Resolution on the situation of indigenous and environmental defenders in Brazil, including the killing of Dom Philips and Bruno Pereira

The European Parliament adopted by 362 votes to 16, with 200 abstentions, a resolution on the situation of indigenous and environmental defenders in Brazil, including the killing of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira.

The text adopted in plenary was tabled by the S&D, Renew, Greens/EFA, the Left groups and Members.

The Javari Valley, like other regions of the Brazilian Amazon, is the site of intense conflicts led by organised crime and land invaders involved in illicit fishing, hunting, mining, illegal logging and drug trafficking. 80 % of deforestation worldwide is caused by the conversion of forests to agricultural land for commodities such as beef, soy and palm oil. The NGO Global Witness reported that in 2020 more than 20 land and environmental defenders had been killed in Brazil, placing the country fourth in the ranking of countries with the highest number of such killings in the world, with most of these crimes remaining unpunished. In Brazil, nearly three quarters of killings occur in the Amazon region and target indigenous defenders. The indigenous peoples of Brazil have been suffering systematic aggressions and lack of protection of their rights, as well as an increasing number of attacks and murders.

On 5 June 2022, British journalist Dom Phillips, a contributor to The Guardian newspaper, and the Brazilian indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, a former civil servant at the National Indian Foundation (Funai), disappeared in the Javari Valley, between the riverside community of São Rafael and the city of Atalaia do Norte in the state of Amazonas in northern Brazil. Their corpses were discovered on 15 June 2022. Both were deeply committed to the critical task of preserving the Amazon rainforest and its biodiversity.

On 15 June 2022 the Brazilian Federal Police reported that one of the two people arrested on suspicion of involvement in their disappearances had confessed to murdering them.

Parliament strongly condemned the brutal murder of environmental and human rights defenders as well as indigenous people in Brazil, most recently the killing of journalist Dom Phillips and activist Bruno Pereira and called on the Brazilian authorities to conduct an exhaustive, impartial and independent investigation into these murders and to ensure full compliance with due process rights at all times.

The Brazilian authorities are also called on to:

- take immediate action to prevent human rights violations and protect environmental and indigenous defenders;

- protect indigenous peoples’ rights to land, territories and their traditional livelihoods, as well as to protect them from all forms of violence and discrimination;

- implement international recommendations to ensure protection for these defenders, and to take measures to stop the persecution, criminalisation and stigmatisation of indigenous peoples and other traditional communities;

- strengthen and better enforce legislation against illegal deforestation and mining, and to seek sustainable alternatives to the extractive policies that are targeting indigenous territories;

- reinstate and strengthen the capacities of government agencies such as Funai, which oversees indigenous affairs, and Ibama, Brazil’s main environmental enforcement body to ensure effective enforcement of environmental laws and the rights of indigenous peoples;

- tackle environmental crimes and implement a new sustainable approach to the Amazon.

Lastly, the resolution stressed that EU companies should ensure human rights due diligence throughout their supply chains in Brazil and proposed EU regulation on deforestation-free products should include the protection of indigenous peoples’ rights and human rights and ensure that rights violations are not involved in the production of products placed on the European market.