April 27th at 6pm BRT
Indigenous Peoples Memorial, Brasília - DF, 70070-300, Brazil
Organised by:
Stop Ecocide International, Planète Amazone, The King Leopold III Fund, Memorial Dos Povos Indigenas
What is missing to genuinely deter and prevent the mass destruction of nature or “ecocide”? This event explores how criminal law, and especially international criminal law, could recognize and integrate into law the profound understanding of indigenous peoples: that damaging Mother Earth has serious consequences.
Learn about the fast growing global movement behind legal recognition of ecocide as a crime, and political developments around the world; how it can create accountability at the top of government and industry; and the direct deep relevance for recognition of indigenous rights and culture and also the demarcation and protection of their territories.
Recognition of ecocide is an effective way to preserve indigenous territories (which are supposed to be demarcated, according to the Constitution). This law, which is closely linked to crimes against humanity, will give indigenous peoples an essential tool to protect their ancestral territories.
Speakers:
HRH Esmeralda of Belgium
journalist, author and keynote speaker. She has also co-produced three documentaries and written books about her family, environmental issues and female Nobel Peace Prize winners.
Daughter of King Leopold III, who visited the Xingu with the Vilas Boas in 1964, she is the President of Leopold III Fund for Nature Exploration and Conservation created by her late father in 1972.
A campaigner for the environment and human rights, particularly for the rights of Indigenous Peoples, she is an ambassador for Stop Ecocide International and Chair of Friendship Belgium. Making this film gave her the opportunity to follow in her father's footsteps into the lands of the Kayapo peoples, nearly 60 years after him.
Sydney Ferreira Possuelo
Brazilian explorer, social activist and ethnographer who is considered the leading authority on Brazil's remaining isolated Indigenous Peoples.
Sydney Possuelo started his career assisting the famous Villas Boas brothers with their work among indigenous peoples of the Xingu River area. Later he became the Director of the Department of Indigenous in Isolation (Departamento de Indios Isolados) at the FUNAI (National Indian Foundation of Brazil), doubling the surface size of officially designated Indigenous land in Brazil in only two years.
Possuelo has led many expeditions, getting in contact with isolated tribes in Brazil, with the aim to protect them from outsiders. He was responsible, among others, for the restoration of peaceful contact with the Korubo Indians, who had previously killed some FUNAI officials. Possuelo is still continuing his efforts at defending isolated tribes through the non-governmental Instituto Indigenista Interamericano.
Jojo Mehta
Jojo Mehta co-founded Stop Ecocide in 2017, alongside legal pioneer the late Polly Higgins, to support making severe harm to nature an international crime.
As key spokesperson and Executive Director of Stop Ecocide International, Jojo has overseen the remarkable growth of the global movement while coordinating legal developments, diplomatic traction and public narrative. She is also Chair of the charitable Stop Ecocide Foundation and convenor of the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide chaired by Philippe Sands QC and Dior Fall Sow.
The core work to make ecocide an international crime at the international criminal court, is supported and progressed by a large network of over 45 teams and associate groups globally. There are over 50 thousand endorsing signatories across civil society and faith groups, and a growing number of endorsing businesses and organisations.
Gert-Peter Bruch
Director and keynote speaker on environmental issues and co-founder of the Alliance of Mother Nature’s Guardians. After the success of ‘Terra Libre’ his first documentary film “Terra Libre” on the topic of the Amazon forests and the strong detailed impact it had among his peers, he decided to direct this film to a wider audience.
Gert-Peter Bruch has been committed to the protection of the Amazonian forest for over 30 years: he organized or contributed to 7 international campaigns of Chief Raoni Metuktire, and arranged diplomatic trips for representatives of indigenous peoples around the world.
Rodrigo Lledó
Lawyer with a Masters in Constitutional Law and PhD in Law. He worked at the National Commission on Political Prisoners and Torture (Valech Commission-Chile) and was Head of the Legal Department of the Human Rights Programme of the Chilean Ministry of Home Affairs.
He has been Director of Baltasar Garzón International Foundation (FIBGAR) for four years. He was also a member of the "Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide".
He is currently a Professor at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR). Vice-president of the Foundation "Human Rights Without Borders" and Director for Latin America of Stop Ecocide International.
Moderated by:
Dan Baron
Eco Brasil