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 COVID19 website, and discrediting statistics of COVID19 cases, already impeded by low capacity to conduct testing and slow roll-out of testing kits,143 obscured health data, particularly regarding favelas and rural areas. VII. Access to justice and right to an effective remedy 81. Everyone in Brazil has the right to an effective remedy for violations and abuses of human rights from exposure to hazardous substances. This is principally the duty of the State. However, when such abuses occur, businesses have corresponding responsibilities. 144 82. Brazil has made progress in ensuring fulfilment of the right to remedy. Human rights institutions, including the strengthened Federal Public Defender’s Office for Citizens’ Rights, and public prosecutors, have contributed to improving access to justice. 145 For example, the Public Defender’s and Public Prosecutor’s office have been instrumental in advocating for victims affected by the Brumadinho dam collapse, and the communities in Piquiá de Baixo. There have also been notable efforts at improving health services to address health impacts of toxic exposure, as explained earlier in the report. 83. In addition, a good practice in Brazil is the concept of indirect liability. This equitable doctrine can help ensure accountability of investors and other beneficiaries for human rights abuses.146 Brazil notably improved remediation processes to address the Brumadinho disaster relative to the Mariana disaster, described below. 84. Whether for illnesses arising from chronic exposure to toxic substances with some level of scientific uncertainty, or the remediation processes, Brazil faces challenges in upholding its obligations to ensure that victims of toxic exposure realise their right to access to justice. For example, the people of Piquiá de Baixo continue to suffer from the 1970s to date, with uncertainty as to if and when their promised remedy will finally materialize. 147 85. Accountability and reparations for victims is wanting, where in many cases nobody is held accountable for unquestionable environmental crimes, attacks, and murders. For example, investigations and prosecutions failed to hold accountable the perpetrators of the murder of José (Zé) Maria do Tomé, who advocated for protection against poisoning by aerial spraying of pesticides.148 Following the Mariana and Brumadinho disasters, no corporate executive of Vale, BHP or Samarco stands convicted of criminal conduct, a travesty of justice suggesting some in Brazil are indeed above the law. 86. An effective remedy includes access to healthcare. While the Unified Health System enables such access, challenges exist. Healthcare service provision in rural areas, acknowledging efforts including AMBIU ambulances, still is lacking.149 Various examples exist including in the oil and gas industry, where there is a lack of regard for healthcare provision as part of accountability and reparations for victims. For example, in Piquiá de Baixo, community members reported that when children are taken to a health centre, insufficient diagnoses carried out, and general medication given for cases suspected to be air pollution impacts. Heightened vulnerability of the community members including chronic respiratory diseases places them in a situation of particular concern of susceptibility to COVID19.150 Moreover, mental health needs remain unsatisfactorily addressed among 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 Medicins Sans Frontieres (17 June 2020) https://www.msf.org/coronavirus-covid-19-nightmarecontinues-brazil. A/74/480. IACHR (2018) https://www.oas.org/es/cidh/prensa/comunicados/2018/238OPeng.pdf. https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=c1e1fda7-68f2-4572-8a53-ec02e4869488. FIDH, JnT (May 2019) https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/bresil734anglaisweb2019.pdf. Aliança pela Alimentação (2019) ; State of Ceara by State Law N. 16.280 of January 20, 2019. Carol Davy et al (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-016-0450-5. FIDH, JnT and Associação Comunitária dos Moradores de Piquiá (March 2020); FIDH (29 April 2020) https://www.fidh.org/en/region/americas/brazil/brazil-pandemic-disproportionately-impactscommunities-affected-by. 17