IV 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 594 

Expressing profound concern about threats to human rights, the rule of 

law, democracy, and the environment in Brazil. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 

Mr. GRIJALVA (for himself, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. GARCI ́A of Illinois, Ms. HAALAND, Ms. NORTON, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mr. JOHNSON of 

Georgia, Mr. KHANNA, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. RUSH, Ms. 

WILD, Mr. POCAN, and Mr. HUFFMAN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a 

period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 

consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing profound concern about threats to human rights, 

the rule of law, democracy, and the environment in Brazil. 

Whereas Brazil and the United States have an important 

strategic partnership and have cooperated closely on numerous issues of mutual interest including trade, regional 

security, energy, the protection of the environment, and 

the fight against racial discrimination; 

Whereas in recent years Brazil made significant strides in 

strengthening democracy, reducing poverty, addressing 

racial and gender-based disparities, building a more just 


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•HRES 594 IH 

and inclusive society, and reducing deforestation in the 

Amazon; 

Whereas Brazil contains about 60 percent of the Amazon 

rainforest and produces 6 percent of all oxygen generated 

by photosynthesis; 

Whereas, on October 28, 2018, far-right politician Jair 

Bolsonaro was elected president, in an election marred by 

the controversial disqualification of his leading opponent; 

Whereas President Bolsonaro praises Brazil’s former military 

dictatorship, which tortured 20,000 people and killed or 

disappeared 434 people, according to Brazil’s Special 

Commission on Political Killings and Disappearances; 

Whereas President Bolsonaro made his first foreign trip to 

the United States to meet President Trump, where he declared that they ‘‘stand side by side in their efforts to ensure liberties and respect to traditional family lifestyles, 

respect to God, our Creator, against the gender ideology 

or the politically correct attitudes and against fake 

news.’’; 

Whereas President Trump praised President Bolsonaro and 

emphasized their ‘‘fantastic working relationship’’ and 

the ‘‘many views’’ they share; 

Whereas President Trump announced during their meeting 

he would unilaterally designate Brazil a ‘‘Major NonNATO Ally’’, facilitating preferential treatment for 

Brazil with regard to military assistance and sales or use 

of military equipment; 

Whereas President Bolsonaro and officials from his government have made statements and pursued policy reforms 

that threaten the human rights of vulnerable sectors of 

Brazilian society, including indigenous and Afro-Brazilian 


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peoples, members of the LGBTI community, land rights 

activists, the labor movement, and political opponents; 

Whereas President Bolsonaro has pledged that he will not 

even permit ‘‘a centimeter’’ to be demarcated for indigenous reserves or ‘‘quilombolas’’, the communities of descendants of enslaved Africans that are home to over 

1,000,000 Afro-Brazilians; 

Whereas President Bolsonaro has referred to indigenous peoples living in protected ancestral lands as ‘‘zoo animals’’; 

Whereas President Bolsonaro has said the Afro-Brazilian 

residents of quilombolas ‘‘aren’t even good for 

procreation anymore’’; 

Whereas one of the first measures of the Bolsonaro administration was to transfer the authority tasked with protecting the lands of indigenous peoples to the Ministry of 

Agriculture, widely known to be controlled by agribusiness interests that oppose indigenous and quilombola 

land rights; 

Whereas Bolsonaro administration officials announced their 

intention to open up vast protected areas of the Amazon, 

including indigenous territories, to mining, logging, and 

agricultural corporations, a move that is expected to lead 

to rampant deforestation and accelerate global warming; 

Whereas the rate of deforestation of the Amazon rainforest 

in Brazil increased by 88 percent in June 2019, compared to the same period in 2018, according to Brazil’s 

National Institute of Space Research; 

Whereas, in August 2019, Brazil’s National Institute of 

Space Research announced that it had identified nearly 

40,000 fires in the Brazilian Amazon since the beginning 


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of the year, a phenomenon linked to deforestation and 

the expansion of ‘‘slash and burn’’ agriculture; 

Whereas Brazil’s foreign minister, Ernesto Araujo ́, has referred to climate change as a plot by ‘‘cultural marxists’’; 

Whereas the Bolsonaro administration has made drastic cuts 

to Brazil’s environmental enforcement agency; 

Whereas, according to the international NGO, Global Witness, Brazil is one of the most dangerous countries in the 

world for land and environmental advocates; 

Whereas President Bolsonaro has publicly expressed support 

for the indiscriminate killing of criminal suspects by the 

police; 

Whereas, according to Brazil’s Institute of Public Security, 

police agents in Rio de Janeiro killed a record 432 people 

in the first three months of 2019; 

Whereas, on April 7, 2019, Afro-Brazilian musician Evaldo 

Rosa dos Santos was killed in Rio de Janeiro when military troops shot his vehicle 80 times; 

Whereas, on February 4, 2019, Brazilian Justice Minister 

Sergio Moro introduced legislation that, according to 

Human Rights Watch, could significantly increase the 

quantity of unjustifiable killings perpetrated by police 

agents; 

Whereas, in March 2018, Afro-Brazilian LGBTQ activist and 

dissident politician Marielle Franco was assassinated, and 

the individuals who ordered her murder remain at large; 

Whereas homophobic hate crimes and killings have been increasing throughout Brazil, as reported by the Washington Post, and openly gay Congressman Jean Wyllys 


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fled Brazil in January 2019, after receiving repeated 

death threats; 

Whereas President Bolsonaro has closed the 88-year-old Ministry of Labor, announced reforms that would effectively 

end the country’s labor justice system and eliminate the 

right to collective bargaining, and issued an Executive 

order that weakens labor inspection and enforcement, 

ends overtime and Sunday pay, and reduces paid vacations and severance payments; 

Whereas former Brazilian president Luiz Ina ́cio Lula da 

Silva—the leading candidate in the October 2018 presidential elections—was arrested on dubious charges of 

corruption, swiftly sentenced to 12 years in prison, and 

deemed legally ineligible to run for office; 

Whereas Brazilian authorities rejected a request by the 

United Nations Human Rights Committee to allow da 

Silva to run in the October 2018 elections, despite the 

Brazilian State’s legal ratified obligation to comply to the 

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; 

Whereas Sergio Moro, the presiding judge in da Silva’s case, 

acted in a clearly biased manner toward da Silva, violating his right to a fair and impartial judicial process 

under Brazilian law; 

Whereas, in June 2019, media outlets published leaked communications exposing politically motivated collusion between Sergio Moro and prosecutors in da Silva’s case, 

with Moro providing strategic advice and sharing privileged information with prosecutors; 

Whereas President Bolsonaro appointed Sergio Moro to the 

position of Minister of Justice and later announced that 


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he had promised to nominate Moro to the next open seat 

on Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court; and 

Whereas, in July 2017, a senior Department of Justice official stated that it was ‘‘hard to imagine a better cooperative relationship in recent history than that of the United 

States Department of Justice and the Brazilian prosecutors’’ and cited the Department of Justice’s cooperation 

with the Lava Jato task force that charged and prosecuted da Silva: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) calls on President Bolsonaro and members 

3 of his cabinet to abstain from hate speech and 

4 threats directed at minorities and to instead work to 

5 protect the human rights of all Brazilian citizens, re6 gardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, or 

7 beliefs; 

8 (2) urges the Brazilian Government to protect 

9 indigenous peoples’ rights as guaranteed under the 

10 Brazilian Constitution, including the right to their 

11 own social organizations, customs, languages, and 

12 beliefs, and the right to their traditional lands; 

13 (3) urges Brazil’s authorities to protect work14 ers’ rights as stipulated under the International 

15 Labour Organization conventions, which Brazil has 

16 ratified, including the right to organize and bargain 

17 collectively; 


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1 (4) urges Brazil’s Government to take all pos2 sible actions to reduce deforestation of the Amazon 

3 rainforest within the country’s borders and take all 

4 necessary measures to ensure the elimination of ille5 gal deforestation by 2030, in accordance with Bra6 zil’s obligations under the United Nations Frame7 work Convention on Climate Change; 

8 (5) calls on the United States Government to 

9 oppose loans from the World Bank Group or the 

10 Inter-American Development Bank used to fund 

11 projects that are likely to contribute to further de12 forestation or fires within the rainforests located in 

13 the Amazon Basin; 

14 (6) urges Brazil’s judicial and police authorities 

15 to fully investigate the murder of Marielle Franco 

16 and work to identify and prosecute those who or17 dered her assassination; 

18 (7) urges Brazil’s judicial authorities, in par19 ticular the ministers of the Supreme Federal Court, 

20 to investigate allegations of unethical conduct by 

21 Sergio Moro, Federal prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol, 

22 and other agents involved in the judicial proceedings 

23 against former president da Silva; 

24 (8) directs the inspector general of the United 

25 States Department of Justice to perform a full reVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:55 Sep 26, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR594.IH HR594

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1 view of the Department’s activities in Brazil to de2 termine whether United States Government agents 

3 have at any point encouraged or abetted unethical 

4 conduct perpetrated by Brazilian judicial agents in5 cluding members of the Lava Jato task force; 

6 (9) calls on Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court to 

7 urgently undertake an assessment of the merits of 

8 da Silva’s convictions and the fairness of the pro9 ceedings brought against him, and to release da 

10 Silva while his appeals are pending, as stipulated 

11 under Brazil’s Constitution; 

12 (10) calls on relevant international human 

13 rights organizations, such as the United Nations 

14 Human Rights Committee and the Inter-American 

15 Commission on Human Rights, to closely monitor 

16 the human rights situation in Brazil; and 

17 (11) expresses its sense that the United States 

18 should rescind Brazil’s designation as a Major Non19 NATO Ally and suspend all assistance to Brazil’s 

20 military and police forces unless the Department of 

21 State formally certifies that effective measures are 

22 being taken to curtail unjustified extrajudicial 

23 killings by Brazilian State security agents, invesVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:55 Sep 26, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR594.IH HR594

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1 tigate and prosecute the killings of activists, and 

2 comply with international human rights norms. 

Æ 


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