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News > Latin America

Brazil: PT Calls for Implementation of UN Decision on Lula's Political Rights

  • Landless Workers Movement members take to the streets in favor of Lula's presidential candidacy.

    Landless Workers Movement members take to the streets in favor of Lula's presidential candidacy. | Photo: EFE

Published 18 August 2018
Opinion

“It's impossible to hide the violations practiced in Brazil by sectors of the judicial system," the Workers' Party said.

Brazil's Workers' Party (PT) has hailed the decision made by United Nation's Human Rights Committee calling for the restoration of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's political rights. A move, which would allow him to become a presidential candidate in the upcoming presidential election.

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“It's impossible to hide the violations practiced in Brazil by sectors of the judicial system, in cooperation with Globo (a media network), the mainstream media and the coup government from the rest of the world. Either comply with the United Nations decision or put Brazil on the list of lawless, undemocratic nations,” PT president, Gleisi Hoffmann, said in a public statement.

She later tweeted that it must be clarified to Brazilian authorities that the U.N. decision “is not a recommendation,” but an “obligatory requirement” that must be fulfilled by the government.

Brazil's former Minister of Defense and Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, supported Hoffmann's claim adding that the South American country had just two options, either “fulfill (their international commitments) or become an international pariah.”

Officials from Brazil's Senate-imposed government, led by president Michel Temer, were quick to rebuke the U.N. decision, calling it a “recommendation” adding that it has no “binding effect” on the country's judiciary.

The U.N. decision, which includes Lula's right to participate in media events and debates, as well as convene with members of his Workers' Party, comes despite the fact that the former head of state remains imprisoned at Curitiba's federal police station. The U.N. committee also said Lula should not be prevented from participating in the elections until all of his legal appeals have been exhausted, per Brazil's Constitution.

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