BRASIL - Campaign ’Send a card to Lula’

The following brazilian organizations: Pastoral Land Commission; Caritas; Pastoral Service for Migrants; Reporter Brasil; Rural Bar Association-AATR, Rural Pastoral & Sintagro Bahia; Human Rights Commission in Açailândia MA and Araguaína TO) are launching a three months campaign, during the election campaign, focused on the erradication of slave labour in Brazil. See the text below.

To send your card to Lula, please access

https://sistema.planalto.gov.br/falepr/exec/index.cfm

and paste your text.

Or access to www.planalto.gov.br
and choose ’fale conosco’ and paste your text.

Exmo Sr. Luis Inácio Lula da Silva

Presidente da República

Palácio do Planalto

BRASÍLIA - DF - 70.150-900

Brazil

We add our voice to the international clamor for the effective abolition of slave labor in Brazil. Debt slavery persists, a scourge to the most vulnerable population groups in rural Brazil. In past 11 years 20 thousand slaves have been freed. They were exploited in the deforestation of the Amazon, in the destruction of grasslands, the production of charcoal for metallurgy, or as laborers for modern agribusinesses. Nearly 250 cases are reported each year, involving 8 thousand workers thus some estimate annual total of 40,000 workers. The efforts to eliminate this embarrassment - which began in 1995 and were revitalized when you entered office - have not had the promised results. More than 600 rural landlords were caught with slaves during this period, but none of them are in prison, none have had property confiscated, and many continue the practice (despite the implementation of innovative financial sanctions through labor lawsuits and the “dirty list” of farms and ranches caught using slaves as created by your government). We assert that the Brazilian State is not satisfactorily complying with its written agreements neither domestically (National Plan for the Eradication of Slave Labor) nor internationally (ILO and UN Conventions; Agreement for an Amicable Solution with the OAS in the ‘Jose Pereira’ case).

Therefore, we hope that you will join us to urgently demand:

– from the Legislative Body: approval of the Constitutional amendment that foresees, to the benefit of agrarian reform, the confiscation of slaveholders lands. Moreover, that Congress adopt the remaining legal reforms defined in previously signed agreements.

– from the Judiciary: the Federal Supreme Court should decide who should judge the crime of “work analogous to slavery” - whether a Federal Court (as stated in the Constitution) or a lower judicial body (as alleged by an old and contested court case).

The persistent lack of decision in this regard has guaranteed impunity to those committing this crime. In addition, the immediate confirmation, also by the Federal Supreme Court, of the constitutional principle of expropriation of rural lands that fail to comply with their economic, social or environmental function, beginning with the emblematic case of Cabaceiras Farm (PA).

– from your Government: your commitment not only to achieving the above mentioned items, but also to implementing policies for the effective generation of decent employment, for ample agrarian reform and support of rural agriculture, thereby prioritizing, in addition to food security, social inclusion and dignity in the countryside.

Together with all of society - Brazilian and worldwide - we will continue supporting the efforts of those combating slavery, and at the same time, denouncing and requiring changes, denying our votes to slaveholders and their accomplices, and refusing to buy merchandise produced by modern-day slave labor.

Respectfully,

(name/date/place)

Open your eyes and don’t be enslaved. Campaign against Slavery in Brazil.

ABRA O OLHO PARA NÃO VIRAR ESCRAVO! Campanha contra o Trabalho Escravo no Brasil

Comissão Pastoral da Terra - Cáritas - Serviço Pastoral do Migrante - Repórter Brasil - AATR, Pastoral Rural, Sintagro BA - CDH Açailândia MA e Araguaína TO