Truth Action: The visit of the IACHR Rapporteur to Brazil
Daniel Carvalho de Souza is the chairman of the board of Ação da Cidadania, where he has been since 1997. In addition to developing actions and projects in the entity's social and cultural areas, he works directly in the various national campaigns to combat hunger, such as Brasil Sem Fome and Natal Sem Fome, which has been held since 1993. Son of sociologist Herbert de Souza, Betinho, has a degree in Industrial Design and has worked with scenography, visual programming, video clips and computer graphics. He was part of Cia Aérea de Dança as a set designer, visual programmer producer, and dancer. He also worked at Companhia Ensaio Aberto as a designer, producer and actor. This text was originally written for issue 86 of the WBO Newsletter, published on September 29, 2023. Fill in the form at the bottom of the text to access and subscribe to the WBO weekly newsletter in English.
The phrase “only the truth is revolutionary”, attributed to various authors at different moments in history, is the best description of the importance of the visit that lawyer Soledad García Munñoz made to Brazil.
As Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, her objective was to monitor the situation in the country and propose recommendations based on the demand of 25 human rights organizations and social movements.
After visiting São Paulo, Brasília and Salvador, Dr. Soledad arrived at the headquarters of Ação da Cidadania in Rio de Janeiro on June 16th. There she revealed that it was the rapporteur's first visit since 2018, as the previous government denied all requests for visits made by the UN, while deliberately practicing human rights violations as state policy. There was, in the nefarious past administration, a belief that by repeatedly denying reality, this reality would disappear, as they tried with the pandemic and hunger. But despite all the efforts to withhold research data, block statistics, and hide information about the setbacks of the last 5 years, Brazilian civil society revealed this information to Dr. Soledad and her team in a powerful way.
The rapporteur had access through direct sources to information about Brazilian human rights violations, narrated by people and entities working at the frontlines, without intermediaries or versions, just the facts. The diversity of those organizations that met with her is worth mentioning: Citizenship Action; Articulation for the Monitoring of Human Rights; Article 19, Brazilian Association of International Relations; Brazilian Association of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transvestites, Transsexuals and Intersexes; Brazilian Association of NGOs; Black Women Policy Lab; Center for the Study of Labor Relations and Inequalities; CENDHEC - Dom Helder Câmara; Central Única dos Trabalhadores; Geledés - Instituto da Mulher Negra; IBASE, Instituto João and Maria Aleixo; Instituto Marielle Franco; Instituto Vladimir Herzog; Data laboratory and narratives about favelas and peripheries; Justice and Human Rights Movement; Homeless Workers Movement; Workers for Rights Movement; National Human Rights Movement; N'zinga Coletivo de Mulheres Negras; Odara - Instituto da Mulher Negra; Redes da Maré; SMDH; Sindomésticos da Bahia; and the Washington Brazil Office.
“It was not easy to hear reports about so many crimes and injustices that were, and still are, practiced in this country. We are left with a feeling of impotence in the face of the scale and severity of these human rights violations”
It was not easy to hear reports about so many crimes and injustices that were, and still are, practiced in this country. We are left with a feeling of impotence in the face of the scale and severity of these human rights violations. In addition to being a historical problem, it is profound and, unfortunately, naturalized in our society. I draw a parallel here with hunger, which is also naturalized. Although we have the instruments to eradicate it and we are the breadbasket of the world, 33 million Brazilians pare without food, and 125 million more are with some food insecurity. Brazil left the UN Hunger Map through public policies in 2014, and we will leave again, but human rights violations cannot be fought only with government programs. It is also necessary (mainly) to understand as fundamental the universal values, so important for a civilizing existence in any nation in the world: citizenship, solidarity, democracy, and diversity. Without them, there is only dehumanization, which is what we experience now. It is exactly these values that can combat and eradicate not only hunger, but poverty, which is one of the main causes of the lack of human rights.
But, in an almost quixotic way, it gave us hope to see the strength and resilience of all the entities and leaders who revealed to Dr. Soledad what happens as a consequence of the abysmal inequality that has plagued Brazil for decades, if not centuries. And just as hunger has gender and color, violence also punishes Black women more, who face structural racism in all sectors of society. What was narrated is the tip of the iceberg, the visible face of a much larger and deeper problem.
Listening to their voices is exactly the work of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which will soon make a report on what is happening in Brazil. According to Dr. Soledad, hunger is killing people across the Americas, including in Alaska.
After five years in the blackout of obscurantism, this country will be confronted with its truth, and what we do with it, revolution or omission, depends on each one of us.
