Brazil’s Path to the Developed World

Brazil is a fast growing economy and as a result, involves itself in large-scale development and construction projects. Many of these projects focus on a top down strategy, leaving room for corruption, environmental degradation, and human rights violations. Pavel Sulyandziga, a member of the Working Group on the Issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprise, said, “Brazil needs to find a better balance between economic interest and the protection of human rights in its pursuit of economic growth”.

Deforestation is one of Brazil’s major issues, especially as the Amazon area is driven mostly by industry and agriculture. In many cases, the safety of people and the environment are overlooked as a result of bribery and improper safety protocol. For example, the Working Groups learned that many other dams, in addition to the Fundão dam (which ruptured), were vulnerable to failure. Many of the proposed changes to the Brazil Mining Code would have further endangered the environment and the people living in the areas. Obviously from a human rights perspective, this is incredibly unacceptable.

Dante Pesce, a member of the Working Group noted that, “[p]olitical commitments on business and human rights have been made at the government and business level, which is encouraging but there is a gap in embedding and implementing them at the operational level and throughout supply chains”. When the Group visited it was, “…during a time of political and economic turmoil caused by economic recession, impeachment proceedings against the President, corruption scandals involving some of the country’s major companies and members of the political establishment, and what is being referred to as the worst environmental disaster in the history of the country.”

The Brazilian Government has pledged to come up with a plan to deter these improper business practices and to improve human rights. They believe this is a great opportunity to improve cooperation between businesses and government and support discourse regarding human rights. “Brazil is party to the core international human rights treaties and has issued a standing invitation to UN Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. We are grateful to the Government of Brazil for the support and facilitation of this mission, indicating its willingness to address business and human rights issues,” said the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights.

Although statements have been made and goals are being set, there is still a lot of work and restructuring to be done to make a real difference in the fight against human rights violations and environmental degradation. Of course there is a cheap, easy, and fast way to do things in developing and fast growing countries like Brazil, but there is also the right way to do things. The country would be much better off with a superior framework within which to function. Long term goals motivated with the correct reasons can build a state that can last many life times as opposed to one based on so much corruption that the leaders cannot even see past their own wallets. Hopefully Brazil is headed towards the former rather than the latter ideal.

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