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Brazil: IDWF Public Statement Justice for Miguel #BlackLivesMatter

Brazil: IDWF Public Statement Justice for Miguel #BlackLivesMatter

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by IDWFED published Jun 07, 2020 12:00 AM
We stand in solidarity and in support with our affiliates in Brazil, the National Domestic Workers Federation FENATRAD in its daily struggle against racism and join the global voices to demand #JusticeForMiguel, justice for João Pedro Matos, a Black 14 years old boy who was shot dead by the police in Rio de Janeiro on May 18th, and justice for Marielle Franco, murdered for being an outspoken voice for Black and queer population from the slums, and so many others.

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Brazil -

The  global domestic workers family - the International Domestic Workers Federation,  is once again mourning the loss of a Black life, the death of Miguel Otávio Santana da Silva, a 5-year -old Black child of a domestic worker in Recife, Brazil on June 3.

Miguel’s death occurred while he was in his mother’s workplace.  His mother, a Black domestic worker,  was not granted her right to a  paid quarantine, as supposed to be provided by her employer. The employer, SARÍ GASPAR CÔRTE REAL, white woman and wife of the mayor of the city of Tamandaré, Brazil, summoned Miguel’s mother for work despite the quarantine. Schools being closed, Miguel went with her to work. The mother was forced to go down to walk the employer’s dog while the employer, who was doing her nails, stayed in the apartment with the child. As Miguel kept asking for his mother, the employer, “annoyed” by the child, put the 5 year old  in the lift and sent him to the 9th floor; later Miguel was found dead in the courtyard of the building after falling from the 9th floor. 

The employer paid a fine of about USD$4,030 and was released on bail. She is being accused of involuntary manslaughter (with no intention to kill), and possibly negligence and abandonment of a vulnerable person, depending on the line that will be taken by local investigation authorities.  The police and media have treated the case as an "accident". The mother and grandmother of Miguel have just been confirmed to be infected with covid-19.

These stories are unacceptable and should never happen. Such tragedies are not isolated incidents but rather consequences of systemic racism and as the living legacy of slavery and the disenfranchisement of Black, colored, and indigenous communities in Brazil and across the globe.

Just as the IDWF is behind our affiliates in the US in calling for action supporting the #BlackLivesMatter movement, we understand the global dimension of the work that needs to be done in order to end these tragedies. We are committed to fight for racial, economic gender, and social justice in order to dismantle the various systems of oppression which render domestic workers, majorities of whom are women of marginalized communities, highly vulnerabile. 

We stand in solidarity and in support with our affiliates in Brazil, the National Domestic Workers Federation FENATRAD in its daily struggle against racism and join the global voices to demand #JusticeForMiguel, justice for João Pedro Matos, a Black 14 years old boy who was shot dead by the police in Rio de Janeiro on May 18th, and justice for Marielle Franco, murdered for being an outspoken voice for Black and queer population from the slums, and so many others. 

Please sign and share the following online petitions and campaigns in support of domestic workers’s call for justice for Miguel in Brazil:

#BlackLivesMatter #VidasNegrasImportan


Source: Justiça por Miguel

Story Type: News

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