OAS sees highest number of human rights complaints against Brazil in 2016

Brazil closed out 2016 ranking among the six countries who most often resorted to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission of the Organization of American States (OAS), charged with promoting and protecting human rights throughout the continent.

The 131 motions filed by citizens claiming they had essential rights violated and did not receive a satisfactory answer from national authorities add up to the highest amount of complaints ed against the Brazilian state since 2006. The second largest number, 99, was reported in 2015.

The figure brings Brazil up to a position sured only by Mexico (847), Colombia (512), Peru (225), Argentina (180), and Ecuador (133) among the countries with the highest number of complaints. Brazil is followed by the US (112), Chile (92), Panama (59), Costa Rica (45), Venezuela (43), and 24 other OAS country that generated fewer violation claims.

According to Sandra Carvalho, director at Global Justice, a Brazilian NGO that often appeals to Inter-American human rights authorities, the number of complaints lodged with the OAS commission says a lot more about the tradition of national social organizations accessing the system than the degree of conflicts and violations actually taking place in each country.

“It is obvious that, in addition to showing we are resorting to the international system more often, the increase […] also reflects the moment that has been facing the country over the last few years, be it with regards to the aggravation of social conflicts, the situation concerning the prison system, the deterioration of the indigenous and quilombola issues, or the criminalization of human rights advocates,” Carvalho declared.

During his presentation of the report on the work of the Inter-Armerican Commission in 2016, chairman Francisco Eguiguren noted that, over the course of last year, the commission released ten press statements expressing concern with “the delicate institutional situation facing Brazil, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.” In the commission's view, this “delicate situation” went as far as to “put democracy at stake in these countries.”

Attempts have been made to the Human Rights Ministry and the Foreign Ministry, which have not commented on the matter as yet.

How it works

The filing of a complaint at the Inter-American Human Rights Commission is a way for people who experienced a violation of human rights in one of the 35 state to seek external help. The commission investigates the circumstances and may recommend the government in question to implement the necessary measures to reestablish and preserve the rights of the individual filing the motion as well as to prevent similar cases from taking place.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira