“Brazil: UN expert Visit Prompts Renewed Hope for Amazon Community Suffering from Mining Abuses”, 9^th December 2019

…On the occasion of the visit of Baskut Tuncak, United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances and wastes, FIDH, Justiça Global and Justiça nos Trilhos call on the Brazilian government and companies to assume their responsibilities and comprehensively redress the environmental and human rights violations that the community of Piquiá has been experiencing for more than three decades…

Although the abuses have been denounced for years, they remain unpunished. Subsequent to the visit, the rapporteur will question the state and federal authorities about the case of Piquiá today (Monday 9) in the capital of the state of Maranhão and later this week in Brasilia…

The Special Rapporteur, whose mandate is to monitor the harmful impacts generated by hazardous substances and wastes, is in a position to alert UN bodies about the violations found in the community of Piquiá, and formulate recommendations…

In spite of the violations and a context of scarce resources and limited support, the community has not surrendered. It managed to organise and to obtain the resources necessary to be relocated to a new settlement called Piquiá da Conquista, where a future far from pollution is being built. However, there is a risk that the political context in Brazil…could directly affect the conclusion of the relocation process…