Criola, who exposed the situation of persecution of human rights defenders and violations of democracy that make black and indigenous people even more vulnerable, with total erasure of their political agendas.

According to Lúcia Xavier, these attacks are reflected from the political violence that black women; cis and trans people, have been suffering with the contempt of the Executive. With lack of access to public information at the height of the pandemic, it was necessary to create a consortium between public and private sectors so that the population could follow the cases. Furthermore, Lúcia highlighted the death of human rights defenders both in cities and in the countryside, and that even protection programs are not adequately secure.

“The Brazilian Constitution guarantees the citizenship and participation of organized civil society in all policies. These sectors are not closed, these councils work, but the ability to admit and dialogue with other sectors of society no longer exists. Therefore, there is also no monitoring of policies and public budget in Brazil. Essentially, these laws immobilize the civil society participation format, and any demonstration can be considered as terrorism and a threat to national security,” emphasized Xavier during the event.” [1]

Faced with this situation of withdrawal of rights and silence, the questioning and search for justice is revealed as a path of dialogue for vulnerable populations. However, Rodnei Jericó da Silva, Coordinator of SOS Racismo do Geledés, sees with apprehension the 2022 electoral agenda, in which he believes that any incidence of civil society will overlap, but depending on the outcome of the elections there is a way for change and for civil society participation in decision-making spaces.

“The Brazilian population is mostly black, public policies or even social policies are debated in spaces where there was participation of society. The damage to the collective is enormous because the target audience is not being heard, which indicates that the possibility of error and ineffectiveness is much greater. Participation spaces improve the democratic system, strengthen society, which feels integral to the process, and together seek solutions to problems,” says Jericó.

The struggle of the indigenous population to not be completely decimated by the current government has been extremely challenging with the emptying of public institutions that ensure security and indigenous rights, such as the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), in addition to attacks on communities and their territories throughout the country. In 2021, the vote of Marco Temporal, [2] until now suspended by the Supreme Court (STF), aims to remove the possession of indigenous lands guaranteed by the Constitution. According to Luis Donisete, Iepé’s Executive Coordinator, the closure of public spaces of indigenous and environmental policies in Brazil has major implications for the exercise of citizen participation and indigenous social control.

“The anti-democratic and anti-indigenous bias of the current government has been transformed into an orientation towards the policies of the Brazilian state, contrary to activism and the actions of organized civil society. The results are the abandonment of government programs and policies that implemented rights enshrined in our legislation in different areas: health, education, culture, territorial management, protection of indigenous lands. Today there are no more channels of dialogue between indigenous representatives and different governmental bodies. It is a huge setback that will take years and a lot of dedication to rebuild,” denounces Donisete.

In this context of uncertainties, denunciations and silencing of civil society in Brazil, Race and Equality makes a call to international human rights mechanisms for a framework that can be further aggravated with the elections taking place in the country in November 2022. Considering the setbacks and limitations to citizen participation mentioned above, and to strengthen the role of civil society in democratic life, it is important that the Brazilian state advances, among others, in:

 1 – As provided for in the Constitution and in the laws, guarantee the political participation of organized civil society in public institutions and decision-making spaces of power, with effective monitoring of policies and public budget;

2 – Ensuring transparency in access to public information and carrying out data collection for the construction of intersectional public policies, as provided by the Access to Information Law;

3 – Strengthen the Program for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Communicators and Environmentalists (PPDDH), which has been falling apart, especially due to low budget execution, as well as the weakening of popular participation in the PPDDH Deliberative Council. [3]

4 – Create civil society participation councils taking into account the different realities of the Brazilian population. The councils must be a space for listening and decision-making for the most vulnerable populations, including black, indigenous, quilombolas, and gypsy peoples.

 

 

[1] These councils operate theoretically, but in practice they are unable to incorporate the perspective of civil society.

[2] https://g1.globo.com/politica/ao-vivo/supremo-judento-marco-temporal-terras-indigenas.ghtml

[3] https://terradedireitos.org.br/uploads/arquivos/Relatorio–Comeco-do-Fim.pdf

 

 

Interview with Jurema Werneck: The resounding voice of the Ialodês on Black Consciousness Day

To celebrate Black Consciousness Day, symbolized in Brazil as the memory and death of the quilombola leader Zumbi dos Palmares, the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) is pleased to share an interview with Jurema Werneck, one of the main references of the black movement in the country. In addition to being the Director of Amnesty International in Brazil, Jurema is the founder of the NGO Criola. She has a Doctorate in Communication and Culture, as well as a Master’s degree in Production Engineering. Her professional career is proof that the intersectional perspective is essential to build plural knowledge, a diverse vision of the world and the society that constitutes it.

If November 20th makes us relive a memory of the struggle for racial consciousness and black freedom, Jurema Werneck is the personification of the Ialodês, which as she describes in a publication [1], “Ialodê also refers to the representation of women, to the types of emblematic women, female political leaders of fundamental urban action (…) the one who speaks for all and participates in instances of power (…) who position themselves as political agents of change, and  main holders of the conquered wealth.” We welcome the opportunity to present a summary of a rich conversation with Ialodê Jurema Werneck, who shared with us her perceptions of the struggle for human rights, police violence, femicide, black women, as well as her participation in the Covid CPI,[1] whose final report was delivered to the Brazilian Senate in October.

COVID-19 Pandemic

Race and Equality – Your participation in the Covid CPI reveals the consequences of denial and that, in the first year alone, 120 thousand lives could have been saved if we had followed world protocols and an effective public health policy. Could you tell us about the experience of participating in the Covid CPI process? Do you believe there will be consequences for the current government?

Jurema Werneck – The Covid CPI inquiry makes visible that everything done during the pandemic was done erroneously, it also demonstrates the type of people running the government. People who have no commitment to ethics, in fact their commitment is to take ownership of public affairs and profit from the country. I see that this ‘novela’ that developed into the Covid CPI, in a way, reminds us that there is a layer of interests, and that people are feeling the impact of all of this. And with that, the government’s approval plummets, because it’s a fact, there’s no government, it’s misgovernment.

Participating in the CPI was a collective effort. I was the spokesperson for several organizations including Amnesty International. We agreed that I would be the spokesperson. My work was to prepare and present the research that was commissioned even before the CPI, which was carried out by researchers from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and the University of São Paulo (USP). It was a survey presented to the Federal Government, and we believed the CPI was our opportunity. This also helped legitimize a perception that everything could have been different. Moreover, our work looks to demonstrate that even without a vaccine [2] lives could have been saved if basic public health was addressed. Other than that, personally, it was a practice of everyday activism, I went there to do what I wanted to do, so I found it to be a privilege.

And now, with more than 600,000 lives lost and a scenario where there is finally a vaccine to combat the pandemic, the government deniers still remain in power. How do we confront the pandemic in the coming years?

Jurema Werneck – We call him a negationist, but he is not a negationist. He has an alliance with strategies of death and destruction. There is a political project, it is an actively defined trajectory. It is not only a refusal, but also participating in an extremely dangerous movement that is opposite to life.

Brazil remains under permanent torture. He is a torturer who inflicts pain, either from the poor management of the pandemic or from any other chapter of his “administration.” Where do we go from here? We have to remember that it was not only him, but the pandemic also has a responsibility at the state and municipal level. Amnesty launched a campaign last year aimed at governors and mayors, including municipalities on behalf of indigenous and quilombola rights. The operation of the system demonstrates a joint responsibility, it’s not only the responsibility of legislation. So, in other words, the range of people involved in the 600,000 deaths is not a simple task.

I see that this also has a repercussion in society and in a way in all of us. 600,000 deaths represents a great deal of tragedy and behind these deaths there is a huge contingent of mourners, including orphans, the sequels of COVID-19. The legacy it has is outside of ethics, politics and public health, with the further deepening of social inequalities. It was black women who paid the highest price and who died the most from COVID-19 in the beginning. In other words, the number of challenges and sequels that we have to face is very large.

Police Violence

Race and Equality – Recently, Michelle Bachelet, UN Commissioner for Human Rights, denounced in her report on police violence and systemic racism the dimensions police brutality operates in the lives of black people, she cited the cases of Luana Barbosa and João Pedro in Brazil. From an intersectional perspective, black LGBTI+ people, especially transgender people in prison, are among the victims of acts of racism and LGBTIphobia. How can we resist racism and LGBTIphobia in a society that considers black bodies killable and disposable?

 Jurema Werneck – The first way for us to act on this theme is to recognize and highlight the urgency, because they are cases of life and death. They are killing people. People are dying physically and existentially. Today the situation is so bad that I am celebrating the small victories of discursive achievements. Since Amnesty International began working on police lethality and the death of young black people, we have been engaging with the UN High Commissioner on the issue. It’s good to see Michelle Bachelet talk about the issue at hand, because it was her duty, but it’s still a small victory. Unfortunately, this won’t save Luana’s life because she’s already dead, the situation is extremely severe with death as our indicator— it’s murder. Our condition is grave and dire, and the point of departure is already the bloodiest tip of the iceberg.

The black movement has been working on this for a long time. In 1978, the murder of a young black man inspired a group of representatives of federations of various organizations to congregate at the stairs of the Municipal Theater in São Paulo, creating the Unified Movement against Police Violence, which later came to be known as the Unified Black Movement (MNU). However, we went from 1978 until very recently discussing amongst ourselves. It had no United Nations, no white organization and no human rights organizations. There was no national law addressing race, it was only in the United States. Sueli Carneiro, Lélia Gonzalez and Amauri Mendes, among others were at that time trying to hegemonize the struggle. What I’m saying is that we have small victories, but they’re not enough. What we want is to save lives right now, because people are dying. And that’s not enough, and that’s our anguish. The political transformation process is time-consuming, it does not save all the lives it needs to.

We can’t account for how much of Bachelet’s speech influences saving lives, but it ends up in some way influencing, not just because it pulls the brakes on certain hands, or fingers on the trigger, it is the United Nations after all. On the other hand, there are others who ignore figures like Bachelet, because the president said something else, and they will listen to the president. If we have the president on one side and Bachelet on the other, we are trying to create strategy. We are trying to tie the game to give us space to keep fighting. As an activist, I don’t see a way out that isn’t a struggle. We know where we want to go, and how to save people’s lives. How long will it take? We know it’s not a linear trajectory. What tools are needed? All. Change can only be made with struggle.

Femicide and Black Women

Race and Equality – The ‘Atlas of Violence 2021’ confirmed the unfortunate statistic that black women are the most targeted victims of violence in Brazil: 66% of women murdered, showing that in 11 years, the homicide of this population increased by 2%, while the murder of non-black women dropped 27% in the same period (3).  Could you comment on this racist violence that makes black women the biggest victims of femicide.

Jurema Werneck – In racist regimes, black men and women will be the biggest victims of violence. Whatever the classification of violence, we will be the biggest victims along with the indigenous people and the gypsies. It’s inescapable and that’s why we want to end racism. We managed to influence the government and UN Women to create statistics and demonstrate what we already knew; we are the most targeted victims. The complexity of this phenomenon means remembering that racism is patriarchal and cis-heteronormative, as the NGO Criola says. In this core of intersectionality, we can identify the victims; they are black trans women and black cis women. It is worth remembering that trans women are not in this femicide statistic and, even so, we know that victimization among them is even greater than among cis women. It is important to emphasize that we are also victims of police led homicides outside of gender relations.

What I’m trying to say is, take a death stat and you’ll find the black woman there. In recent years we have been the ones who have hegemonized this discourse. However, there is still a lot of progress to be made, even more so now that everything has been dismantled. In the debate for the creation of the Maria da Penha Law. We already said that a mechanism had to be put in place to confront racism, because black women were the biggest victims. Brazil still celebrates this law to this day, but those people who built and hegemonized the Maria da Penha Law excluded and refused to put in place mechanisms to protect the lives of black women. These are the people who say we have to go to the police, but since when is the police an ally of a black woman or any black person? It is necessary to face racism and denounce it wherever you are. The Maria da Penha Law works for white women because it was built for them. We need to find another mechanism or reform this one to work.

Amidst the struggles and challenges of the Brazilian black population shared by Jurema Werneck in this interview, Race and Equality reaffirms the importance of the anti-racist perspective in confronting the violence and oppression that systematically dehumanize and erase black people. It is through the commitment to an anti-racist and feminist agenda, and confronting neoliberal policies that undermine rights, that we envision a horizon of collective responsibility and a future in which human rights are, in fact, a possible language of respect for all the ways of being and existing. Thus, we recommend to the Brazilian State:

1 – Implement reparation policies for the victims of COVID- 19 and their families, whether orphans, those bereaved, and the long-term sequelae due to the virus;

2 – Produce intersectional indicators on police brutality against black women;

3 – Implement the Inter-American Convention against Racism as a legal instrument to change and create laws to combat racism;

 

 

[1] Text “De Ialodês e Feministas: Reflexões sobre a ação política de mulheres negras na América Latina e no Caribe”

[2] At the time of the CPI research and its presentation, there was still no vaccine for COVID-19

[3] https://www.uol.com.br/universa/noticias/redacao/2021/08/31/atlas-da-violencia-2021.htm

[Note] The COVID-19 CPI, also known as Pandemic CPI, Coronavirus CPI, or simply COVID CPI, is a parliamentary commission of inquiry undergoing in Brazil, with the goal to investigate alleged omissions and irregularities in federal government spending during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil

Salgueiro Massacre – Brazilian black population calls for help!: Race and Equality condemns genocide against the black population and calls to guarantee the life of black people

Brazil, November 25th 2021 – On the basis of the International Declaration of Human Rights, according to which life is an inalienable right, Race and Equality urges the international community to pay attention to police violence taking place in Brazil. We denounce yet another massacre taking place during the global pandemic, in the city ​​of São Gonçalo, in Rio de Janeiro. It is important to mention that the black movement considers that violence resulting from structural racism in Brazil must be seen as genocide against the black population. In fact, when analyzing the situation of the Brazilian black population in its country report, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) mentions that there appears to be a process of “social cleansing, aimed at exterminating sectors considered “undesirable””, which happens with state support. [1]

A year ago, and on the eve of Black Consciousness Day, João Alberto was brutally murdered by property security agents in Carrefour market [2]. In 2021, the trend of violence against black and poor bodies is repeated a day after the same date that calls out to society for a conscience about black struggle and freedom. If the State ignores the anti-racism agenda made in favor of its people, how will we build a black history that does not include pain, suffering and violence? The result of this policy of fear and terror is yet another bloody killing: the Salgueiro Massacre.

On Monday, November 22, residents of the favela complex located in São Gonçalo, metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, woke up recovering bodies in the community’s mangrove swamps. So far, nine bodies have been found (residents say 20) [3], both men and women, and even an elderly woman who was shot in the arm. In addition, residents denounce that many innocent victims lost their lives in retaliation for the death of a police officer. The reports of this massacre are from mothers who had to remove the bodies of their family sunk in the mangrove swamp. No weapons were found among the bodies [4]. Orphaned families from yet another tragedy that could have been avoided if the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro had not acted through revenge. Thus, we asked Governor Claudio Castro – who authorized the police operation?

We continue to denounce the State’s complete disregard of complying with the restrictions placed by the Supreme Court on police operations in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro during the pandemic, known as the ‘ADPF das Favelas’ throughout 2021. Institutional racism and police brutality continue to be the State’s daily exchange of life and death towards the black population. Tragedies are enumerated in black bodies this year; 21 dead in the Jacarezinho Massacre in May; 14 dead in the Salgueiro Massacre in November. Bullets, which are considered “lost” by the police, were found in a dead pregnant woman, Katheleen Romeo back in June.

Furthermore, data from the Rede de Observatório da Segurança (Security Observatory Network) serves to confirm the lethality of police intervention in Rio de Janeiro: In 2021, 71% of the killings in Rio de Janeiro were carried out by state agents, totaling in 128 deaths. A survey by the Instituto de Segurança Pública (Public Security Institute) corroborates this – from January to July, 811 people died in police actions, a 38% of total homicides and an increase of 88.2% over the same period last year. This figure represents the highest percentage in the last 15 years. [5].

Considering the facts, Race and Equality refers to the Inter-American Convention against Racism and Related Forms of Intolerance and calls the attention of all protection mechanisms under international law that have pledged to cooperate to prevent and punish acts of killings of vulnerable populations around the world. We urge that international law treaties be enforced in the face of the extermination policies of the Military Police and the acceptance of violence by Brazilian governments. The Brazilian black population asks for help, because, to ask for peace, it is first necessary to have the right to live.

Finally, we urge the Brazilian State to make the following recommendations:

1 – Urge the local government of the state of Rio de Janeiro so that those responsible for the Salgueiro Massacre do not go unpunished.

2 – The creation of laws and mechanisms with an intersectional and anti-racist focus to curb and punish violent police actions in favelas.

3 – The veto of the anti-terrorism bill, already approved by the Chamber and which is going to be approved by the Senate, whose proposal approves the exclusion of illegality for police officers during their operations and creates the secret police for the President.

4 – The construction of an educational anti-racism agenda for the military police and all national public security agents.

 

[1] http://www.oas.org/en/cidh/relatorios/pdfs/Brasil2021-en.pdf

[2] https://www.poder360.com.br/brasil/saiba-quem-era-joao-alberto-espancado-ate-a-morte-no-supermercado-carrefour/

[3] Official data not yet released

[4]https://extra.globo.com/casos-de-policia/resgatamos-os-corpos-nao-achamos-nenhuma-arma-fizeram-uma-chacina-diz-morador-do-complexo-do-salgueiro-25286728. html

[5]https://g1.globo.com/rj/rio-de-janeiro/noticia/2021/09/03/no-rj-38percent-dos-homicidios-foram-cometidos-por-policiais-em-7-meses- e-proporcao-bate-recorde.ghtml

Lesbian Visibility Day in Brazil: Luana Barbosa Case – “If not for us, no one will be”*

Brazil, August 29, 2021 – The month of August in Brazil highlights and marks the struggles of lesbian women. It’s a month that honors Lesbian Pride— August 19 specifically references the first manifestation of lesbian women, known as the “Brazilian Stonewall,” in São Paulo, in 1983. Banned from distributing the bulletin, “Chanacomchana,” Brazil’s first lesbian activist publication, the activists decided to occupy Ferro’s Bar’ claiming their rights and denouncing lesbophobia. August 29 also calls for the right to freedom of expression and representation as it represents Lesbian Visibility Day. It was during the first National Lesbian Seminar (Senale) held in Rio de Janeiro, in 1996, that the date was created to denounce the erasure and highlight lesbian experiences within the LGBTI+ and feminist movement.

To stress the importance of ‘Lesbian Visibility,’ Race and Equality brings to the surface the Luana Barbosa Case, which completes five years this year. The murder of 34-year-old Luana Barbosa dos Reis Santos, in 2016, in Ribeirão Preto (SP), denotes the complete invisibility black lesbian women endure, the absence of their social and individual rights, and moreover it symbolizes why lesbians need to claim a fight for visibility, rights and integral security.

Luana was the victim of brutal police violence. After being approached by three military police officers, she refused to be searched and demanded the presence of a female police officer. In the company of her son, mother and neighbors, Luana was brutally beaten by the police and as a result died five days after the attack due to cerebral ischemia and brain trauma. The brutality of her death reveals the intricacies of police actions in Brazil towards black LGBTI+ people, who, in addition to possessing a color that equates to the public enemy for the police, Luana’s existence challenges the cis-heteronormativity, further aggravating police brutality. After Luana’s experience with police brutality, she still managed to record a video in which she reported the assaults, in addition to the death threats made by police officers who also threatened her family [1].

In February 2020, Luana’s case was ordered by the courts so that the defendants would be tried by the popular jury. However, the defense appealed and the trial continues without a definite date. Although the trial was suspended, the case of Luana Barbosa was not labeled as a mere allegory of police violence in Brazil. Immediately after the incident, the UN Women and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights of South America (OHCHR) appealed to the Brazilian State for an impartial and transparent investigation recognizing that the case of Luana is emblematic of racist violence, gender and lesbophobic in Brazil [2].

According to Roseli Barbosa, the sister of the victim, the fact that Luana associates with masculine lesbianism, which in Brazil is accompanied by the adjectives: ‘sapatão’ and ‘camioneira’ in a pejorative way (words that were re-signified by the lesbian movements with pride and belonging), constantly made Luana the target of insults and prejudice. Several times, Luana paid a high price for looking like a poor, black man [3]. In another police interrogation, Luana had to show her breasts to prove she was a woman. The presumption of innocence for black, poor and vulnerable people is practically non-existent. To exist as a black-lesbian, woman-mother-peripheral is a cry of resistance in Brazil.

What is the color of the Invisible?

Race and Equality continues to follow the case of Luana Barbosa with Brazilian LGBTI+ organizations and denounce it to international human rights mechanisms. In the dossier “What is the color of the Invisible? The human rights situation of the black LGBTI population in Brazil” [4], published by Race and Equality, there is a chapter dedicated to denouncing police violence against black LGBTI people in the country. In focus groups carried out by civil society organizations, it can be seen that the brutal death of a black woman did not mobilize society and that lesbian invisibility is a determining factor in the lack of public commotion regarding the deaths caused by the State.

As the dossier points out, socio-racial hierarchies in Brazil determine the conditions of life and death. There is a hierarchy between death that is visible and death that is not, and skin color is a factor that separates the two. Fátima Lima, a black lesbian woman and university professor, argues that the life and death of lesbian women are marked by erasure.

“The violence suffered by black and racialized women in the context of the South is still very little visible, discussed and faced. Marked by silence and pain, their stories are crossed by different forms of violence that range from injurious discursive practices to corrective rape, beatings and murders. In the Brazilian LGBTI+ movement, for example, lesbian women have always denounced their deletion,” expresses Fátima. [5]

 2021: Building new directions for the case of Luana Barbosa

In 2021, the case of Luana Barbosa continued to have international repercussions during the 47th Assembly of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in which Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, presented the report on systemic racism and the excessive use of public force [6]. The tragic story of Luana’s murder was recorded in the report as one of seven cases in the world where police violence was linked directly to racial discrimination and prejudice. According to Bachelet, “there is a widespread presumption of guilt over black people,” and adds that “the excessive vigilance imposed on black people makes them feel threatened rather than protected.”

During that same Assembly (UNHRC47), Race and Equality denounced police and political violence against LGBTI+ people in Brazil as a result of systemic racism. Together with the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA Mundo), they joined the pronouncement of the Brazilian Association of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transvestites, Transsexuals and Intersex (ABGLT). It should be noted that the case of Luana Barbosa was present in the joint statement, to further foster an international repercussion of justice for Luana Barbosa [7].

Nationally, there is a political movement to fight against lesbocide and for LGBTI+ agendas. During the last municipal election, in 2020, several black, lesbian and transgender parliamentarians were elected, however before and during the electoral process they faced numerous threats and hate speech for their expressions of gender and sexual orientation. During their terms of office, these parliamentarians strategically united to confront and denounce the ongoing political violence in Brazil.

Mônica Francisco, State Deputy of Rio de Janeiro (PSOL), is the author of the ‘Luana Barbosa Draft Law.’ The bill aims to establish April 13 (date of Luana’s murder) as the ‘State Day to Combat Lesbocide.’ In addition to making visible and promoting the rights of lesbian women, the date is intended to support public campaigns and activities aimed at raising public awareness of a culture of non-violence against lesbian women. The bill, which still needs to be voted on and approved by the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro, represents a major step towards the construction of a public agenda that supports and makes visible the protection and integral health of lesbian women.

Among the circumstances that made Luana Barbosa’s case a symbol of the struggle and resistance of lesbian women in Brazil, Race and Equality understands that the lack of public authority assistance for the specificities of lesbian women is one of the key factors for their agenda’s erasure. The absence of public data on lesbocide and on the current situation of living lesbians leaves civil society with the responsibility of research production which does not always have the necessary financial support to be carried out.

In Rio de Janeiro, in 2020, the Collective Resistance Lesbian da Maré launched a mapping of lesbian and bisexual women living in favelas [8]. The document aims to denounce the scarcity of answers about lesbian experiences in favelas, especially experiences of non-violence, since the hegemonic representations of favelas refer to violence and the abandonment of public power. Also, the Associação Lesbofeminista Coturno de Vênus, headquartered in Brasília, launched, in 2020, a mapping of lesbians in the Federal District. This year, Coturno de Vênus is promoting a nationwide mapping of lesbians, together with the Brazilian Lesbian League. It will be the first national socio-demographic mapping of lesbians.

Race and Equality recognizes that there is still a long way for lesbian women to reach the fullness of their rights. It is essential to create public policies that deconstruct a collective imaginary beyond violence, pain and hypersexualization of lesbian women. Violence in life, through corrective rapes, family abandonment, conversion therapies, loss of custody of their children, lead many lesbian women to suicide. Thus, Race and Equality recommends to the Brazilian State to:

1 – Create a Legal and Parliamentary Committee to produce data on violence against lesbian women – lesbocide (lesbocídio);

2 – Promote public policies that support and strengthen organizations that seek to make lesbian agendas visible;

3 – Implement a policy of comprehensive protection for lesbian women who are victims of violence, in light of the intersectional issues raised in Luana Barbosa’s case;

4- Promote actions and campaigns to combat lesbophobia to eradicate disinformation and prejudice that reproduce the marginalization of lesbian women;

5 – Implement a national health policy that meets the specificities of the LGBTI population, in this case, specifically meeting the demands of the lesbian population.

 

 

 

*Quote by Jész Ipólito in his article published in: https://www.geledes.org.br/do-luto-luta-nao-esqueceremos-luana-barbosa-dos-reis-morta-por-pms-em-ribeirao-preto/

[1] http://g1.globo.com/sp/ribeirao-preto-franca/noticia/2016/05/antes-de-morrer-mulher-espancada-disse-que-foi-ameacada-por-pms-veja.html

[2] http://www.onumulheres.org.br/noticias/nota-publica-do-alto-comissariado-de-direitos-humanos-das-nacoes-unidas-para-america-do-sul-e-da-onu-mulheres-brasil-sobre-o-assassinato-de-luana-reis/

[3] https://ponte.org/a-historia-de-luana-mae-negra-pobre-e-lesbica-ela-morreu-apos-ser-espancada-por-tres-pms/

[4] and [5] http://oldrace.wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FINAL_dossie-lgbti-brasil-ebook.pdf

[6]https://www.ohchr.org/SP/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27218&LangID=S

[7] http://oldrace.wp/es/onu/raca-e-igualdade-celebra-a-adocao-da-onu/

[8] https://bit.ly/2TDB5ES and http://oldrace.wp/es/brazil-es/coletiva-resistencia-lesbica-realiza-mapeamento/

[9] https://bit.ly/lesbocenso and  http://oldrace.wp/es/brazil-es/coturno-de-venus-realiza-lesbocenso/

 

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