Meeting for the urgent defence of the peoples, forest and waters of the Volta Grande of Xingu and Tapajós in the Brazilian Amazon

1400-1700

Wednesday 4 May 2022

FIAN Belgium Maison de la Paix

Rue Van Elewyck 35

1050  Ixelles  - Bruxelles -  Belgique

Language : PORT / EN

At 2pm on Wednesday 4 May 2022, leading representatives of indigenous, river and forest communities from Brazil’s Amazon will be meeting with civil society organisations and concerned individuals regarding the accelerated deforestation, invasion and mining in this globally important biome (see bios attached).

Although the Amazon forest is recognised across the globe for its biodiversity and importance for combatting climate change, the daily struggles of the thousands of communities who have become the front line of defence of the forests and water of this biome remain under reported and poorly understood.  The visit takes place amidst ongoing plans for Brazil’s largest open pit gold mine in the Volta Grande of the Xingu River, just downstream from the notorious Belo Monte hydrodam; and the intensification of invasions, illegal mining and logging in the region of the Tapajos River. The ways that these are being incentivised and legitimised by the government, in partnership with European based commercial interests, demand urgent attention and action.  

The meeting follows the delegates’ contributions to the formal submission to the United Nations (Universal Periodic Review on Human Rights in Brazil, see attachment), and complaints to the European Union Special Representative for Human Rights in Latin America, the Brazilian Federal Government and the EU Delegation in Brasilia, and Swiss parliament.  Reports from the Volta Grande of Xingu and the Tapajós region accompany this invitation, along with the bios of the delegates.  This meeting, however, is part of a concerted effort to open up dialogue towards new strategies to STOP planned mining operations in the region (see attachment),  end genocide^[1] and hold to account European government, financial actors and corporations that are deeply involved in public-private projects that transgress human rights and cause environmental degradation in Brazil’s Amazon.

To this end, we warmly invite to you to hear from these Amazonian defenders who have gone to great effort and risk to make this visit, and to build a community of struggle against further ecocide, and loss of forest, of territory and of life. 

For further information on the event please contact Tomaso Ferrando at: Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.

For press queries please contact Brian Garvey at Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.

Dr. Tomaso Ferrando

Research Professor

Faculty of Law and Institute of Development Policy (IOB), University of Antwerp

Legal Action Committee, Global Legal Action Network (GLAN)

  

Faculty of Law/Institute of Development Policy
Stadscampus – V.S 1.45
Venusstraat 23
2000 Antwerpen, BEL
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Tel: +32 (0)32655450

skype: tonos84

Twitter: @ferrandotom