Chinaglia asks for extension of human rights in all sectors
On Monday (15), the Chamber’s President, Arlindo Chinaglia, highlighted that Brazil still has to advance a great deal in extending human rights in their economy, social, environmental and cultural aspects.
Chinaglia participated in the opening of the 11th National Conference on Human Rights, in Brasilia.
The president of the Chamber lamented the fact that bills related to that subject have not yet been approved, such as the Bill 4715/94 from the Executive, which transforms the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Human Being, created in 1964, in the National Council on Human Rights. The text had been approved by the Chamber in 2001, but was returned to the House because it was changed by the Senate.
“That Project counts with my support, but I am not able to influence the legislative process”, he affirmed.
CPI on abortion
When Chinaglia commented on that, he also answered to protests from the Convention Floor against the installation of the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee (CPI) on Abortion, which had been approved last week.
He explained that the installation of a CPI does not depend on his will, but on the Internal Rules of the Chamber, which preview a necessary number of signatures for that. In the case of the Abortion CPI, the request for its opening counted with 210 signatures, 39 more than the minimum required. “The President of the Chamber has to comply with the law to make a decision on which CPI can actually be installed or not”, he highlighted.
A public health issue
The President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defended the discussion about abortion in Brazil, which, according to him, needs to be dealt with as an issue of public health.
“It is not about being for or against it, but about very frankly discussing it. If they ask me, I openly say I am against it, but we ask ourselves about how many rich women make abortions even in other countries, while the poor ones die in the peripheries of the great urban centers of Brazil? We cannot be afraid of debating that issue”, said Lula.
He announced that the bill creating a protection program to defenders of human rights will be sent to National Congress.
Practice
The president of the Committee on Human Rights and Minorities, Deputy Pompeo de Mattos (PDT-RS), also highlighted the need to enhance the guarantee of globalization of rights: “it is not enough to declare human rights. It is necessary to reaffirm them and to enforce them effectively in daily life, on behalf of prisoners, of political amnestied people, of the amnestied of Collor Plan, of African-Brazilians, of quilombolas, of people with disabilities, of elderly and retired people, of the ones who expect from us an affirmative fight.”
Rights of people with disabilities
Arlindo Chinaglia highlighted the importance of the ratification by the Chamber, which happened in May 2008, of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, signed in New York in 2007. “When the subject has that magnitude, even in a House in which divergences are its very wealth, it receives great approval. There were 353 favorable votes and only 4 abstentions”, reminded Chinaglia.
Participation
1,200 delegates from all over the country attended the opening of the conference, at the Ulysses Guimarães Convention Center. The Deputies Sebastião Bala Rocha (PDT-AP), Pedro Wilson (PT-GO) and Luiz Couto (PT-PB), all from the Committee on Human Rights, also participated in it.
Report - Mônica Montenegro/Rádio Câmara
Editing - João Pitella Junior/Rejane Xavier
Translation – Positive Idiomas Ltda