Brazil: Address Lawlessness in the Amazon
January 14, 2020 3:00PM EST
Encouraging Killings by Police Harms Public Safety
(São Paulo) – The government of President Jair Bolsonaro should stop undermining environmental protections in Brazil and take decisive action against criminal networks that are destroying the Amazon rainforest and threatening and attacking enforcement agents and local residents, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2020.
President Bolsonaro has also embraced anti-rights policies on issues related to the environment, public security, free expression, and civil society. The courts and Congress blocked some of those policies, but others have gone forward.
“President Bolsonaro’s assault on environmental law enforcement agencies is putting the Amazon and those who defend it at great risk,” said Maria Laura Canineu, Brazil director at Human Rights Watch. “Without any proof, his government has blamed nongovernmental organizations, volunteer firefighters, and Indigenous people for the Amazon fires, while failing to act against the criminal networks that are felling trees and burning the forest to make way for cattle and crops, and threatening and attacking those who stand in their way.”
In the 652-page World Report 2020, its 30th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in nearly 100 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth says that the Chinese government, which depends on repression to stay in power, is carrying out the most intense attack on the global human rights system in decades. He finds that Beijing’s actions both encourage and gain support from autocratic populists around the globe, while Chinese authorities use their economic clout to deter criticism from other governments. It is urgent to resist this assault, which threatens decades of progress on human rights and our future.
More:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/14/brazil-address-lawlessness-amazon
