The coordination of the Brazilian World Cup’s National Popular Committees launched the report “Mega-events and Human Rights Violations in Brazil”. The document was delivered to the municipal and state governments of the twelve cities that will host the World Cup in 2014 and the BNDES (National Bank of Economic and Social Development) federal bodies and the Federal Attorney’s Office. The OAS Human Rights Commission and the United Nations Organization also received the report.

Some of the reports include the social impacts and human rights violations, arbitrary evictions and displacement of families. Clara Silveira, member of the National Movement of Struggle for Housing, explains in the interview with Radio Agencia de Noticias NP how these processes took place in Rio de Janeiro.

“A large number of people was violently evicted. Many of them did not even get a compensation and when they did the amount they received was not enough to get a proper house. The government was also giving them the option of taking them nearly 50 or 60 miles where they lived as part of the program ’My house, my life”. The government is pressuring people so that they will accept the proposal. If they don’t, they are left with nothing. The people who accepted the offer had to move far, consequently they lost their jobs and their children missed the school year”.

In order to impose the eviction of the residents, Clara said how the town hall of Rio de Janeiro promoted a blackout and stopped the water supply, destroyed houses without taking the debris, something that made it difficult for people to continue living there.

In Porto Alegre, in Rio Grande do Sul state, the Social Thematic Forum is taking place where Popular Coordination Committees are gathering with allies to set up a resistance plan for 2012, one of which main themes will be Rio+20, to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June.

Source: Radio Agencia NP