WBO takes suggestions and proposals to the new Redesca-CIDH
WBO Press Release
Feb 1st 2024
The Washington Brazil Office (WBO) participated this Wednesday, January 31 in the "First Participation Forum: REDESCA Work Plan 2024-2026", which brought together virtually 120 organized civil society organizations and movements from the Americas to contribute to the definition of a work plan that will guide the management of Javier Palummo, the new Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (REDESCA) of the IACHR (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights).
Elected in July 2023, Palummo is the second Uruguayan to occupy the post that was created in 2014. The previous rapporteur, Soledad García Muñoz, traveled to Brazil before ending her term. On that occasion, she visited four Brazilian capitals between June 11 and 17, 2023, following an invitation made by a group of 25 Brazilian organizations, including the WBO.
At this Wednesday's meeting, the WBO asked the new rapporteur to continue the work started by her predecessor seven months ago, on her visit to Brazil. The final report, delivered to the Brazilian government on August 30, 2023, expressed "great concern" with the findings made during this visit and noted that the challenges that had already been verified in the previous report, from 2011, "have worsened in recent years".
"It is very important that the new rapporteur continues the findings that were made in the 2023 visit on areas such as the right to water and food, cultural rights, the right to health, education, housing, and a healthy environment, in addition to labor and union rights," said Paulo Abrão, executive director of the WBO. "Brazilian civil society organizations and movements expect REDESCA to continue monitoring and dialoguing with the Brazilian government in order to provide concrete responses to the problems detected."
Other points
In addition to following up on the visit report, the WBO also asked the new rapporteur to advance in the construction of inter-American standards on freedom of artistic expression in the region. The subject was the subject of a seminar promoted in Washington, on November 6 and 7, 2023, by the WBO and eight Latin American organizations linked to the topic, with the participation of REDESCA.
At that time, the meeting served to exchange information, report violations and formulate paths that will lead to the adoption of inter-American principles to politically and legally protect artists, cultural professionals, and groups and collectives in the region. Among the threats detected in the sector are state censorship, cutting or misdirecting public resources that finance the sector, and public campaigns of persecution and defamation of cultural professionals by political parties, groups, religious organizations and individuals from civil society.
In the area of environment, the WBO proposed to REDESCA to work on monitoring the Amazon region, where illegal mining remains a problem, including tensions with the Brazilian army about the effective monitoring of the territory, in addition to monitoring the situation of the Cerrado, a biome in Brazil which is suffering a worrying increase in destruction in recent years and is essential for maintaining life in the Amazon.
The suggestion was also made that the rapporteur dialogue with the populations of favelas and marginal territories, which suffer the most perverse effects of climate change. The WBO also pointed out that REDESCA needed to plan its participation in COP 30, alongside Indigenous peoples and traditional communities.
To conclude, in the labor area, a proposal was made to strengthen relations with trade union movements, and promote inter-American standards on decent working conditions during a period of labor instability.
