Brazil: Group wins Human Rights Award for Covid-19 emergency response

ISA meeting with indigenous leaders

Source: CAFOD

The Socio-environmental Institute (ISA), working alongside UK charity CAFOD, has won the Human Rights Award of the European Union 2020 for their work with indigenous communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The award, launched by the Delegation of the European Union in Brazil, hopes "to recognise, encourage and give visibility to an emblematic ongoing project carried out by a Brazilian Civil Society Organization."

ISA, which has worked for many years alongside indigenous grassroots organisations in the Brazilian Amazon, was presented the award for their special programmes to help indigenous communities and traditional rural communities to protect themselves against coronavirus.

Cecilia Iorio, the Brazil representative for charity CAFOD, said: "We would like to say a massive congratulations to ISA for their amazing work over the past year.

"Despite incredibly challenging circumstances, they have grown their programmes to encompass an emergency response and support indigenous and rural communities with life-saving information and resources."

During the pandemic, ISA's projects included developing vital COVID-19 communications in native languages to dispel misinformation. Additionally, they developed remote medical care and provided life-saving support ranging from generators to personal protective equipment, as well as oxygen cylinders and rapid COVID-19 tests.

ISA's emergency response has so far supported almost 70,000 people across five territories, covering more than 50 million hectares of forest - an area equivalent to Spain.

Currently, the situation for rural and indigenous communities in the Brazilian Amazon is increasingly treacherous.

In addition to increasing coronavirus infections - as of 2 March 2021, there were 49,662 confirmed cases within Indigenous communities and 978 deaths - and the spread of the new variant, the Federal Government's dismantling of environmental legislation which protected indigenous lands and conservation areas has led to increased illegal logging and mining and violence in the region.

This means that the work of ISA - and other grassroots organisations - is more vital than ever.