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Letter of Appeal from the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility

February 17, 1998

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

Your Excellency:

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the largest organization of natural and social scientists in the United States, and the world's largest federation of scientific organizations, with 140,000 individual members and 296 affiliated groups. Our AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility was formed in 1976 to protect the human rights of scientists and to deal with issues relating to scientific freedom worldwide.

On behalf of the Committee, we are writing to express our concern regarding the legal actions and threats reportedly made against Dr. Dominique Gallois, a professor of anthropology at the University of San Paulo. Dr. Gallois appears to be the subject of a governmental campaign to halt her professional activity on behalf of the Waiapi tribe. It is our understanding that Dr. Gallois, who directs the Waiapi projects for the Center for Indigenous Work (CTI), has had three lawsuits filed against her by Brazilian Congressman Antonio Feijao, who reportedly has a personal financial interest in the area. The Committee fears that these lawsuits are intended to ruin Dr. Gallois and CTI financially. We urge the government of Brazil to implement human rights mechanisms to assure the rights of scientific professionals to conduct their work with indigenous populations without interference.

It is our understanding that Dr. Gallois has been expelled from the area, effectively halting her projects with the CTI, despite repeated requests from the Waiapi Council of Villages that CTI be allowed to continue their work. Dr. Gallois is reportedly being charged with: defamation of character against Prosecutor Araujo, who filed the motions initiating the investigations against Dr. Gallois; illegal gold mining for her own profit on indigenous land; unlawful use of the image of Indians; and manipulation of indigenous leaders. It also appears that some of the details surrounding two of the investigations have been kept secret from Dr. Gallois.

The use of legal action to halt legitimate work by anthropologists and social scientists in Brazil has reportedly increased. The use of similar lawsuits elsewhere in Brazil towards anthropologists and other social scientists whose projects interfere with the efforts of commercial mining and logging has been brought to the Committee's attention.

We would like to point out that arbitrary legal action and threats against Dr. Gallois and the CTI violate several international and regional human rights instruments to which Brazil is a State Party and is therefore legally bound to uphold. They include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights ratified by Brazil on 24 January 1992 and 24 March 1981 respectively. As a State Party, Brazil has agreed to abide by the basic principles of human rights incorporated within those Covenants.

You are likely aware that the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights guarantees Dr. Gallois the right to liberty of movement (Article 12.1); protection against arbitrary and/or unlawful interference of her privacy, family, home, or correspondence, or unlawful attacks on her honor and reputation (Article 17.1); the right to the protection of the law against interference and attacks (Article 17.2); and the right to freedom of association with others (Article 22).

Under the American Convention on Human Rights, Dr. Gallois is guaranteed freedom of thought and expression (Article 13.1); the right to associate freely for ideological, political, economic, social, labor, cultural, or religious purposes (Article 16.1); and the right to move about or reside within the territory of a State Party subject to the provisions within the law (Article 22.1).

We urge you to exercise your good offices to assure that Dr. Gallois and CTI are protected against arbitrary prosecution. We respectfully request that the Brazilian government investigate the legal actions taken against Dr. Gallois and CTI, and that immediate action be taken to halt the lawsuits, which threaten the projects assisting the Waiapi. We also seek assurance that anthropologists and other scientific professionals will be allowed to conduct their work with indigenous populations without interference.

We thank you for your attention to our concerns and welcome receiving any information you may have about the current status of this case.


Sincerely,




Mary Gray Irving Lerch
Co-Chair Co-Chair
Committee for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Committee for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility

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