Entities call deaths in operation in RJ ‘genocide’ in complaint to the UN

The letter asks the IACHR and the UN to publicly comment on the case and demand urgent measures from the Brazilian State for investigation, accountability and reduction of police lethality, in addition to guaranteeing safety and physical integrity to the families of the victims. On Tuesday night, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights already spoke out demanding investigations and saying he was “horrified” by the facts recorded.

For entities in Brazil, the episode “evidences the continuity of a project of genocide of the black and peripheral population, which violates commitments made by the Brazilian State before the Inter-American Human Rights System”.

“The operation took place in territories that were mostly black and impoverished, which, for the Marielle Franco Institute, explains the racially determined nature of the confrontation policy,” he said.

“What is happening today in Rio de Janeiro is not an operation: it is a massacre. It is the repetition of the same pattern of extermination that has been victimizing the same populations for decades. The Brazilian State fails to comply with international decisions and naturalizes the death of young black people and those living in favelas”, says Luyara Franco, executive director of the Marielle Franco Institute and Marielle’s daughter.

The document forwarded highlights that Brazil has not been complying with the measures determined by the Court, such as the creation of public policies to reduce police lethality and external control of the activity of security forces. The document also warns of the spread of misinformation and hate speech used to justify the State’s violent actions.

In addition to asking them to speak out, the organizations want international entities to recommend that the Brazilian State carry out independent investigations, guarantee protection for the victims’ families and investigate the rights violations committed in the operation.