Brazil’s indigenous leaders and human rights groups are appealing to an international court to prosecute the country’s president for crimes against humanity for removing environmental protections in the Amazon rainforest.
According to reports, William Bourdon, a lawyer from Paris, filed a request on Friday for a preliminary investigation into Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
“It’s a very urgent matter,” Bourdon told The Guardian. “We are running against the clock, given the destruction of the Amazon.”
Since Bolsonaro took office in 2019, deforestation has increased by nearly 50 percent in the Amazon region, which covers much of Brazil, and invasions of native territories by miners and ranchers in the wild have increased by 135 percent, according to a Brazilian environmental advocate. report.
Bourdon wants Bolsonaro to be tried for “ecocide,” which refers to causing long-term damage to the environment and indigenous people. The lawyer filed the 68-page complaint on behalf of indigenous leaders Almir Surui and Raoni Metuktire.