The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib) has turned to the Hague tribunal against President Jair Bolsonaro. The charges are crimes against humanity, genocide and ecocide. The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib) has turned to the Hague tribunal against President Jair Bolsonaro. The charges are crimes against humanity, genocide and ecocide.
A Brazilian indigenous association is moving to bring President Jair Bolsonaro before the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and ecocide. The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib), a network of organisations and one of the strongest voices in the country on the subject of protecting native peoples, stresses that since the beginning of his mandate in 2019 the president has implemented specific policies against indigenous peoples, stripping them of ever more land. This is not the first time that indigenous peoples have brought Bolsonaro before the Court — it had already happened last January.
Since Bolsonaro came to power in 2019, environmental protection has been pushed to the margins of Brazilian politics, replaced by increasingly large-scale exploitation. Various agencies have been dismantled, prominent institutional figures have been removed, the budget allocated to the sector has been cut, and the country is now licking its wounds from these disastrous choices.
In the first months of 2021 the rate of deforestation increased by 17 per cent compared to last year, a sign of the increasingly rapid deterioration of a trend that was already cause for concern. 267 large-scale fires, 75 per cent of them in the Amazon rainforest, burned more than 100,000 hectares of forest, contributing to making the situation even more critical. And in recent weeks, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles resigned, accused of having played a role during his tenure in the illegal smuggling of timber.
Those who suffer most from the consequences of this situation are indigenous peoples, around 900,000 people in Brazil. Their lands are under constant threat from institutions that have softened the legislation protecting them, also paving the way for illegal activities such as mining, which in many cases has translated into slavery. With Covid-19 the situation has only worsened: indigenous peoples have been excluded from healthcare networks, the state has done little to treat them, and it is only thanks to the activism of local associations and international organisations that vaccines have reached the forest.
Faced with this situation, which in the medium to long term could jeopardise their very survival, Brazil's native peoples are raising their voices ever more loudly. Since local justice remains a bystander, the key now lies in turning abroad, in particular to the International Criminal Court.
Last January two indigenous leaders, Raoni Metuktire of the Kayapo and Almir Narayamoga Surui of the Paiter Surui tribe, submitted to the Hague tribunal a dossier highlighting how deforestation, arbitrary relocations of entire communities and murders of indigenous leaders have soared since Bolsonaro came to power in 2019. This constitutes, in their view, a "crime against humanity". In parallel, they called for the offence of ecocide to be added to those handled by the Court.
"We expect the case against Bolsonaro to open the door to the recognition of ecocide in the context of international law and for the ICC to decide to combat environmental crimes. We believe that the court is aware of the gravity of the environmental emergency in the world, and that is why we are asking it to open an investigation into Bolsonaro," lawyer William Bourdon, who is handling the case, told LifeGate.
Now the moment has come for a new petition — distinct and separate but effectively identical in its grounds — with which indigenous peoples seek to bring Bolsonaro before the International Criminal Court. The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib) submitted to the judges a package of documents containing the president's decisions and actions, aimed at demonstrating that he has pursued over the years "an explicit, systematic and intentional anti-indigenous policy" that falls within the scope of crimes against humanity, genocide and ecocide. In particular, the focus is on deforestation, attacks on indigenous leaders, mining concessions and the refusal to recognise and demarcate the protected areas of native peoples. It is now up to the Hague tribunal to decide whether to officially open an investigation, in what would be the first time for a Brazilian president.
