The complaint was filed before the International Criminal Court, created in 2002 to judge the worst atrocities committed in the world.
Le Monde with AP and AFP
At the time when deforestation intensifies in Brazilian Amazon, an Austrian NGO filed Tuesday 12 October a complaint at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “crimes against humanity” against President Brazilian, Jair Bolsonaro . In cause: its role in deforestation and its expected impacts on lives and human health around the world.
The complaint from the Allrise NGO, to which the ICC is not required to respond, in particular on the science in full extension of “the attribution” of the consequences of climate change. According to studies, the deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has transformed this fundamental carbon well for the planet in net emitter of CO 2 in 2020.
More than 10 500 km² of forest eliminated
Before the arrival of Bolsonaro in power in 2019, the Brazilian Amazon had not recorded a year with more than 10,000 square kilometers of deforestation for over a decade. Between 2009 and 2018, the average per year was 6,500 square kilometers, against an average of 10,500 square kilometers during the mandate of Bolsonaro.
But the preliminary figures published last month by the Brazilian National Institute of Space Research (INPE) showed that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon decreased for the second consecutive month in August compared to the same period in 2020.
The Austrian founder of Allrise, Johannes Wesemann, however, insists that Bolsonaro has “systematically” sought to weaken or get rid of laws, environmental protection activists and official organizations governing these practices.
Global impact
All these actions “are directly related to the negative impacts of climate change around the world,” pursue the complainants, who are based on the expertise of Friederike Otto, from the Universiy College of London and the main report of the recent report. IPCC Assessment on Climate Change, Qualified “Red Alert” for Humanity by UN Patron, Antonio Guterres.
And the experts who worked on this complaint consider that the emissions attributable to deforestation under the current Brazilian administration will cause more than 180,000 additional deaths in the world by the end of the century.
“We want to understand the causal link with the global climate of what is happening in Brazil, this massive deforestation,” said Allrise Austrian founder Johannes Wesemann. “It’s exactly (…) the definition of crime against humanity: the intentional destruction of the environment and its defenders.”
Many complaints already filed
Chief Bolsonaro is already targeted by several complaints to the ICC.
In January 2021, the cacique Raoni Matuktire, emblematic defender of the Amazon rainforest, had already asked the ICC to investigate “crimes against humanity” against Mr. Bolsonaro, accused of “persecuting” indigenous peoples in destroying their habitat and violating their fundamental rights.
In July 2020, members of Health staff in Brazil also asked for a CPI survey for “Crime Against Humanity” against Bolsonaro, this time for its management of the Pandemic of Covid-19.
But the ICC, created in 2002 to judge the worst atrocities committed in the world and headquartered in The Hague (Netherlands), is not forced to follow up on the thousands of applications filed with its prosecure, which Decides independently of cases to submit to judges.