CHAIRMAN: DR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: DR. KHALID MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

World / Americas

Rights commission 'concerned' by Brazilian police violence

Published: 12 Nov 2018 - 11:51 pm | Last Updated: 05 Nov 2021 - 12:33 am
Jair Bolsonaro

Jair Bolsonaro

AFP

Rio de Janeiro:  The president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights criticized Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro's policies toward tackling violent crime Monday, following a weeklong visit to the South American giant.

Margarette May Macaulay blasted Bolsonaro's past statements as "atrocious" and saidd the commission was "concerned" about the future of Brazil's most vulnerable communities once he assumes power January 1.

Macaulay told AFP that the IACHR had identified "impunity in relation to extrajudicial killings, unlawful arrests and unlawful detentions," as one of the main human rights abuses affecting Brazil.

"The impunity relating to violence against women and against afro-descendants and indigenous persons" was another major worry, she added.

The far-right leader triggered uproar even before his election when he stated that security forces accused of killing criminals "should be decorated and not have to go to court" to be held accountable for their actions.

"We think it is atrocious that anybody, especially somebody looking to be the highest political power in the country, would make a statement like that, and we're hoping that it was just a statement," said Jamaican Macaulay.

Bolsonaro's words were compounded by Rio de Janeiro's conservative governor-elect Wilson Witzel stating he would deploy police marksmen to shoot suspects even when officers' lives weren't in danger.

"I don't know whether they appreciate the position Brazil would be in in relation to their record, their practise and status as a country if that was to go ahead," said Macaulay.

"It cannot possibly be serious, that's the way we look at it. It's so extreme that we cannot countenance it happening."

Bolsonaro has come under fire for a variety of comments he's made on different subjects leading to accusations of racism, misogyny and homophobia.

"We're concerned because of these statements that we in the international human rights community designate as clear hate speech," said Macaulay.

IACHR Commissioner Francisco Eguiguren, meanwhile, urged the Brazilian government to provide extra resources to FUNAI, the national body that protects indigenous people's rights.

"The main problem in the Amazon region is related to land and the protection of (indigenous) land and the environment," said Eguiguren.

Many tribes of indigenous people have made claims to the government to have their ancestral lands officially recognized to protect them from speculators, mostly from the farming and mining industries.

But those claims often get bogged down in interminable red tape.

"FUNAI is very weak, it has no economic resources or human resources" to push through the indigenous people's claims, said Eguiguren.

Summing up the IACHR's report, commissioner Antonia Urrejola said Brazil "has not managed to address its main historical debts with its citizens" due to "a structure of inequality and deep discrimination."

That, she said, had left the issue of human rights in the country in a "critical" situation.