We recently celebrated the news that a high court in Brazil (TRF1) had ordered the immediate halt to construction and all activities at the Belo Monte Dam site due to a lack of prior consultations with affected indigenous peoples. Yesterday, the Brazilian Attorney General’s Office (AGU) representing President Dilma Rousseff presented a complaint to the Chief Justice of the Federal Supreme Court to overturn the historic August 14th ruling that suspends the dam’s construction.
The suspension of the Belo Monte Dam could be overturned at any moment.
Chief Justice Ayres Britto and fellow Supreme Court judges are under intense pressure from the Rousseff administration to lift the suspension and allow construction of Belo Monte to proceed at any cost. We can’t let this happen. It’s critical that concerned citizens from Brazil and around the world voice their concerns to Chief Justice Ayres Britto – he should uphold the decision of the regional federal court, in recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights regarding Belo Monte.
Based on unfounded arguments, the Dilma administration is attempting to convince Chief Justice Ayres Britto to ignore indigenous rights guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution and ILO Convention 169, to which Brazil is party. The complaint is part of a systematic pattern by the Rousseff administration to intervene in the judiciary to fast track Belo Monte and dozens of other large dams across the Amazon region.
Just two months after Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff inaugurated the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development with pledges of social inclusion and environmental protection, her administration is doing all in its power to pressure the Brazilian Courts to ignore the rule of law and fast track the construction of the destructive Belo Monte Dam in the Amazon.
P.S. Please also consider donating at this critical junction. Funding is urgently needed to allow indigenous leaders to travel to Brasilia to demand justice.
