Brazil: RFK Memorial & David Stang to Belem

Source: Robert F. Kennedy Memorial
goldman@rfkmemorial.org

The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial (RFK) will be traveling to Brazil on 11
August as part of its ongoing advocacy for justice and due process in the
case of Sister Dorothy Stang, a 73-year-old American nun murdered in the
Brazilian Amazon in 2005. RFK will be represented by Emily S. Goldman,
Senior Program Officer, and she will be accompanied by David Stang,
youngest brother of the murdered nun. They will meet with state of Pará
judicial authorities in Belém (state where Sister Dorothy lived and was
murdered). They will also travel to Anapu, where she lived, and to her
grave at Esperança.

Sister Dorothy Stang, a member of the Ohio Province of the Sisters of Notre
Dame de Namur, was murdered on 12 February 2005 in Anapu, Pará, Brazil.
She was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1931 and entered the Sisters of Notre Dame
in 1948 and moved to Brazil in 1966. She was a dual citizen of the US and
Brazil and lived for 39 years in Brazil working with the Pastoral Land
Commission (the social justice arm of the Brazilian Catholic Church, or
CPT), fighting for the rights of landless workers and for the broad
implementation of a human rights-based land reform that encourages wise
environmental stewardship. She helped landless workers combat the illegal
appropriation of public lands common in the state of Pará and the impunity
surrounding land-access cases that impedes more than a small handful from
ever being brought to justice. “She became deeply involved in the struggle
for land, justice, and dignity in a part of Brazil where impunity,
landlessness, and deep injustice have been the rule for generations,” noted
Goldman before departing for Brazil.

Sister Dorothy’s murder came just over a week after she met with Brazil’s
top human rights officials in which she detailed the credible death threats
she and local landless people had received from wealthy ranchers and
loggers in the region. After receiving the threats, Sister Dorothy
commented, “I don’t want to flee, nor do I want to abandon the struggle of
these farmers who live without any protection in the forest.”

The CPT reports that 1,385 rural workers, trade unionists, lawyers, and
religious workers aligned with the struggle for a rights-based land reform
were assassinated between 1985 and 2004. Of those 1,385, only 77 cases
went to trial – resulting in the conviction of only 15 intellectual authors
and 65 gunmen. In just the state of Pará, where Sister Dorothy lived and
died, the CPT registered the assassination of 772 rural workers in the
context of land conflicts between 1971 and 2004. This deeply entrenched
situation of land conflict and violence in Pará is directly related to the
extreme concentration of land in great part due to illegal land
appropriation.

RFK, the Stang family, and Brazil’s social movements are pressing for due
process in the case - we will press the Brazilian justice system to bring
the wealthy ranchers to trial who planned and financed the murder. RFK and
the Stang family are profoundly apprehensive that if these two individuals
are not brought to trial, the case will fall into impunity as has happened
with hundreds of others that bear remarkable similarity to this one.

Goldman noted: “In the state of Pará, impunity in land-access cases is the
historical norm and the wealthy and powerful who order the murders are
rarely brought to trial.” David Stang added: “We are traveling to Brazil
to press the Brazilian government to carry out a full investigation into
all those responsible for planning and financing her murder and to
implement a real land reform. We hope to see a change in the culture of
impunity through the legal steps taken in my sister’s case.”

RFK is a non-profit non-governmental organization that partners with
activists around the world who win the RFK Human Rights Award, advocating
for the social justice goals they champion. RFK and employs litigation;
advocacy before policy-makers; consumer awareness campaigns to foster
corporate responsibility; media coverage; high-level delegations; and
briefings for government and the international human rights community.
RFK’s Brazil human rights laureate is Darci Frigo, who presses for
equitable land reform, promoting biodiversity conservation and sustainable
agriculture, and fighting forced labor and impunity in land-access cases.

For more information contact: Emily S. Goldman goldman@rfkmemorial.org or
(202) 463-7575 x 235

*******************************************************************
Distribuido por: Distributed by:
'AMAZON ALLIANCE' FOR INDIGENOUS AND
TRADITIONAL PEOPLES OF THE AMAZON BASIN
1367 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20036-1860
tel (202)785-3334
fax (202)785-3335
amazon@amazonalliance.org
http://www.amazonalliance.org

Disclaimer: All copyrights belong to original publisher. The Amazon
Alliance has not verified the accuracy of the forwarded message. Forwarding
this message does not necessarily connote agreement with the positions
stated there-in.

Todos los derechos de autor pertenecen al autor originario. La Alianza
Amazonica no ha verificado la veracidad de este mensaje. Enviar este
mensaje no necesariamente significa que la Alianza Amazonica este de
acuerdo con el contenido.

La Alianza Amazonica para los Pueblos Indigenas y Tradicionales de la
Cuenca Amazonica es una iniciativa nacida de la alianza entre los pueblos
indigenas y tradicionales de la Amazonia y grupos e individuos que
comparten sus preocupaciones por el futuro de la Amazonia y sus pueblos.
Hay mas de ochenta organizaciones del norte y del sur activas en la Alianza
Amazonica. La Alianza Amazonica trabaja para defender los derechos,
territorios, y el medio ambiente de los pueblos indigenas y tradicionales
de la Cuenca Amazonica.

The Amazon Alliance for Indigenous and Traditional Peoples of the Amazon
Basin is an initiative born out of the partnership between indigenous and
traditional peoples of the Amazon and groups and individuals who share
their concerns for the future of the Amazon and its peoples. There are over
eighty non-governmental organizations from the North and South active in
the Alliance. The Amazon Alliance works to defend the rights, territories,
and environment of indigenous and traditional peoples of the Amazon Basin.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .