IAA - State Responsibility for Perpetrating and Condoning Ecowar Violence in the Amazon: The Human Right to Physical and Mental Health

Proposed Activities 1) I am a member of the coordinating committee of the UN Anti-Racism Coalition (UNARC) which is currently organising the visit of the UN Expert Mechanism on Racial Justice in Law Enforcement (EMLER ) to Brazil in November. EMLER are unable to visit the Amazon during their visit for logistical reasons and have therefore requested video submissions from human rights organisations working with directly impacted Amazonian communities. I sent EMLER the 6-minute film. They have asked me to send the recording of the HRC parallel event we presented on October 4th – which I have said I will do as soon as I have got it subtitled and edited. After seeing the 6-minute film at the HRC parallel event UNARC has offered to fund the travel and accommodation costs of one of the film’s participants to meet with EMLER in Sao Paulo during their visit in November. 2) Silvia Souza, the first Black president of the Brazilian Bar Association National Human Rights Commission has invited me, and the entire team that collaborated with me on the HRC event on October 4th, to participate in a national human rights 3-day conference that she is organising in Campinas in May 2024 and screen the 6-minute film. The Brazilian Bar Association will provide transport from Sao Paolo and accommodation in Campanile. 3) In addition, the Mari Antonia Center - a human rights and memory centre in Sao Paolo which was founded during Brazil's dictatorship and now works closely with nearby favela communities on human rights issues – has offered to host a 3-day event (27th-29th May) to screen three of the research films funded by my AHRC grants over three days with QandA and seminars/outreach events. 4) FETAEMA have invited us to return to Sao Luis to participate in an NGO debate on the issues and also to travel into the Amazon to meet the Boa Hora III/Marmorana community again to update them on the work we have been doing, and also hear from them what has been happening since we visited in February. 5) I am a member of the ILA Global Health Committee which will meet in Athens from 24-28 June. One of the topics (which I proposed) will be on the right to the social determinants of mental health and the implications for the right to a healthy environment. This links to my research with Amazonian communities and is an opportunity to bring the research findings into legal debate at international level and subsequently for inclusion in a report that carries authoritative weight.