Visit to Brazil, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes collapse, losing access to water, crop production and livelihoods including fishing activities. 81 Similarly, the residents of Pataxo village in Nao Xoha decried the death of their river, including destruction of fishing, following the Brumadinho dam collapse. Indigenous peoples in Ceará report air pollution from the Pecém industrial complex. 82 46. Low-income families, including Afro-Brazilians, suffered disproportionate exposure to dust and heavy metals in mud heaped in Barra Longa following the Mariana dam collapse by agents of the companies and the Renova foundation.83 These communities reported various respiratory and other diseases, compounding the pre-existing inequity and environmental injustice. 47. Children in the North and Northeast regions, rural areas and Afro-Brazilian children suffer disproportionately from multidimensional poverty, lacking basic amenities including clean water and sanitation.84 Women in these rural areas exhibit a persistence of bronchitis and asthma associated with indoor air pollution from the use of firewood or charcoal.85 48. Land grabbing and political domineering against indigenous and quilombola communities is evident, contributing to toxic exposure.86 Renegade artisanal gold miners continue to poison the Yanomami people leaving irreversible impacts on children and a toxic legacy of disease and disability for future generations. 87 Ninety percent of the Yanomami population has highly hazardous levels of mercury in their bodies.88 Now, the Yanomami people are facing yet another existential health risk, COVID-19, as are many other vulnerable communities throughout Brazil. 49. Pesticide use as “chemical weapons” allegedly to drive indigenous and Afro-Brazilian communities from their lands is alarming. Further, 90% of some of the fishing communities affected in the 2019 oil spill in North and South-Eastern Brazil are Afro-Brazilians.89 Community members complained of coughing, nausea, loss of income through reputational damage of their fish, and mental health problems associated with the disaster. 50. Brazil has made some notable progress. For example, the Special Rapporteur was encouraged to hear of bills that seek to make FPIC a legal requirement in certain states. Further, the Federal public health policy aims to create ways for communities in remote areas to access services, including through AMBIU ambulances and boats. 51. However, the rights to self-determination and FPIC have yet to be implemented in national laws, therefore undermining implementation.90 Profound impacts of economic expansion on the rights of indigenous peoples reliant on the environment and biodiversity are often ignored. 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 Geraldo Wilson Fernandes et al (2016) https://cirdi.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Deep-into-themud-ecological-and-socio-economic-impacts-of-the-dam-breach-in-Mariana-Brazil.pdf; Carlos Machado de Freitas et al (2019) https://doi.org/10.5123/S1679-49742019000100020. The Society for Threatened Peoples, Incomindios, and the Swiss Indigenous Network, on special request and on behalf of Angohó Pataxó representing Naô Xohã and Áurea Anacé representing Japuara (2019) . Carlos Machado de Freitas et al (2019) https://doi.org/10.5123/S1679-49742019000100020; Evangelina da Motta Pacheco Alves de Araujo Vormittag et al (2018) https://www.scielo.br/pdf/asoc/v21/1809-4422-asoc-21-e01222.pdf. UNICEF (2018) https://www.unicef.org/about/annualreport/files/Brazil_2018_COAR.pdf. Giovani Baggio et al (December 2018) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329778243_Indoor_Air_Pollution_and_Respiratory_Diseas es_in_Rural_Areas_of_North_and_Northeast_Brazil. Brazil Chamber of Deputies (2019); Villarreal Villamar et al (2018) 7 https://www.aacademica.org/maria.del.carmen.villarreal.villamar/22.pdf. Claudia M. Vega et al (2018 May 23) doi: 10.3390/ijerph15061051; Brazil Chamber of Deputies (2019); Portal Fiocruz ( https://portal.fiocruz.br ). Vega et al (2018) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29789499. Paulo Gilvane Lopes Pena et al (2020) https://www.scielo.br/pdf/csp/v36n2/en_1678-4464-csp-3602-e00231019.pdf. Conectas Human Rights, Instituto Socioambiental, Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples of the DHESCA Brazil Platform (2016) https://www.uprinfo.org/sites/default/files/document/brazil/session_27_-_may_2017/js22_upr27_bra_e_main.pdf. 11

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