The Austrian NGO AllRise assures us that the administration of the Brazilian president is responsible for the deforestation of some 4,000 km2 of Amazon rainforest each year. Tuesday, October 12, she filed a complaint before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “crimes against humanity” against Jair Bolsonaro for his role in Amazon deforestation and its expected impacts on life and human health around the world .
While the rate of deforestation has increased by 88% since the far-right leader came to power, according to the NGO, this complaint, which the ICC is not required to follow up, has taken place. relies in particular on the rapidly expanding science of “attribution” consequences of climate change.
“We want to understand the causal link with the global climate of what is happening in Brazil, of this massive deforestation”, Austrian founder of AllRise, Johannes Wesemann, told AFP. “This is exactly (…) the definition of a crime against humanity: the intentional destruction of the environment and its defenders.”
According to studies, such as the recent IPCC assessment report on climate change, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has transformed this fundamental carbon sink for the planet into a net emitter of CO2 in 2020. The experts who worked on this complaint estimate that the emissions attributable to deforestation under the current Brazilian administration will cause more than 180,000 additional deaths worldwide by the end of the century.
President Bolsonaro is already the target of several complaints before the ICC. In January 2021, the cacique Raoni Matuktire, emblematic defender of the Amazon rainforest, had already asked the ICC to investigate for “crimes against humanity” against the head of state, accused of “persecute” indigenous peoples by destroying their habitat and violating their fundamental rights.
In July 2020, health workers in Brazil also requested an ICC investigation for “crimes against humanity” against Bolsonaro, this time for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the ICC, created in 2002 to try the worst atrocities committed in the world and which sits in The Hague (Netherlands), is not forced to follow up on the thousands of requests filed with its prosecutor, who decides independently of the cases to be submitted to judges.