Brazil repudiates statement from UN High Commissioner

Brazil's Foreign Ministry issued a note Friday (May 26) stating that the Brazilian government “repudiates, on the strongest terms, the misinformed and biased nature of the joint statement made today by the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) and by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR).”

“The heedlessness with which the OHCHR and the IACHR attempt to make one believe Brazil does not rely on solid institutions dedicated to the protection of human rights and founded on a democratic rule of law is appalling.”

The statement, the note issued by ministry continues, “is not in compliance with the principles that must provide the base for the actions of these agencies, among them the fundamental respect for the truth of facts.”

The international institutions condemned the “recurrent use of violence” to repress the demonstrations against President Michel Temer's government last Wednesday (24) during the removal of drug addicts from the district known as Cracolândia, in São Paulo, as well as the re-appropriation operation which ended in a massacre in rural Pará, both on the same day.

According to the ministry, “at no point were the authors of the note concerned with the threat posed to the security of public officials and peaceful protesters who were subject to the systematic and clearly premeditated violence.”

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira