Yearbook 2008/09

Conectas Human Rights released, on October 21, the Yearbook 2008/09 "Human Rights: Brazil in the UN'". The publication is the result of a monitoring of Brazilian foreign policy in the field of human rights by Conectas. It covers Brazil's role in the United Nations human rights system in 2008, by presenting: (1) an outline of the positions taken by Brazil and the way it voted in the organization?s main multilateral human rights bodies - the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council (HRC); and (2) an overview of how Brazil incorporates the obligations assumed internationally and how it responds to the recommendations to the country arising UN international human rights mechanisms.

"The votes cast by Brazil in 2008 indicate an alarming trend in Brazilian diplomacy: abstaining in multilateral human rights forums in cases there is clear evidence of gross and systematic violations, such as the resolutions against Iran and North Korea in 2008.This makes us fear that Brasil has not been conducting its foreign policy based upon the prevalence of human rights, as determinated by its own constitutional principles", said Camila Asano, supervisor of the Yearbook 2008/09.

This year's edition of the report devotes an entire chapter to the role of Brazil in the Universal Periodic Review, since it was among the first group of countries to undergo this review. The chapter presents the summary of the report submitted by Brazil for review, a ion of observations, questions and recommendations HRC Member States to Brazil, in addition to all the recommendations made by Brazil to the other countries under review. Other highlights 2008 featured in this edition of the Yearbook are the visit to Brazil by James Anaya, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples, the appointment of Raquel Rolnik, a Brazilian, as the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, and Brazil?s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities together with its Optional Protocol providing for individual petitions.

Lucia Nader and Camila Asano, the Foreign Policy and Human Rights project run by Conectas, presented the report's finding in a lecture to release the publication, organized by the International Relations Institute of the University of São Paulo (IRI-USP). The event was attended by PhD Professors Maria Hermínia Tavares, Janina Onuki and Deisy Ventura, in addition to students USP, PUC and other universities.

The Yearbook counts on the support of Ford Foundation, OAK Foundation and Open Society Institute, as well as the institutional support of the Brazilian Committee on Human Rights and Foreign Policy.