“IACHR to investigate brazilian government and mining companies for human rights violations during the pandemic based on stories by the Mining Observatory”, 17 May 2021

...The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) accepted a complaint from union entities about the agglomerations of workers and the violations of rights during the pandemic in the operations of Brazilian mining companies. The Brazilian government has been notified and has 90 days, until the end of July, to manifest itself. If the Brazilian State does not comment, a new notification will be sent which, if ignored again, could lead the Commission to proceed with the complaint and the investigations. Initially, however, the IACHR seeks a “friendly solution”. Early in the pandemic, after the first accusations of agglomeration in mining companies, the federal government was approached by representatives of the sector and published an regulation on a Saturday night to consider mining an essential activity. Stories made by the Mining Observatory that showed, with videos and photos, the situation of workers in the operations of several mining companies, such as Vale in Pará and Minas and CSN in Minas Gerais, were cited in the complaint made to the IACHR...“Mining carried out in an uncontrolled and unlimited manner during the pandemic is contributing to increase the contamination of workers and the communities where they operate”, says Maximiliano Garcez, a lawyer who filed the complaint with the IACHR...The complaint also requires transparency in the number of infected workers; the creation of a technical body to assist in the identification of urgent needs that require the continuation of mining activities, revoking mining as an essential activity; maintaining jobs and wages for workers whose activities are suspended because of the risk of contamination; and that adequate working conditions of social distance and protection against contamination are guaranteed for the mining services that are considered essential...