Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I come from a position of concern. I see his election as a clear threat to democracy in Brazil. He was a captain in the military during the brutal dictatorship and said its only crime was that it did not kill enough people. He has called indigenous communities "parasites", called for tens of thousands of his opponents to be arrested and the police to extrajudicially kill more people and told a Senator famous for promoting human rights that she was too ugly to be raped. That is the type of individual about whom we are talking, yet the Minister suggests he should remain silent and has no comment to make yet on any of these actions. Last week the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence heard from the representative of an NGO in Brazil. She detailed the extreme fear Mr. Bolsonaro had created in the country. In his written reply to me the Minister stated: "Ireland looks forward to maintaining our strong relationship with Brazil in the future and will continue efforts to advance our interests and values in our engagement with the new government." Is any of it based on human rights due diligence? Last November the Minister launched a national plan on business and human rights, but in his written reply to me there was no mention of human rights. I am concerned about where this is going.

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