The Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) addressed on November the 3rd a letter to the federal government in which the movement show concerns about a possible setback in the Presidential Decree that recognizes a broad concept of the people affected by dams.

President Lula signed late October last year the decree 7.342/2010 that established a socioeconomic register of people affected by dams. A year later, the regulation of this decree has not been completed by the Provisional Committee, coordinated by the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

Among the advances of the decree was a broad concept of people affected by dams, including those who have their livelihoods affected by the construction and not just the landowners, the obligation to make the register prior to licensing, and the obligation that registering should be performed by the State and not by contractors.

“We believe these points are being modified in the regulatory process and demonstrate a decline in the governments commitment to state publicly that Brazil has a historical debt to the people affected by dams,” says the letter from the MAB.

Read the full document:

Sao Paulo, November 3, 2011

Dear Sir,

The Presidential Decree 7.342/2010 signed by President Lula and establishing a socioeconomic register of people affected by dams, was understood by the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) as a positive initiative to take steps toward the creation of policies to correct the violation of the rights of populations affected by dams.

Exactly one year the Provisional Committee, coordinated by the Ministry of Mines and Energy, has been working on the regulations of this Decree. Several times MAB expressed concern about the slow progress, making propositions.

In recent days the movement had access to ministerial ordinance under review by the Committee, on which we express our sole concern, since it has a clear intent to backtrack on several points where the Decree advances, such as the concept of people affected, the period of realization, those responsible for the implementation as well as the purpose of registration. We are concerned that these points are being modified in the regulatory process and demonstrate a decline in the government commitment to state publicly that Brazil has a historical debt to the populations affected by dams.

Several times MAB had shown that there is a clear setback for the treatment of social and environmental issues, and the report of the Council of Defense of Human Rights (CDDPH) came to prove that “there is a pattern of violation of human rights in areas where dams are constructed”, indeed unacceptable facts during this positive momentum in Brazil.

We fear that the Presidential Decree that obtains to repair past mistakes and advance on the recognition of a treatment policy, quickly becomes a dead letter.

Therefore, we consider urgent to establish the dialogue, and that actions concerning this issue should been taken as follows:

• Based on the interministral proposal, we will apoint again suggestions that we believe to be relevant in the debate and we will send those to the government before November, 20;
• After the delivery of this document, we request a meeting with the Interministerial Committee in order to establish an agreement between the government and the affected people for the regulation of the Decree.

We hope that all are motivated to move forward towards creating mechanisms to protect people affected by the construction of dams, we require proper attention to this important moment in the regulation of the Decree.

 
Sincerely,

National coordination of MAB