The Federal Public Ministry is not one of the petitioners of the lawsuit that was submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States (OAS), but is fighting the same battle in a law suit that has been moving through the Brazilian courts since 2006.

Original posting:

https://cimi.org.br/?system=news&action=read&id=5432&eid=354

Belém, April 5, 2011

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal) awaits judgment in a law suit that was initiated in 2006 for the same motive as the one that led the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to call for the suspension of the licensing process of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant: until today the Brazilian government has not respected the right of the indigenous peoples of the Xingu to be consulted prior to the decision to build the plant on their lands.

Infringed

The right to the hearings is provided by Article 231 of the Brazilian Federal Constitution and also in Convention 169 of International Labor Organization, a treaty to which the country is signatory. For the Public Ministry of Pará, this right has been infringed: it concerns a political consultation, which must be done by the National Congress before the installation of the plant is decided upon.

Instead, the Brazilian government managed to push a legislative decree in record time through Congress – it took only 15 days to pass – without talking to the Indigenous Peoples. At the time, Senator Luiz Otávio Campos came to call it a bullet-project because of the speed.

For this reason the MPF filed the second public lawsuit against Belo Monte in 2006. Last year on November 22, 2011, the lawsuit should have been judged, but at the request of the Attorney General’s Office (AGU), the trial was postponed. It is this trial that will decide, after all, whether Brazil can erase Article 231 of the Constitution and not conduct the Indigenous Consultations.

Defrauded

In recent argumentations forwarded by the AGU to the court in the midst of this process, the government makes contradictory claims, one moment saying the consultations were conducted by the Funai staff (the state organ for Indigenous affairs), the next moment saying that they are not necessary because the project does not affect indigenous lands.

The meetings held in the Indigenous villages by Funai staff as part of the Environmental Impact Studies project phase were recorded on video. These videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdLboQmTAGE) show these civil servants explaining to the indigenous that these meetings are not the Indigenous Consultations and that this question would have to be solved later on.

All the same in 2009 the FUNAI presented a document to the Federal environmental agency Ibama stating that the indigenous consultations had been conducted. The Indians reported the situation to the MPF: they feel defrauded and disrespected by the government.

Tragedy

"As to the argument that the project does not affect indigenous lands because they will not be flooded, this borders on the ridiculous. Two indigenous villages are right on the banks of the Xingu River in the area where the river will dry out, disappear, due to the diversion of the river water for the hydroelectric plant. We are working with concrete hypothesis of removal of indigenous peoples, which is forbidden by the Constitution, because throughout history this has only caused tragedies," said federal prosecutor Ubiratan Cazetta.

"All the steps that the law stipulated such licensing have been circumvented by the government. That is why we have already filed 10 lawsuits against Belo Monte. And that is why the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is acting: to avoid the violation of the rights of indigenous and riverine peoples. The Brazilian government saying it is perplexed after so many warnings about these violations is highly surprising to us," explained prosecutor Felicio Pontes Jr of the MPF Pará.

 

The Inter-American System for Human Rights

Complaints to the System can be made by national non-state entities that ar accredited and considered representative of civil society in the country. The Commission reviews the complaints, requests information from the country involved, may make recommendations as the one issued now, and in case of Human Rights violations, submits the case to the Inter-American Court. In the Court, the country has the right to defense, but can be sentenced to sanctions or obligations to carry out. Brazil has already been convicted three times by this Court.

 

Federal Prosecutor of Pará, Communications Office

Phones: (91) 3299-0148 / 3299-0177

E-mail: [email protected]

Twitter: http://twitter.com/MPF_PA

 

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