Lula for presidency: UNHRC demands Brazil to follow Brazilian and international law

From solitary confinement, Lula posted the following message on his social media today: "Today the world lost Kofi Annan. The first black man to lead the UN, Annan left a legacy of struggle against inequality in the world. Personally, I had the happiness to be President during his mandate and was able to witness his dedication towards harmony and dialogue between peoples."

Lately I've been focusing on Brazil because what is happening in my country and the whole South America is very serious.
Thank you.
The most important now is that former president Lula must run October's elections.

Today's UN Human Rights Committee ruling that Lula be allowed to run for President of Brazil is not a recommendation. Since 2009, when Legislative Decree 311 was ratified by Brazilian Congress, all decisions by the UNHRC are legally binding. If the government refuses to obey the order it will be in violation of both international and Brazilian law. Workers Party (PT) national president Glesi Hoffmann explains further in this official note that was just released by the party. 

Note from the Workers Party (PT): UN Decision Should be Obeyed

The government and judiciary can't rip up an international treaty which recognizes the UN's jurisdiction over political rights in our country. 

8/17/2018 – 7:29 PM

The preliminary ruling announced today, August 17th, by the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC), demanding respect for president Lula's political rights, including the right for him to freely run for office, has to be obeyed in light of the international treaties signed by Brazil and in light of our legislation. 

On June 16th, 2009, Congress incorporated the United Nations Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights into our law, through Legislative Decree 311. Since then, obeying whatever is determined by the UNHRC is mandatory in Brazil. 
It is with indignation, therefore, that we witness a manifestation by the coup government's Justice Minister that there is “undue interference” by the UN. This cannot be treated as interference, but as a sovereign decision that we have the obligation to obey. It is embarrassing to Brazil that this Minister is accusing the world's highest human rights authority of political plotting. 

It is also with indignation that we received a note from the Itamaraty Palace falsely stating that, “the conclusions of the Committee are recommendations and therefore not legally binding.” This is another foreign policy sham committed by the coup government. 

The UNHRC, headquartered in Geneva, has been analyzing  Lula's lawyers' petition complaining of the judicial persecution that he has been victim of since September 2016. The complaints include arbitrary actions by the Federal Police and the Operation Car Wash Public Prosecutors, the curtailment of the defense, illegal wire taps, false plea bargain testimonies and Lula's conviction for committing “undetermined acts” in the rulings by Sergio Moro and the 4th Federal Regional Court, as well as a series of other human rights violations. 

After a long period of examination which including hearing the Brazilian government's arguments twice, today the Committee decided that Lula's political rights are indeed being threatened, and that he can not be prevented from running in the elections and having ample access to the media while there is no final sentence given after a fair trial.

The only thing that Lula has requested since the beginning of the hateful campaign against him was this: a fair trial. Unfortunately for the image of Brazil in the world, he had to appeal to the highest human rights court in the world so that this right could be finally recognized. 

There is no way of hiding from the world, the violence that has been practiced by sectors of the Brazilian judiciary in collaboration with Globo, the other big media companies and the coup government. Either obey the UN's decision or throw Brazil once and for all onto the list of nations that do not have the rule of law or democracy. 


Gleisi Hoffmann, National President of the Workers Party

2011 top news: State of Palestine is UNESCO's member

The vote of Unesco’s full membership was 107 to 14, with 52 abstentions.

Palestine became the 195th Unesco member.


No: Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sweden, US, Vanuatu.


Abstentions*: Albania, Andorra, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Cook Islands, Ivory Coast, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Fiji, Georgia, Haiti, Hungary, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kiribati, Latvia, Liberia, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Moldova, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Switzerland, Thailand, Macedonia, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, UK, Zambia. Yes: Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chad, Chile, China, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zimbabwe.


Absent* (includes states that lost right to vote because membership fees were not paid): Antigua and Barbuda, Central African Republic, Comoros, Dominica, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Madagascar, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Mongolia, Niue, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tajikistan, East Timor, Turkmenistan.


Read here some of the consequences of having Palestine in UNESCO. Not recognizing Palestine as a state is something beyond me. It is time for inclusion and learning to cope with differences.

2011 top news in cartoon

These are two cartoons by Giacomo Cardelli that I did choose to start the series of posts about 2011 top news. The first one was a good news but we have witnessed some events that show how barbarian, brutal, irrational and cruel the system that rules this world is.

The right cartoon... bloodshed in north Africa had Libya as the most documented by independent journalist and it was a demonstration of brutality with the help of the mainstream media making fictitious stories to explain the need of crimes against humanity (here, here and here).

Reports of famine in Somalia, caused by drought - lie, lie, lie - were announced but forgotten. Africa is going backwards but the same is happening in America.

Left: Wow! United Nations! Nothing changed. The assemblies are held, nothing changes and in the end the security council, five permanent member China, France, Russia, UK and US decide what to do and if you do the maths(?) three is the exact number of nations that really decide.

If you follow this blog you might have noticed that I stopped posting about politics as I explained in a prior post and I pretend keep this way for a while because looking closely to what is being done requires a lot of cold blood.

I don't have it and a lot of physical and mental energy is consumed by watching and reading barbaric attitudes. Some people like blood but I can't hardly see mine because I feel like fainting.

The possibility of the WW3 is on the horizon and I never thought I would witness one in this lifetime.

On the contrary, I thought some of the images I saw when I was a teenager would be banished but... no. It didn't happen.

US and Israel boycott UNESCO because of Palestine membership

(Reuters) - The United Nation's cultural agency plans to cut costs and launch an emergency fund to raise cash after a vote to grant the Palestinians full membership led to a cutoff in vital U.S. and Israeli funding, its director general said Wednesday.

UNESCO's Irina Bokova said the organization, which promotes global education and press freedom among other tasks, has a $65 million shortfall in its 2011 budget, but has yet to receive any offers from other nations to fill the gap.

"We will (push) strongly the reform process and make every possible saving and look at reducing our administrative costs. It's a good opportunity to continue the reform of the organization," Bokova told reporters at her headquarters in central Paris.

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization was plunged into financial crisis in October when Washington cut off its 22 percent support following the Palestinian vote.

U.S. legislation prohibits funding to any UN agency that grants full membership to any group that does not have "internationally recognized attributes" of statehood.

Bokova, who took her post two years ago, said UNESCO had received hundreds of letters of support -- including some with donations -- and was working on a plan to raise financing.

"We will launch an emergency fund ... we will do this fund to (collect) contributions from governments, the private sector, citizens and philanthropists," Bokova said, adding that she would only tap debt markets as a last resort.

UNESCO eyes emergency fund, savings to counter U.S. cuts

When asked whether any other UNESCO members such as wealthy Gulf Arab states -- which backed the Palestinian bid for membership -- had offered to make up the immediate cash flow issues, Bokova replied no.

"I have to deal with the imminent problem to review our activities by the end of the year and then of course we will reach out, but has somebody approached us? No," she said.

HOPEFUL OF U.S. REVERSAL

The 59-year old former Bulgarian foreign minister said she did not believe the United States would disengage from UNESCO in the long term, although if it did not pay its contributions for two years its voting rights would be suspended.

President Barack Obama's administration is talking to members of Congress about funding UNESCO, a U.N. agency for which there is little affection in an era of tight budgets, especially among some Republicans lawmakers.

Bokova said she did not expect an imminent change in the law, but said she had been lobbying lawmakers to change their minds and convince them of the agency's relevance to the United States.

"(UNESCO) is in the national interests of the United States, including its security interests," she said, describing the agency's role in Iraq and Afghanistan, where a U.S. troop drawdown is underway, and where her group helps develop local institutions and educate people.

"You don't want to leave them to extremism, fanaticism," said Bokova, saying UNESCO needs to be supported for its crucial work in literacy, police training and other efforts.

(Reporting By John Irish; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

Picture: Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki delivers a speech during the 36th session of UNESCO's General Conference in Paris, October 31, 2011.

Credit: REUTERS/Benoit Tessier