Human rights activists criticize Lula government and demand measures

The main accusation is that the Executive has not yet published the decree that regulates the National Policy for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders. According to the entities, this had been agreed in the Sales Pimenta Technical Working Group (GTT).

In the letter, the group highlights that both the Federal Court and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights demanded that the Brazilian state implement a national policy to protect activists, with broad social participation. “As a result, the GTT Sales Pimenta was established in December 2023, by Decree, being a parity space between the federal government and civil society”, explained the movements.

The gesture, at that time, was celebrated by civil society as a break in comparison to the attacks they had been suffering from Jair Bolsonaro’s government.

The movement network says it participated in the entire process, from negotiations during the transition government to the construction of the plan. “Throughout the process, civil society promoted, with its own resources, public hearings to expand social participation and guarantee the federative and territorial scope of the Plan”, he highlighted.

After a year of intense work, meetings, writing, difficult consensus and technical construction, the working group consolidated a plan that was accepted by all parties. It includes sending the draft law to Congress and publishing the Decree with the Plan, ensuring governance, goals, deadlines and responsibilities to give immediate effect to the policy.

In December 2024, upon delivery of the final documents to the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, the body committed to publishing the decree by April 2025.