Speakers: Julissa Mantilla Falcón, President, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR); Miguel Mesquita, Human Rights Officer Coordinator, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR); Steve Levitsky, Professor of Government, Harvard University; Director, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies; Jamil Chade, Journalist
Moderated by: Sidney Chalhoub, Professor of History and African and African-American Studies, Harvard University; Natalia Viana, Nieman Fellow, Harvard University; Co-founder and Co-director, Agência Pública
Over the last two years the UN included Brazil in a list of 40 countries in which the human rights situation is “worrisome”. Another international organization, Human Rights Watch, warned that president Bolsonaro “has tried to undermine the foundations of democracy by attacking the judiciary and repeating baseless claims of electoral fraud”. On top of that, the past two elections were marked by unprecedented levels of violence that has caught the attention of international observers. (link 2018) (link 2020). In its latest country report, the OAS pointed out the increasing attacks on freedom of expression of professors, journalists and human rights advocates through online and judicial harassment. Amid uncertainty, international organizations such as the OAS are in talks to send observers to monitor the elections in October. In this panel, Steve Levitsky, Director of DRCLAS and author of the best-selling book “How Democracies Die”, Julissa Mantilla Falcón, President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and award-winning journalist Jamil Chade will discuss the threats to democracy and human rights in Brazil ahead of the elections, and the path to move forward.
Presented in collaboration with Agência Pública
