UN assesses situation of human rights activists in Brazil

Priscilla Mazenotti

Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - Hina Jilani, special emissary of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, is arriving in Brazil today (5) on an official visit to speak with representatives of the government and civil society to check the situation of human rights activists. She will be meeting with various government officials between now and December 20.

During her visit, Jilani will become acquainted with the government's National Program for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, which is carried out through a partnership between the Presidential Undersecretariat of Human Rights and the Ministry of Justice's National Secretariat of Public Safety.

At the invitation of the Brazilian government, she will travel to cities in the states of Pará, Bahia, Pernambuco, São Paulo, and Santa Catarina.

Jilani is scheduled to submit a preliminary report on the situation of human rights activitists in Brazil, in April of next year, in Geneva, Switzerland. The document will be read at the next meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission. The final report will be delivered to the commission in the course of 2006.

Jilani, who is from Pakistan, has held the post of secretary-general of the UN Human Rights Commission since August, 2000.

In Brasília, she is expected to meet with the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies, Aldo Rebelo (PCdoB-SP), of the Senate, Renan Calheiros (PMDB-AL), of the Federal Supreme Court, minister Nelson Jobim, and of the Federal Appeals Court, minister Edson Vidigal, as well as with the minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, and the president of the Chamber's Human Rights Commission, deputy Irany Lopes (PT-ES).

Translation: David Silberstein