Jun 07 2024 | Nº. 120

Editorial

The Brazilian economy grew at the higher end of projections during the first trimester of the year, reaching 0.8 percent. This means the Brazilian economy reached 2.5 percent growth over the last four quarters, enough to push Brazil past Italy to become the eighth-largest economy in the world. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called the results “further proof that we are on the right path.” It remains to be seen exactly how much the unprecedented flooding in the state of Rio Grande do Sul will impact the national economy for the rest of the year, but the growth so far reflects well on the administration’s economic policy orientation. Indeed, in terms of its relationship with Congress, the Lula administration understands that it cannot readily depend on votes even from parties occupying presidential cabinet posts on anything other than fiscal matters, as reported this week in O Globo.

Senator Jaques Wagner, a member of Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT) and a close friend of the president, this week bemoaned the changed nature of the executive’s dealings with the legislature compared to Lula’s previous stint in office in a much-discussed interview. Wagner also noted that Lula has undergone a change: “Obviously, you had one President Lula and now you have another. He continues to be a voice of ponderation and has the same desire to do so. When we are in meetings, he is the one who makes suggestions. The pace is absolutely the same, [but] his availability may not be the same. But he knows that when he sits down at the table to talk, it's different.” Wagner’s implicit suggestion seems to be that Lula should be doing more to meet directly and more often with members of Congress beyond his base.

Part of his strategy to do so, it was announced this week, is to resurrect the wide-ranging weekly meetings to discuss political matters that were common practice during his previous administration but that have not been the norm since last year. Lula reportedly wants to be more hands-on in his administration’s dealings with Congress rather than relying as heavily as he has on Minister of Institutional Relations Alexandre Padilha. Those close to Lula hope that more action on his part can produce further breakthroughs ahead of this fall’s municipal elections.

Highlights

• COMPLAINT AGAINST MORO. Senator Sergio Moro, a former judge who, in commanding the Car Wash (Lava Jato) Operation condemned Lula to prison and later became Bolsonaro's Minister of Justice, was formally denounced by federal prosecutors for slander. The case concerns a video that circulated on social media in which Moro says, ironically, that he is going to “buy a habeas corpus from Gilmar Mendes,” one of the eleven justices of the Brazilian Supreme Court. The complaint was accepted by the five justices who make up the First Panel of the Supreme Court, responsible for evaluating the prosecutors' request, which is to sentence him to four years in prison and to take away his parliamentary mandate.

   

• EXCHANGE IN COURT. Supreme Court Justice Carmen Lúcia took office this week as president of the Superior Electoral Court. She replaced Alexandre de Moraes, who made his oversight of the court as a bulwark against Bolsonaro's unfounded accusations regarding the Brazilian electoral system. During her inauguration, the minister harshly criticized the circulation of fake news in electoral campaigns, indicating that she will likely take a similar stance as did Moraes regarding monitoring campaigns. The Superior Electoral Court is made up of three justices from the Supreme Court, two members from the Superior Court of Justice, and two from the legal profession.

   

• LGBT+ PARADE. This Sunday, June 2nd, São Paulo hosted the annual LGBT+ Parade, which took place on Avenida Paulista, the traditional location for parties and demonstrations in the country's main capital. The day before, the city saw the March for Jesus, which brought together thousands of evangelicals. São Paulo will have elections for mayor in October. The current holder of the position, Ricardo Nunes, on the right, went to the religious march, but was not to the LGBT+ march, which was attended by his opposing candidates, on the left: Guilherme Boulos, who is supported by Lula, and Tabata Amaral.

   

• TRAGEDY IN THE SOUTH. Porto Alegre's international airport should only reopen in the second half of December, according to federal authorities. The floods that devastated the state of Rio Grande do Sul left the airport closed a month ago. An average of 142 national and international flights passed through the area daily. The government has determined that the Canoas Air Base should be used. The restriction on air traffic further hampers the return to normality in southern Brazil, since heavy rains flooded the region, leaving at least 154 dead and more than 600,000 homeless.

NEWS FROM WBO, ORGANIZATIONS AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS:

NEW AFFILIATES. This week, the Third Sector Observatory became the 65th organization affiliated with the WBO. This important Brazilian multimedia content agency focuses on social issues and human rights and brings together radio and digital platforms to disseminate good practices from civil society organizations. Another new affiliated organization is the Instituto Democracia em Xeque, which was formally created in 2023 as a nationwide institute with the mission of expanding the production of knowledge to combat disinformation campaigns, hate speech, and violent political extremism.

AMAZON. The Igarapé Institute launched a tool on the internet to provide a broad and multidimensional understanding of public security in the Brazilian Amazon region. The Safe Amazon Panel brings together data and information on violence, crime, the prison system, governance ,and territorial context, offering a comprehensive view of the challenges faced in the region. Access via the link.

ANNIVERSARY. On June 13th, the Pact for Democracy turns six years old. The organization, founded in 2018, today brings together more than 200 civil society organizations, coordinating the efforts of social actors across the ideological spectrum to increase civil society's capacity to defend and reinvigorate democracy in Brazil.

Feature Article

CEDAW and Women’s Rights: So Far, So Close

By Denise Dora

In 1979, the United Nations General Assembly approved the first international treaty on women's rights. The document was the result of decades of feminist struggles, which included the abolitionist, suffragist, sexual liberation, independence and anti-colonialist movements for women’s right to work and education. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) became an international political force in 1981 and was ratified by Brazil in 1984, not without much controversy. At that time, Brazil was still under a civilian-military dictatorship, and its civil laws dated back to the beginning of the twentieth century with concepts such as “head of conjugal association,” “crimes of honor,” and others that legally subordinated women to family hierarchies. CEDAW was intended to put an end to this, and the government was reluctant to adopt it, only doing so partially.

It took a few more years of struggle when in 1988 the Brazilian Federal Constitution established equality between men and women for the first time in the country's history! It took a few more years for Congress to review the CEDAW Convention again and approved all aspects it, from family life to public life. Finally, in September 2002, Decree 4377 was approved, which promulgated CEDAW in Brazil.

In its 30 articles CEDAW defines what discrimination is: “For the purposes of this Convention, the expression ‘discrimination against women’ shall mean any distinction, exclusion, or restriction based on sex and which has the object or result of harming or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment, or exercise by women, regardless of their marital status, on the basis of the equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural and civil fields or in any other field.” It also lists the fundamental rights of women that must be observed by States, which thus assume responsibility for defending and implementing them.

When the UN approves an international treaty, it also creates its follow-up and application mechanisms in dialogue with member countries. CEDAW has a committee of independent experts who meet regularly to examine the status of women in their countries and to check whether States are fulfilling their obligations. How does this happen? Every four years, countries must submit a report describing their challenges and policies in the sector, presenting an assessment of their actions. At this time, civil society can also provide information and send its own reports. With all these inputs, the Committee meets in an official session in Geneva to examine the issues and to hear from the State in a public hearing. Soon after, considering the presentation of the State and feminist and human rights organizations, the CEDAW Committee presents its recommendations to the Member State.

It may seem a little abstract and distant, but it's not. We have just gone through all of this, as a concrete experience, lived, dreamed of, suffered at times, and filled with lessons. Here is the current situation: Brazil has not presented its report since 2012, therefore it failed to present three reports to CEDAW, exactly in this troubled decade where women and their rights have been greatly attacked. Thus, the presentation by the Ministry of Women had to cover the last years of the Dilma government, the Temer government, the Bolsonaro (mis)government, and the first year of the Lula government, reporting the zigzag of few gains and many losses.

Aware of the challenge of examining this period and defining the responsibilities of the Brazilian State, several civil society organizations also presented their thematic reports, and a “collaborative coverage” was created, based on the WBO initiative to expand, facilitate, and democratize access to the debate on an international treaty.

This collaborative coverage had the following elements and moments: (1) an online informative workshop on the CEDAW Convention with a little of its history and fundamental concepts on May 7; (2) an online informative workshop about the CEDAW Committee, its functioning, its members, its rituals, and its tasks on May 14; (3) the construction of a summary document with all 42 reports presented by civil society, comparing it with the Brazilian government report that was shared with organizations; (4) a three-hour online session that accompanied the hearing in the UN room in Geneva on May 23 with the official Brazilian delegation presenting its report, and which was followed by civil society commentators throughout the period; (5) monitoring the preparation of recommendations for improvement that the CEDAW Committee would make to Brazil, which were published on June 3; (5) the translation into Portuguese of these recommendations for sharing; and (6) an online and in-person meeting to review the process, analyze the recommendations and debate on next steps on June 5. In all these moments we have had the broad presence of feminist groups and activists, the powerful experience of the movement of Black and Indigenous women, domestic workers' unions, trans women, who thought and acted in coalition, reinforcing the importance of creatively following these international processes that seem so far away, but in the end are close and within our reach as long as we can work together to share this journey.

Denise Dora is coordinator of the WBO Gender and Freedom of Artistic Expression Program

Feature articles express the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or WBO.