AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

FACTS OF THE CASE:

Dr. Dominique Gallois, a professor of anthropology at the University of Sao Paulo working in the Brazilian state of Amapa, is the subject of a governmental campaign to halt her professional activities on behalf of the Waiapi tribe. The government's tactics include death threats and lawsuits filed against Dr. Gallois and the Center for Indigenous Work (CTI), where Dr. Gallois directs Waiapi projects.

Brazilian Congressman Antonio Feijao, who holds a personal interest in the gold mining industry, is the author of the lawsuits filed against Dr. Gallois. Congressman Feijao and the local FUNAI office, the federal agency responsible for local indigenous issues, are working to block CTI's work with the Waiapi, despite requests from the president of the Waiapi Council of Villages that CTI be allowed to continue its projects. The lawsuits threaten to ruin Dr. Gallois and CTI financially. Such suits appear to be increasingly used in Brazil to halt the legitimate work of anthropologists and other social scientists whose projects interfere with the efforts of commercial miners and loggers. Similar lawsuits have been used elsewhere in Brazil where landowners and loggers are challenging tribal demarcations in court.

The federal prosecutor, Mr. Araujo, filed three motions and initiated the police investigations against Dr. Gallois leading to the lawsuits. Dr. Gallois is accused of defamation of character against Prosecutor Araujo, illegal gold mining activities (for her own profit) on indigenous land, unlawful use of the image of the Indians (by making videos about CTI projects and Waiapi life), and "manipulation of indigenous leaders." The details of two investigations have been kept secret from Dr. Gallois.

CTI has worked with the Waiapi tribe since 1978. The organization is recognized in Brazil and internationally for its work with indigenous peoples and the Waiapi. CTI lent technical assistance to the Waiapi to regularize land, and for economic, health, and education projects. They have recently been expelled from the zone, effectively ending their projects in the area.

The Waiapi live in the Amazon northeast state of Amapa and control over 2,400 square miles of territory. During the 1980s the Waiapi successfully drove out the miners and assumed surveillance of their land.

The Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States is considering taking up this case.

The legal action and threats against Dr. Gallois, the Waiapi, and the CTI constitute clear violations of international and regional human rights instruments to which Brazil is a State Party and, therefore, legally bound to uphold. They include:

Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ratified by Brazil on 24 January 1992):

• Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence. (Article12.1)
• No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor unlawful attacks on his honor and reputation. (Article 17.1)
• Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against interference and attacks. (Article 17.2)
• Everyone shall have the right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests. (Article 22)

Under the American Convention on Human Rights (ratified by Brazil on 24 March 1981):

• Every person accused of a criminal offense has the right to be presumed innocent so long as his guilt has not been proven according to law. (Article 8.2).
• Criminal proceedings shall be public, except insofar as may be necessary to protect the interests of justice. (Article 8.5)
• Everyone has the right to freedom of thought and expression. This right includes freedom to see, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing, in print, in the form of art, or through any other medium of one's choice. (Article 13.1).
• Everyone has the right to associate freely for ideological, religious, political, economic, labor, social, cultural, sports, or other purposes. (Article 16.1)
• Every person lawfully in the territory of a State Party has the right to move about in it, and to reside in it subject to the provisions of law. (Article 22.1)

(Sources of information on this case include, Mineral Extraction by and for Indigenous Amazonian Communities: Gold Mining by the Waiapi and Kayapo, paper presented by Terence Turner, University of Chicago, at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC, November 19, 1997; and the Commission on Human Rights of the American Anthropological Association.)

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send telexes, telegrams, faxes, or airmail letters:

• calling on the government of Brazil to investigate the legal action taken against Dr. Gallois and CTI;
• urging authorities to take immediate action to halt the persecution of Dr. Gallois, CTI, and the Waiapi tribe; and
• requesting that human rights mechanisms be implemented to assure the right of anthropologists and other scientific professionals to conduct their work with indigenous populations without interference.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

Sr. Sullivan Silvestre
Presidente da FUNAI
SEUPS 702/902 Ed. Lex, Bloco A
Brazilia- DF 70.390-025
Brazil
Fax: 011 55 61 226 8782



Dra. Marcia Lima de Carvalho
Sub-Produradora Geral da Republica
Coordenadora da Sexta Camara da PGR
Fax: 011 55 61 313 5518


Governor Joao Alberto Capiberibe
Palacio do Governo
Fax: 011 55 96 223 5944

COPIES SENT TO:

Christina Halvorson
Amanaka'a Amazon Network
60 Eat 13th Street, 5th Floor
New York, New York10003
Fax: (212) 253 9507


Dr. Dominque Gallois
Centro de Trabalho Indigenista-CTI
Rua Fidalga, 548 Sala 13
Vila Madalena, Sao Paulo-SP
05432-000 Brazil
T/Fax: 011 55 11 813 0747
Coalition for Amazonian Peoples and their Environment
1511 K Street, NW, Suite 627
Washington, D.C. 20005
amazoncoal@igc.apc.org
Fax: (202) 637-9719

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