Good news: Inter-American Commission calls for suspension of the Belo Monte Dam
On April 1, 2011, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued precautionary measures regarding the Belo Monte Dam, in Brazil.
In its announcement, the IACHR cites the project’s potential harm to indigenous communities living in the Xingu river basin, and calls on the Brazilian government to suspend construction immediately. It instructs the government to conduct a consultation process that is “free, prior, informed, of good faith and culturally appropriate” prior to any construction. It further calls on the government to provide communities access to the Social and Environmental Impact studies, in a culturally appropriate manner and accessible language. Finally, the Commission calls on Brazil to adopt vigorous and far-reaching measures to protect indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, and to prevent the spread of disease.
The measures seek to protect the lives and physical integrity of indigenous peoples in the Xingu Basin, and come at a time that the Brazilian government has been pushing to begin work on the project. The request for precautionary measures was filed in November 2010 by a coalition of local and national organizations, including RF-US partner the Xingu Alive Forever Movement (MXVPS).
Local organizers celebrated the decision: “Our leaders no longer can use economic "development" as an excuse to ignore human rights and to push for projects of destruction and death to our natural heritage and to the peoples of Amazon, as is the case of Belo Monte,” stated Antônia Melo, coordinator of MXVPS. Indeed, this is great news for human rights and the environment, and for all those in Brazil who have decried the impacts of Belo Monte and the lack of consultation of local communities.
Click here for background information