WORLD ORGANISATION AGAINST TORTURE
P.O. Box 21 - 1211 Geneva 8
Switzerland
Tel.: 0041/22 809 49 39 / Fax: 0041/22 809 49 29
E-mail: omct@omct.org / Web: www.omct.org
Addendum to the List of Issues
arising from the
Second Periodic Report of Brazil
to the
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights
May 2008
A Contribution by the
Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST)
In the context of the project
“Preventing Torture and Other Forms of Violence by Acting on their
Economic, Social and Cultural Root Causes”
The European Union through the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights is
providing substantial support for this project. The contents of this report are the
responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European
Union. This project is also supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC),
the Karl Popper Foundation and the Human Rights at Work Foundation.
CONFLICTS OVER WATER
The right to water, recognized as a human right by the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, is being seriously challenged by the economic
interests of international corporations, favoured by the Government policy on biofuels
and agrobusiness. The conflict over water constitutes the frequent cause of violence
and as such causes serious violations of human rights.
In 2006, the Catholic Church's Pastoral Land Commission reported 45 water-based
conflicts in Brasil, six of them in the Paraná state, and involved some 1773 families.
For example, Aracruz Celulose Corporation obtained a grant for using water from the
river Rio Doce in order to produce eucalyptus in the state of Espírito Santo. The
amount of water used by this company could be sufficient to meet the daily needs of a
city of 2.5 million inhabitants.
Another example is the dispute over the waters of the São Francisco River. The object
of the dispute, however, is not over who will be allowed to drink the last twenty-six
cubic meters that remain to be allocated, because unfortunately, the project is not
aimed at quenching the thirst of people. The water will be used either for shrimp
farming for export, for fruit growing for export, or for the steel industry of Porto de
Pecém, to the detriment of the populations that most need it.
Furthermore, while the insistent energy policy of the State - which is based on a
hydroelectric matrix - has led to the eviction of rural workers, indigenous people and
quilombola communities from their lands to grant the building of dams, it has
excluded them from any benefit of the hydroelectric power stations and from the
water in itself, becoming the root of important conflicts.
VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Although the United Nations approved the UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous People in 2007, with the active contribution of Brazil, the rights and lives
of indigenous peoples are still being jeopardized by the Government.
Special attention should be drawn to the murders and deaths of the Guarani-Kaiowá
people in Mato Grosso do Sul.
During 2007, fifty-eight indigenous people were murdered. Thirty-five of these
killings occurred in Mato Grosso do Sul, and all except one were Guarani-Kaiowá
people. Many of the victims were adolescents or elderly.
Among the 58 victims, 12 were women and 46 were men. Among the women, many
cases of rape were followed by death, such as in two cases in the São Gabriel da
Cachoeira, in the Amazon region.
The situation of the Guarani-Kaiowá people, in Mato Grosso do Sul, and Tikuna
people, in Amazonas, has led to a high number of suicides. In 2007, 20 Guarani-
Kaiowá and 7 Tikuna have killed themselves.
Another 36 indigenous people were victims of attempts of murders throughout the
country. Twenty-six of these victims were from Mato Grosso do Sul, 5 from
Maranhão, 3 from Ceará and 2 from Bahia. Amongst the victims of assassination
attempts, nine were children (from the age of one to 12) and adolescents (ranging
from one to 12 to 17 years old).
There were at least 19 reported cases of deaths among the Kulina people in Vale do
Javari, in Amazonas in the first semester of 2008. Among the causes were serious
illnesses like hepatitis, viral hepatitis, malaria, yellow fever, tuberculosis, and
malnutrition.
Reports of cases of infant mortality occurred in the states of Amazonas (4), Mato
Grosso do Sul (8), Rondônia (1) and Tocantins (1). Each report refers to an
undetermined number of children. The root causes of these deaths and of malnutrition
are poverty, lack of land, work, and lack of sustainability in the communities.
The abandonment and neglect of indigenous populations reflected in the reports that
have been filed such as: the contamination of streams that are used to prepare food by
the Guarani-Kaiowá people in Mato Grosso do Sul; the cutting of 11,000 basic food
baskets by the State government that were delivered to 8,000 Guarani-Kaiowá
families; and the existence of entire families of this population that are wandering
about the cities in Mato Grosso do Sul, looking for leftover food scraps in trash cans.
According to Funasa staff, cutting the basic food baskets has resulted in an increase in
infant malnutrition.
One of the most important causes of the violations of indigenous peoples’ rights is
constituted by the failure of the Government regularize the indigenous land
possession in the state of Roraima. There, the Macuxi people face armed attacks of
land grabbers supported by the civil and military authorities, including the state
governor, the mayors of many municipalities and the General Commander of the
Army in the region. These attacks have been favored by the Judicial Power, linked to
the interests of the landowners. The Judicial Power protection of the violators of
indigenous people rights extends to the Supreme Court, that suspended the
recognition of the indigenous area and ordered the Federal Police to quit the
indigenous area, allowing attacks that resulted in some 10 indigenous people wounded
by gunshots.
VIOLATIONS AGAINST HOMELESS
Urban homeless people have been not only victimized by the violation of the right to
housing, but, also have suffered frequent brutal attacks and violence. In the bigger
urban centers - as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro – it frequently happens that homeless
and people living in the street are burned while they sleep, which in many cases
results in death. On other occasions, they become targets of gunshot.
ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST QUILOMBOLA
COMMUNITIES
The land rights of the quilombola communities are violated by: the State authorities,
as in Alcantara and in the Marambaia community, in both cases the military
authorities of Air Force in Alcantara and the Navy in Marambaia; by the foreign
economic projects, such as project of the Aracruz Celulose Company, Sate of Espírito
Santo; and by land grabbers and latifundists.
The big international companies have created the Movimento Paz no Campo (Peace in
the Fields Movement) to organize and launch the land grabbers, latifundists and small
peasants against the quilombolas communities, as they already do against the
indigenous people.
Geneva, 19 May 2008