The body, which was created by the UN (United Nations) to examine racism and police violence after the murder of American George Floyd, will now evaluate the situation in Brazil, especially after the massacres in Vila Cruzeiro, Rio de Janeiro and the USA. The death of Genivaldo Santos by drowning by the police.
This week, the complaint was submitted by the Arns Commission, a unit made up of some of the biggest experts on human rights in Brazil, in an effort to seek pressure abroad to counter the worsening of police violence in the country.
The UN’s independent mechanism for dealing with racism and law enforcement violence was established at the end of 2021 and is one of the main consequences of the process that erupted on the international scene in the face of the murder of Floyd by an American police officer in 2020. .
Three of the new agency’s experts – South African Yvonne Mokgoro, American Tracie Keesee and Argentinean Juan Méndez – received the complaint against Brazilian police with a document revealing that the actions in Vila Cruzeiro were not isolated. The survey points out that if the security crisis is older, it gains a new component with Jair Bolsonaro’s speech in defense of police action.
The activist group urged UN rapporteurs and the new mechanism to press the Brazilian government for a “quick and impartial investigation into the killings”. In its letter, the party also mentions “the need to preserve evidence at crime scenes in order to elucidate the execution hypothesis as quickly as possible”.
The UN is also asked to “prepare a comprehensive analysis of the racial discrimination involved in the massacre and present measures to eliminate the root causes that led to the disproportionate executions of people of African descent by police forces.”
The entity is also asked to press on the Brazilian government for “the need to structurally reflect other approaches that abolish executions by police forces, particularly against people of African descent living in underprivileged areas”.
Authorities are also asked to offer a “formal apology” for the deaths and the attack. “The massacres have become part of the daily life of the poor and black population of the Rio de Janeiro area, affecting many of the poorest and darkest neighborhoods in this metropolitan area,” they warn.
Itamaraty backs Trump in response to UN attack
The initiative confirms the worst-case scenario for the Brazilian government. When the Floyd debate came to the fore at the UN in 2020, the Brazilian government came to the rescue of then-President Donald Trump.
At the extraordinary meeting of the UN Human Rights Council, which convened to discuss police violence and racism in the face of George Floyd’s death, the Brazilian government did not utter a single word of support to the victim’s family and did not mention street protests. took place all over the world in those days. Instead, he chose to state that it was necessary to recognize the role of the police as well.
At the time, Brazil, with its strategy of diluting the final solution, was one of the countries signaling that the final outcome of the meeting should not refer to just one country. “Racism is not specific to a particular region,” said Maria Nazareth Farani Azevedo, Brazil’s ambassador to the UN. “No country should stand out in this respect,” she argued.
He also took a stance recognizing the role of the police, which was widely criticized in almost all other speeches in other countries. “Nowhere on the planet should racial discrimination be tolerated in police action. Recognizing this fact should give us a solid foundation for necessary improvements,” he said. But he added: “Raising awareness is as important as recognizing the indispensable role of police forces in ensuring public safety and protecting the right to a peaceful and secure life, the right to life.”
The Brazilian government did not comply with a joint statement by many Latin American countries warning that the state has “responsibility” for crimes. The group, which includes Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay and others, also criticized “abuse of police power” and urged governments to engage in “dialogue with civil society”.
The Brazilian resistance followed two logics. The first referred to the alliance between Brasília and the White House. But the Brazilian government also feared that the creation of an investigative commission, if approved, could also analyze the behavior of Brazilian police, which has been the target of harsh international criticism. The idea of questioning the performance of the police forces in Planalto was out of the question.
Less than two years later, it is the Bolsonaro government itself that can feel the repercussions of Floyd.
source: Noticias
