Jun 9 2023 | Nº. 70

Editorial

The Brazilian economy received some good news this week as inflation continues to slow down, a development that bodes well for a reduction in interest rates sooner rather than later. The country’s extremely high interest rates have been a source of frequent tension between President Lula and Roberto Campos Neto, the head of the Central Bank appointed by former president Bolsonaro. Lula wants interest rates to come down to make credit more accessible and, in so doing, fuel economic growth. Campos Neto has defended his position by warning about the peril of inflation. In May, inflation rose .23 percent, less than the .33 percent most analysts expected. The difference is slight but it fits into a pattern of decelerating inflation and economic growth figures that are better than expected if still not robust. 

Recognizing the urgency of jumpstarting Brazil’s economy, Lula is calling for an ambitious plan to produce cars that are specifically designed to be more affordable. This goal has as much to do with Lula’s longstanding aim of enabling working-class Brazilians to attain middle-class living standards as it does with the need to reverse an alarming process of deindustrialization that has consumed Brazil in recent years. As Samantha Pearson reported in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, “manufacturing, once 36% of Brazil’s gross domestic product in 1985, fell to just 13% in 2022, the worst example of ‘premature deindustrialization’ in the world, according to a recent ranking of the 30 countries that make up 90% of global manufacturing by the São Paulo-based Industrial Development Study Institute, or IEDI.” Without industrial production and all that it entails, it becomes difficult to envision how Brazil can once again become a major economic success story. To that end, Lula is seeking to create new incentives and reduce taxes. As Pearson notes, “with incomes at already comfortable high levels, many wealthier nations have transitioned to service-based economies, boasting booming tech and financial industries. None of this can be said of Brazil. It is fast morphing into a services-based economy while incomes are still low—so low that millions of people are too poor to consume services, economists say.”

Arguably the most important legislative success has had so far is the passage of a new fiscal framework designed by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad. The next major project is a wide-ranging revision of the country’s tax code, something several presidents have tried and failed to accomplish for decades. If Lula succeeds on that front, he will have laid the bases for what many experts believe are preconditions for a return of Brazilian manufacturing. The economy is doing slightly better than expected, but the Lula administration seems perfectly aware that it can and must do even better.

Highlights

• TIMEFRAME. Hundreds of Indigenous people from different parts of Brazil are camped in the capital, Brasília, to protest against the vote on a bill that changes the rules for demarcating their territories. The so-called “timeframe” was approved in the Chamber of Deputies on May 30, as Bill 490/2007 and is now awaiting a vote in the Senate, under the Senate bill number (2903/2023). This new “timeframe” prohibits the demarcation of new indigenous territories that had not already been given that status as of 1988, the year in which the current constitution of Brazil was enacted.

• SERIOUS THREAT. The “timeframe” is considered a threat not only to Indigenous peoples, but also to the preservation of the environment, according to organizations in the sector. The Mapbiomas Brasil Organization states that, over the last 30 years, Indigenous lands have lost only 1 percent of all native vegetation. In privately-owned areas, this loss was 20.6 percent in the same period. Data from the United Nations also point out that traditional Indigenous territories cover 28 percent of the world's land surface, but are home to 80 percent of all planetary biodiversity. The WBO, along with six other international partner organizations, published a letter on June 7, in which they warn of the risks that the “timeframe” represents.

• DEBATE AT THE SUPREME COURT. The Federal Supreme Court is currently analyzing a specific case involving disputes over the demarcation of an Indigenous land. The case is classified as having "general repercussions," since, in addition to issuing a sentence regarding the specific case, it will also serve as a parameter for interpreting all legislation related to the issue of the “timeframe” for demarking Indigenous lands. Indigenous movement organizations have concentrated their lobbying on the Supreme Court, considering that a positive decision could serve as a kind of shortcut to block the effects of the new law, which is being debated in the Senate. On Wednesday, June 7th, voting in the Supreme Court was paralyzed after Justice André Mendonça asked for additional time to consider his vote. He has 90 days to return the case to the vote, but that time may be longer because of a recess of the judiciary.

• DELTAN IMPEACHED. The leadership of the Chamber of Deputies confirmed on Tuesday, June 6, the impeachment of the mandate of congressional representative Deltan Dallagnol from the right-wing party Podemos. Dallagnol was for years one of the biggest stars of the Lava Jato (Car Wash) Operation that shook the Brazilian political world and culminated in the arrest of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose sentences were later overturned by the Supreme Court. The Electoral Justice ruled that Dallagnol resigned as prosecutor of the Federal Public Ministry and ran for Congress to avoid disciplinary proceedings that he had been initiated against him. The maneuver was considered illegal, which caused the justices to determine that he should lose his seat in the lower house of the Congress.

• LIRA RELEASED. On the same Tuesday, June 6, the Brazilian Supreme Court decided to close an investigation that had been opened years before against the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira, an ally of former president Jair Bolsonaro and a member of the right-wing Progressives party. Lira was accused of corruption in an episode in which a former assistant of his was arrested at an airport carrying the equivalent of US$ 21,500 in cash. The decision momentarily alleviates the situation of Lira, a politician who wields enormous influence over the Chamber of Deputies and with whom President Lula has been waging a veiled battle for support and votes for projects of interest to the government. Although the Supreme Court closed this case, Lira is still waiting for the outcome of other investigations that are being conducted by the Federal Police against other assistants of his involved in the possible diversion of resources in the purchase of kits for teaching robotics in public schools.

• BOLSONARO INELIGIBLE. Bolsonaro will be judged on June 22 at the Supreme Court in a case involving the suspected use of government operations for electoral purposes. If he is convicted, he could become ineligible to run for a public office. The expectation is that the sentence will be announced no later than June 28, but nothing prevents a justice from asking for an additional 90 days to analyze his or her vote. The case that motivated the opening of the process took place during the 2022 election campaign, when the then president held a public meeting with members of the foreign diplomatic corps in Brasília to attack the electronic voting machine system in Brazil. The meeting was held in a public building with public resources and broadcast live on public TV in a ceremony in which Bolsonaro attacked the Electoral Justice and his political opponents.

• HUMAN RIGHTS MONITOR. Soledad García Muñoz, Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) will be in four Brazilian capitals – São Paulo, Brasília, Salvador and Rio de Janeiro – from June 11th to 17th. The official visit with support from the Brazilian government meets a demand from human rights organizations and social movements in Brazil for monitoring of the situation of economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights in the country. It should result in a public statement with findings and recommendations to the country. The WBO is one of 25 organizations that worked to bring the Special Rapporteur to Brazil.

Feature Article

by Ana Barreto

Brazil at the UN Permanent Forum on People of African descent 

Last week, over 100 Black Brazilian human rights defenders and activists attended the second session of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD) that took place from 30 May to 2 June 2023 at the United Nations in New York City. Our Minister of Racial Justice, Annielle Franco, was the speaker of the opening session. 

The PFPAD brough together a robust group of stakeholders to discuss urgent issues affecting Black communities globally, including human rights activists, goverments, United Nations bodies, international organizations, academics and civil society representatives, for thematic discussions, side events and special events. Several WBO-affiliated organizations hosted different side-events including Geledes, and CEERT. The Washington Brazil Office participated in the conference and supported a side event on the impacts of racism on health. In this event organized by UNESCO, historical activist Valdecir Nascimento and I spoke about the realities of Black women in Latin America, as well as the strategies of resistance created by our communities. 

The theme of the second session is Realizing the Dream: A United Nations Declaration on the Promotion, Protection and Full Respect of the Human Rights of People of African Descent, which is part of a global consultative process focused on five thematic issues: global reparatory justice, Pan-Africanism, transnational migration, disaggregated data collection, and health, well-being and intergenerational trauma.

What is the Permanent Forum on People of African descent?

The Permanent Forum of People of African Descent is a consultative mechanism for people of African descent as a platform for promoting dignity and wellbeing of Black communities globally, it also serves as an advisory body to the Human Rights Council, in the context of the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). The Permanent Forum includes ten experts representing different regions of the world. There are four members representing Latin America:  former Vice-president of Costa Rica, Epsy Campbell (chair), Gaynel Curry (Bahamas), Pastor Elías Murillo (Colombia) and June Soomer (Saint Lucia).

What are the main objectives of the Permanent Forum? 

• To contribute to the promotion of all human rights of people of African descent globally;

• To provide advice and recommendations to the Human Rights Council, programs, funds and agencies of the United Nations on how to address racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance;

• To promote the Durban Declaration and Program of Action relevant to people of African descent; and

• To support the elaboration of a UN Declaration on the promotion, protection and full respect of the human rights of people of African descent.

• The Permanent Forum is a victory of many racial justice groups and civil society organizations that have been fighting for decades for a more robust international human rights system that includes an intersectional approach to racism and racial justice oppressions. The Permanent Forum was first discussed during the historical Durban Conference, held in South Africa in 2001, where the Durban Declaration and Program of Action was established and finally established by the General Assembly ten years later. 
  

The Permanent Forum is a victory of many racial justice groups and civil society organizations that have been fighting for decades for a more robust international human rights system that includes an intersectional approach to racism and racial justice oppressions. The Permanent Forum was first discussed during the historical Durban Conference, held in South Africa in 2001, where the Durban Declaration and Program of Action was established and finally established by the General Assembly ten years later. 

What comes next?

At the closing session of the 2nd session, members of the Permanent Forum announced that a consultation about the UN Declaration on the promotion, protection and full respect of the human rights of people of African descent will take place in Brazil by the end of the year. 

The modern world has been shaped by colonialism, structural racism, and centuries of dehumanization and collective trauma of people of African descent. Whether we are discussing economics, climate change, dignified jobs, or AI, those issues are at the center of systemic oppressions suffer by millions every day, but so is our existence, resistance, beings, histories, culture, heritage, contributions, and yes, joy. In the words of the amazing Brazilian writer Conceição Evaristo: “They agreed to kill us, but we agreed to not die”.

Ana Barreto is a WBO consultant and a global leader in the intersections of race, gender, reproductive justice, and the arts. She sits on the board of the White Ribbon Alliance and has over fifteen years of experience working with social movements and international organizations in several counties. She is the transnational director of the National Birth Equity Collaborative, leading their global programmatic and advocacy work. She is a Soros Equality fellow and a senior fellow of the UN Fellowship Program for People of African descent. Ana is also the founder of Black Women Policy Lab, an initiative that promotes transnational spaces for exchange and learning between Black women leaders around the world.

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