Respect the rights of indigenous peoples threatened by Belo Monte!
UPDATE August 27 – Chief Justice of the Brazilian Supreme Court, Carlos Ayres Britto, unilaterally overturned this historic decision. The case is likely to be appealed to the full Supreme Court, so we know our work is far from over. Please visit our website again soon for updates on how you can take action to stop the Belo Monte Dam.
This past June, the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. President Dilma Rousseff had the nerve to talk about making "promises for the type of future that we want" through "growth, inclusion and protection," while at the same time doing everything in her power to push through construction of the destructive Belo Monte Dam in the Amazon – without the approval of the tens of thousands of people who would be affected. But the people have taken the case to court, and will continue to do so as many times as they need to in order to stop the Belo Monte Dam and protect the Xingu River.
On the afternoon of Friday August 24, the Brazilian Attorney General's Office (AGU) representing President Dilma Rousseff filed a complaint with Chief Justice Carlos Ayres Britto of the Federal Supreme Court, demanding that he overturn the historic August 14th decision by a regional federal court (TRF-1) that suspended the Belo Monte Dam due to a lack of prior consultations with affected indigenous peoples.
Based on unfounded arguments, Attorney General Luis Inácio Lucena Adams 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 part. The complaint is part of a systematic pattern of attempts by the Rousseff administration to intervene in the judiciary in order to continue fast-tracking the construction of Belo Monte and other mega-projects in the Amazon.
Minister Ayres Britto and fellow Supreme Court judges are under intense pressure from the Rousseff administration to 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 that he uphold the decision of the TRF-1, in recognition of indigenous people’s rights regarding Belo Monte as determined by the country's constitution and ILO Convention 169.
Send an email to Minister Ayres Britto now calling on him to respect the rights of the indigenous people of the Xingu, as guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution and international agreements.
