URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
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For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
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24 November 2010
UA 244/10 Fear for Safety
BRAZIL Manoel Santana Costa (m)
20 other members of the Charco community
Flaviano Pinto Neto, a leader of the Charco community in Maranhão state, north-east Brazil, was shot dead on 30 October. Manoel Santana Costa, another leader of the community, along with over twenty other members of the community, have received a series of death threats and now fear for their lives. Manoel Santana Costa has gone into hiding and is seeking police protection.
The community is being targeted due to their fight to be officially recognized as a quilombo – an afro-descendent community – against the interests of powerful local farmers. In spite of the fact that the community has existed for almost 200 years, it has been threatened by eviction orders. They are now going through the administrative process of gaining official recognition as a quilombo community, which would give them secure land title.
On 30 October, Flaviano Pinto Neto, a leader of the community and the president of the Association of Rural Small Producers of the Charco Community (Associação dos Pequenos Produtores Rurais do Povoado do Charco), was killed with seven shots to the head. According to members of the community the police are currently investigating the case.
Manoel Santana Costa, also known as Manoel do Charco, is the treasurer and union officer of the local rural workers union. He is now hiding in fear for his life and has requested police protection from the State Secretary of Public Security for himself and other members of the community also under threat. Although the National Human Rights Defenders’ Program does not yet have coordinators working in Maranhão state, Manoel could still be included in the program directly through the national office in Brasília.
In August 2009, Manoel received an anonymous call in which he was asked if he was afraid of being burned to death (“tu não tem medo de morrer queimado?”). A few days later, the community association building was set on fire. In the same year, when Manoel was at the Court House gathering information about the status of the land dispute, he received another anonymous phone call asking the same question.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Quilombos are Afro-Brazilian settlements, which were first established at the end of the 16th century in remote rural areas in Brazil, by escaped and free slaves that resisted slavery. The 1988 Brazilian Constitution (Articles. 215 and 216) acknowledges the right of descendant communities to the lands historically occupied by quilombos. In particular, Article 68 of the Transitory Dispositions states that ‘Final ownership shall be recognized for the remaining members of the quilombo communities who are occupying their lands and the state shall grant them the respective land titles’. ("Aos remanescentes das comunidades dos quilombos que estejam ocupando suas terras é reconhecida a propriedade definitiva, devendo o Estado emitir-lhes os títulos respectivos.”). A series of federal and state laws has been issued to regulate how the quilombos’ lands are identified and how titles are to be given to the remaining communities.
In 2003, a new Decree (No. 4887) issued by the President, made several changes to the titling process and removed it from the competence of the Palmares Cultural Foundation (FCP) under the Ministry of Culture to the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) under the Ministry of Agrarian Development. Under this new procedure, the FCP has the authority only to issue quilombos certification of self-identification, which is a pre-requisite to initiate the titling process under Decree No. 4887.
In October 2009, INCRA published the Normative Regulation No.57/2009 establishing the various steps of the administrative procedure to give the remaining quilombo communities the title to their lands i.e. identification, recognition, delimitation, demarcation, removal of illegal occupants, titling and land registration.
In addition to the national legislation, Brazil is also a party to the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169, the American Convention on Human Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which reaffirm the rights of Afro-descendant groups to cultural and land rights as well as the principles of non-discrimination and equality before the law.
There are over 3000 quilombo communities in Brazil, hundreds of administrative procedures have been initiated before the INCRA but to date less than 10 per cent of the communities have received their land titles. The Charco community, with over 70 families, has been fighting for their land rights for more than 60 years and has been previously threatened with various eviction orders. In 2009, the community initiated the administrative process to have their land recognized as the remaining of a quilombo settlement.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- Urging the authorities to include Manoel Santana Costa on the Human Rights Defenders’ Program and immediately provide him with full protection, and fully investigate all threats against him and members of the community;
- Urging the authorities to thoroughly investigate the killing of Flaviano Pinto Neto and bring perpetrators to justice;
- Urging the authorities to carry out, as quickly as possible, the administrative processes which would give the community the title of the land they have lived on for almost two centuries, so as not to place the families at risk of violence and intimidation.
APPEALS TO:
Federal Minister of Justice
Exmo. Ministro
Sr. Luiz Paulo Teles Ferreira Barreto
Esplanada dos Ministérios,
Bloco "T"
70712-902 - Brasília/DF
BRASIL
Fax: 011 55 61 3322 6817 OR 011 55 61 3224 3398
Salutation: Dear Minister
National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária)
Exmo. Presidente Rolf Hackbart
SBN Qd. 01 Bloco D - Edifício Palácio do Desenvolvimento
CEP: 70.057-900 – Brasília/DF
BRASIL
PABX: 011 55 61 3411-7474
Salutation: Dear President
COPIES TO:
Federal Human Rights Secretary
Secretaria Especial de Direitos Humanos
Exmo. Secretário Especial
Sr. Paulo de Tarso Vannuchi Esplanada dos Ministérios- Bloco "T" - 4º andar, 70064-900 Brasília/DF –
BRASIL
Fax: 011 55 61 3226 7980
Salutation: Dear Secretary
Ambassador Mauro Vieira
Brazilian Embassy
3006 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 238 2827
Email: ambassador@brasilemb.org
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 5 January 2011.
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This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank you for your help with this appeal.
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Fax: 202.675.8566
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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
----------------------------------
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa23610.pdf
Note: Please write on behalf of these persons even though you may not have received the original UA when issued on November 12, 2010. Thanks!
24 November 2010
Further information on UA 236/10 (12 November 2010)- Risk of Forced Eviction/Fear for safety
ISRAEL 250 Residents, including 1/3 children
On 22 November, Israeli authorities demolished approximately 30 structures in the Bedouin village of al-‘Araqib in the Negev in southern Israel for the seventh time since July. The residents – citizens of Israel with a long-established claim to the area – are trying to rebuild their homes yet again but face increasing hardship as winter approaches.
At around 7am, Israel Lands Administration officials with bulldozers, accompanied by dozens of police officers equipped with riot gear, arrived at al-‘Araqib village and quickly destroyed the shacks, tents and other structures that villagers had managed to erect following the previous demolition on 13 October. As in previous demolitions, no eviction or demolition order was presented to the inhabitants.
Some 30 structures were destroyed, including tents and shacks where the residents slept and cooked, and makeshift toilets and chicken pens. In addition, approximately 1,600 olive trees located some 2km from the village and belonging to relatives of al-‘Araqib residents were uprooted by the Israeli authorities. The villagers have already started rebuilding some of the tents and shacks so that they have some protection, as the Negev desert gets very cold at night during the winter months.
This is the seventh time that al-‘Araqib, one of the more than 40 “unrecognized” villages in Israel whose residents lack security of tenure and government services, has been destroyed since July. Some of al-‘Araqib’s 250 residents are camping out in makeshift shacks and tents in the village cemetery, while others are temporarily staying with relatives in the nearby town of Rahat or in Kafr Qassem, near Tel Aviv. However, at least 50 people, including at least 30 children, decided to rebuild their homes in the village in order to remain on their land, and are living in the remains of structures that were demolished.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
On 27 July, at least 46 homes and other structures in al-‘Araqib, including animal pens and water tanks, were destroyed by officials of the Israel Lands Administration accompanied by over 1,000 police officers. The entire village was razed by bulldozers, and thousands of olive and other trees were uprooted, destroying the villagers’ livelihood. Possessions including electricity generators, refrigerators and vehicles were confiscated by the police. On 4 and 10 August, makeshift shelters that the villagers had built were demolished and buried by bulldozers, supported by a large police force in riot gear equipped with a water cannon. Building materials and water tanks were seized; seven residents were arrested but later released, four on condition that they not enter al-‘Araqib. Then on 17 August, the authorities recommenced demolitions at dawn during Ramadan, while the villagers were fasting. On 12 September at dawn, dozens of police arrived again at al-‘Araqib with bulldozers and destroyed newly erected tents and other structures. The sixth and latest demolition was on 13 October, when the entire village was razed to the ground, and the director of the Negev Coexistence Forum, a group supporting the villagers, was arrested by police and banned from entering al-‘Araqib for 10 days.
In its concluding observations in July 2010, the UN Human Rights Committee stated its concern about “allegations of forced evictions of the Bedouin population based on the Public Land Law (Expulsion of Invaders) of 1981 as amended in 2005” and about what it described as the Israeli authorities “inadequate consideration” of the agricultural and other traditional needs of the Bedouin population of the Negev and the difficulties that the Bedouin face in accessing “health structures, education, water and electricity” due to Israeli policies. The Committee called for the Israeli authorities to “respect the Bedouin population’s right to their ancestral land and their traditional livelihood based on agriculture” and to “guarantee the Bedouin population's access to health structures, education, water and electricity, irrespective of their whereabouts” in Israel. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has also expressed concern about Israel’s relocation of Bedouin residents of “unrecognized” villages to towns and called for their villages to be officially recognized, and for Israel to “enhance its efforts to consult” the villagers and seek their agreement or consent in advance of any process of relocation.
Despite an apparent governmental plan to regularize the status of some of the “unrecognized” villages, it was reported in the Israeli media in early 2010 that the Interior Ministry, the Israel Lands Administration and the police had decided to triple the demolition rate of Bedouin construction in the Negev, and the marked increase in the number of demolitions and demolition orders this year accords with such reports.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- Condemning the latest destruction of al-‘Araqib and urging the Israeli authorities to allow the villagers to rebuild their homes;
- Urging the Israeli authorities to respect the Bedouin population’s right to their ancestral land by ending the policy of home demolitions in al-‘Araqib and other “unrecognized” villages in Israel, and to take steps to officially recognize al-‘Araqib and other “unrecognized” villages so as to allow residents security of tenure and the possibility of developing their villages without threat to their homes and livelihoods;
- Urging the Israeli authorities to take immediate steps in line with the UN Human Rights Committee’s recommendations of July 2010 to guarantee access to health structures, education, water and electricity for residents of these villages.
APPEALS TO:
Director-General of the Israel Lands Administration (ILA)
Yaron Bibi
Israel Lands Administration
6 Shamai Street
P.O. Box 2600
Jerusalem 94631,
ISRAEL
Fax: 011 972 2 620 8427
Email: natalil@mmi.gov.il
Salutation: Dear Director-General, ILA
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior
Eliyahu Yishai
2 Kaplan Street
PO Box 6158
Kiryat Ben Gurion
Jerusalem 91061,
ISRAEL
Fax: 011 972 2 666 2909
Email: sar@moin.gov.il
Salutation: Dear Minister
COPIES TO:
Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu
Office of the Prime Minister
3 Kaplan Street
Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Hakirya
PO Box 187, Jerusalem,
ISRAEL
Fax: 011 972 2 566 4838
Email: pm_eng@pmo.gov.i
Ambassador Michael Oren
Embassy of Israel
3514 International Dr. NW
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 364 5607
Email: info@israelemb.org OR info@washington.mfa.gov.il
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 5 January 2011.
----------------------------------
Tip of the Month:
Write as soon as you can. Try to write as close as possible to the date a case is issued.
** POSTAGE RATES **
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To Canada:
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$0.75 - Airmail Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)
To Mexico:
$0.79 - Postcards
$0.79 - Airmail Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)
To all other destination countries:
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Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights.
This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.509.8193
Fax: 202.675.8566
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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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