Country Listing: Brazil

Name: Dominique Gallois

Profession: Anthropology

Subject: Anthropological Work Threatened

Alert Date: 26 January 1998

Case Number: BR9802.GAL

Human Rights Issues

• right to life, liberty, and security of person
• freedom of opinion and expression
• freedom of association
• freedom of movement
• right to conduct professional activities without interference

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.

Dr. Gallois is accused of defamation of character, illegal gold mining activities (for her own profit) on indigenous land, unlawful use of the image of the Indians, and "manipulation of indigenous leaders." The details of two investigations have been kept secret from Dr. Gallois.

(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.)

As a State Party, Brazil is legally obligated to uphold the rights and freedoms listed in the American Convention on Human Rights (ratified by Brazil on 24 March 1981); and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ratified by Brazil on 24 January 1992).

Relevant International Treaty Articles

The legal actions and threats against Dr. Gallois, the Waiapi, and the CTI constitute clear violations of international and regional human rights instruments. They include:

Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:

• 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); and
• 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:

• 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 seek, 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); and
• 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)

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