An NGO files a complaint for “crime against humanity” against Bolsonaro – archyworldys

At a time when deforestation is intensifying in the Brazilian Amazon, an Austrian NGO filed Tuesday, October 12 a complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “Crimes against humanity” against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. At issue: its role in deforestation and its expected impacts on life and human health around the world.

The complaint by the NGO AllRise, which the ICC is not required to follow up, is based in particular on the rapidly expanding science of “Attribution” consequences of climate change. Studies show deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has turned this fundamental carbon sink for the planet into a net emitter of CO₂ in 2020.

More than 10,500 km² of forest cleared

Before Bolsonaro came to power in 2019, the Brazilian Amazon had not recorded a year with more than 10,000 square kilometers of deforestation for more than a decade. Between 2009 and 2018, the average per year was 6,500 square kilometers, compared to an average of 10,500 square kilometers during Bolsonaro’s tenure.

But preliminary figures released last month by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) showed deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon declined for the second consecutive month in August compared to the same period in 2020.

Austrian founder of AllRise, Johannes Wesemann, however, insists that Bolsonaro has “Systematically” sought to weaken or get rid of the laws, environmental protection activists and official bodies regulating these practices.

Global impact

All these actions “Are directly linked to the negative impacts of climate change across the world”, continue the plaintiffs, who rely in particular on the expertise of Friederike Otto, of the Universiy College in London and principal author of the recent IPCC assessment report on climate change, qualified “Red alert” for humanity by the boss of the UN, Antonio Guterres.

And experts who worked on the complaint estimate that emissions from deforestation under the current Brazilian administration will cause more than 180,000 additional deaths worldwide by the end of the century.

“We want to understand the causal link with the global climate of what is happening in Brazil, of this massive deforestation”, said Austrian founder of AllRise, Johannes Wesemann. ” It’s exactly (…) the definition of a crime against humanity: the intentional destruction of the environment and its defenders. “

Several complaints already filed

President Bolsonaro is already the target of several complaints before the ICC.

In January 2021, the cacique Raoni Matuktire, iconic defender of the Amazon rainforest, had previously asked the ICC to investigate “Crimes against humanity” against Mr. Bolsonaro, accused of “Persecute” indigenous peoples by destroying their habitat and violating their fundamental rights.

In July 2020, health workers in Brazil have also called for an ICC investigation into ” crime against humanity “ against Bolsonaro, this time for his management of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But the ICC, created in 2002 to try the worst atrocities committed in the world and which sits in The Hague (Netherlands), is not forced to follow up on the thousands of requests filed with its prosecutor, who decides independently of the cases to be submitted to judges.