17 December 2024. For over 30 years, the Piquiá de Baixo community suffered from the devastating consequences of air, water and soil pollution, caused by the activities of mining corporation Vale S.A. and steel companies such as Grupo Ferroeste. Residents lived with constant threats to their health as a result of environmental degradation, with several cases of lung cancer, skin and eye diseases, and burns.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member organisations Justiça Nos Trilhos and Justiça Global extensively documented the crisis in their reports, supporting communities and human rights defenders in their years-long advocacy.
Regrettably, a follow-up report showed that the companies kept avoiding responsibility for remedying their activities’ impacts and providing reparations, enabled by weak national standards and omissions from the authorities.
These collective efforts resulted in an appeal to Brazil’s government from the UN Special Rapporteur on toxics. Yet, facing continued corporate resistance, FIDH decided to send companies an "invitation" to Piquiá de Baixo so that they could see with their eyes what business as usual means for people whose rights are violated on a daily basis.
Thanks to relentless campaigning, the people of Piquiá can now enjoy decent housing conditions and are united in preserving the memory of the old district, where an environmental park is to be built. FIDH congratulates the community and all the civil society and grassroots organisations that fought to obtain remedy in the face of corporate impunity. The fight for environmental justice and full reparations for all human rights abuses by corporate actors in the area keeps going.