Robert F Kennedy Memorial

Journeys for Justice is a form of direct advocacy that supports the social change being affected by our Human Rights Laureates. It is geared to individuals wishing to remain engaged in the vital work being done by these human rights defenders. Journeys for Justice delegations provide human rights supporters the unique opportunity to directly strengthen our Laureates' work through joining high-profile delegations led by members of the Kennedy family that bring international attention to the issues our Laureates champion. Delegation members meet with our Laureates, speak with the beneficiaries of their efforts, and meet with people experiencing direct threats to their human rights. Additionally, members meet with the leaders of the countries visited, prominent local and national governmental officials, and other stakeholders. Delegation members will thereby acquire an intimate perspective on some of todayís most critical issues. A valuable result produced by these delegations is raising the RFK Laureates' visibility (many of whose lives have been threatened in the past), thereby heightening attention by host-country officials and the international community to the Laureatesí work. Delegations may meet with the press either in-country or upon their return Stateside, further highlighting initiatives of concern to our Laureates in an effort to expand the broader American and international public's interest in and understanding of these critical issues.

A high-level delegation, led by Mrs. Ethel Kennedy, spent a week in Brazil (May 8-14, 2003) studying the issues of impunity and land reform. The delegation was hosted by our 2001 Human Rights Laureate, Mr. Darci Frigo, and included: the Honorable Bruce Babbitt, former Secretary of Interior under President Clinton and former Governor of Arizona; the Honorable Christine Stewart, former Canadian Minister of Environment and Secretary of State for Latin America and Africa; Ambassador Harriet Babbitt, former US Ambassador to the OAS and former Deputy Administrator of USAID; and Dr. Rafael Espada, a Guatemalan cardiovascular surgeon and humanitarian.

Abolition Table
Delegation surrounding table where slavery was officially abolished in Brazil on May 13, 1885, in the Itamaraty, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in BrasÌlia. (from left) Leandro Gorsdforf, Bruce Babbitt, Christine Stewart, Rafael Espada, Hattie Babbitt, Darci Frigo, Ethel Kennedy, Todd Howland, Lynn Delaney, Camila Moreno, Emily Goldman. Photo by: Emily S. Goldman.

The delegation traveled to Brazil to support Darciís work with the land rights movement. The delegates sought to investigate the impunity on the state level that has thus far hindered a speedy and just resolution in two cases where landless workers were targeted, framed, arrested, tortured, and disappeared as a direct result of their attempts to gain legal access to land as mandated by the Brazilian Constitution.

One case deals with the disappearance nearly two years ago of Mr. Amil Muniz in the Fazenda Tanques plantation in the northeastern state of ParaÌba, and the lack of an investigation into his disappearance and presumed death, or even a search for his remains. The delegation met with the Vice-Governor of ParaÌba, Ms. MarÌa Lauraemilia Assis de Lucena, to discuss the two pending impunity cases.

(from left) father of Amil Muniz, disappeared land rights activist from Fazenda Tanques, ParaÌba; Severina Muniz, wife of Amil Muniz; Vice-Governor of state of ParaÌba MarÌa Lauraemilia Assis de Lucena; Ethel Kennedy; mother of Amil Muniz; Christine Stewart. Photo by: Emily S. Goldman.

The second case involves the arrest and subsequent torture one year ago of eight land-rights activists in the state of ParaÌba. This case is related to Sergio Azevedo, a corrupt police officer (since fired from the police force) who is widely presumed to have had an active role in the disappearance of Mr. Muniz (case mentioned above). After over a year of being detained, the eight were finally charged with homicide, yet have had no trial and the only ìproofî is the policeman's word against them, with no witnesses and no physical evidence supporting his denunciation (nor any formal attempt to find such). Mrs. Kennedy, the other delegates, and RFK staffers met with the eight prisoners in the prison in Jo‚o Pessoa, capital of the state of ParaÌba. The delegation discussed this case with virtually all of the authorities with whom they met ñ both on the state and federal levels ñ urging that the men be released pending the setting of a trial date.

On 19 December 2003, the detainees were finally released on their own recognizance pending the setting of a trial date. The detaineesí lawyers believe that their trial will not be held for a few months. The CHR was overjoyed to hear this news, as we had put sustained pressure on the ParaÌba state authorities, the US Embassy in BrasÌlia, and the state and federal judicial authorities overseeing the case, asking for the detaineesí release pending a trial being held. We will now redouble our efforts to advocate for a fair trial.

Additionally, the delegation studied the landless issue in Brazil and President Lula`s campaign promise to immediately put in place an equitable land reform program as part of his Zero Hunger Initiative [or www.fomezero.gov.br]. The delegates sought creative mechanisms that might possibly be feasible to use in facilitating Zero Hungerís successful and timely implementation. The group met with two important components of Brazilís social movements the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) [or www.cptnac.com.br or www.rightlivelihood.se/recip/cpt.htm] of the states of ParaÌba and Pernambuco and the Landless Workers' Movement (MST).

The delegates particularly enjoyed two moving encounters with revered Brazilian land-rights activists who had previously met Robert and Ethel Kennedy on their trip to Brazil's Northeast in 1965. Euclides Nascimento and Padre Crespo were in their early 30s and already actively pushing for equitable land reform when they met RFK, who changed his planned itinerary to enable him to meet with farmers and landless people and hear directly from them of their plight. His own close friendship with the champion of Americaís farmworkers, CÈsar Chavez, had made RFK acutely aware of the need for land and fair working conditions as a prerequisite to the consolidation of a just society. Thus it was that RFK took a particular interest in hearing from Euclides and Padre Crespo as to how these issues played out in Brazil.

Such was the power of this encounter, that over 30 years earlier, on meeting Ethel Kennedy and the delegation, they emotionally related in a detailed and lyrical fashion the exchanges that had taken place between themselves and RFK. Euclides noted that he has used the insights and commentaries RFK communicated to him ever since in his continuing work organizing landless workers to advocate and fight for their own land. Both were very proud and pleased to be able to see Ethel Kennedy again and personally relate to her how their professional lives, they feel, have directly been intertwined, after a fashion, to RFK's legacy and dreams.

(LEFT from left) Padre Crespo, Ethel Kennedy, Euclides Nascimento, two land rights activists who met RFK on his visit to the Northeast in 1965. Photo by: Emily S. Goldman.

(RIGHT) Bruce Babbitt speaks to Padre Crespo (l.) and Euclides Nascimento, land rights activists who met RFK on his visit to the Northeast in 1965. Photo by: Emily S. Goldman.

The delegatesí second memorable and moving encounter occurred when they spent a day with Mrs. Elizabeth Teixeira, widow of Jo„o Pedro Teixeira, a beloved land-rights activist whom RFK met in 1965 and who was assassinated shortly thereafter. Mrs. Teixeira, now in her late 70s or early 80s, was proud and happy to (again) meet Mrs. Kennedy. She was quite modest when telling of her own accomplishments as a land-rights activist to carry on Jo„o Pedroís fight ñ work she began with a solemn vow to her deceased husband after identifying his body at the morgue.

At the time of his murder, she was a mother and homemaker to upwards of 10 children and had previously taken no active part in the landless movement. His murder changed that, inspiring her to not let his message and his fight die with him. Mrs. Teixeiraís life has been replete with sadness, violence, intimidation, and death of loved ones. And yet in her words to the delegation she demonstrated the incredible strength that has carried her through challenge after challenge without losing her sense of self, her human dignity, and pride in her work to obtain land rights for the landless. It is her way of keeping her beloved husbandís memory alive, she noted. A landless community visited by the delegation is currently in the process of building a library that will be named after her husband.

Ethel Kennedy and Elizabeth Teixeira, widow of famed land rights activist Joao Pedro Teixeira, who met RFK in 1965 and was assassinated shortly thereafter. Photo by: Emily S. Goldman.

A number of landless communities were visited, permitting the delegation to witness both ends of the land reform spectrum. One, a community by the name of Soledade in the state of Paraiba, is a success story. Soledade is found in the semi-arid region of the Northeast where agricultural cultivation is made extremely difficult by the very low level of annual rainfall, the absolute control huge landowners (many of them absentee), joined into mafias, have historically exerted over ground wells and other water sources, as well as communities; lack of accessibility to inputs, assistance, and a way to market their products outside of their immediate community (i.e. the community is far off in the countryside, requiring long traveling distances to sell the products to an outside market). The result had been, heretofore, a complete dependence on the landowners for the life- and crop-giving water, resulting in extreme poverty and ill health, and a lack of solidarity within the community itself.

Recently, however, the community had received some agricultural extension services and inputs from foreign non-governmental organizations and thus been able to build wells to catch and preserve rainwater for irrigation purposes. They are implementing a simple technology wherein they damn underwater rivers where they come to the surface, thereby providing additional arable and irrigated land on which to cultivate their foodstuffs. In a presentation to the delegation, the community leaders proudly listed the many crops they now cultivate, explained the methodologies they employ, and described their newly-found independence from the water mafias. A woman described her pride at being a leader with responsibilities in her community, something she had never previously enjoyed.

A second success story was found in the community of Boa Sorte, ParaÌba state. The community was able to obtain loans to purchase land to cultivate their agricultural crops. They are paying down their debt through a monthly fee and evinced pride in their ability to be more independent than ever before.

Other landless communities visited demonstrated the great unfulfilled need for legal tenure to land, Darci Frigoís goal to which he has dedicated over 20 years of his professional life to achieving. The delegates spoke with community members in Assentamento Padre Gino and heard of their need for land and how their lives would be transformed should they be given such access.

Members of the landless community of Assentamento Padre Gino in ParaÌba state in northeastern Brazil gather to meet RFK delegation and discuss the problems they face stemming from their landlessness. Photo by: Emily S. Goldman.

Following their trip to the Northeast, the delegates met with a variety of government officials in BrasÌlia to discuss the impunity cases mentioned earlier, as well as methods to simultaneously finance critical social programs and pay down Brazilís crushing external debt. While on the campaign trail in 2002, President Luiz In·cio ìLulaî da Silva promised to immediately implement a widespread, equitable land reform. However, upon taking office in January 2003, he vowed to repay the debt (thus calming the international investment community, which feared he would either default on all or part of the debt). The problem, of course, is that the high percentage of the national budget required for keeping such a financial commitment to Brazilís creditors makes it virtually impossible that an adequate amount of funding will be found for implementing the social programs, key among them land reform.

In addition to a number of human rights and civil society organizations, the delegation met with Brazilís social movements. Additionally, meetings were held with Minister of Environment Marina Silva; Special Secretary for Human Rights Nilm·rio Miranda; Secretary General of Foreign Affairs Samuel Pinheiro Guimaraes; President of the Superior Tribunal of Justice Nilson Naves; and Minister of Agrarian Development Miguel Rossetto.

(LEFT from left) Minister of Environment Marina Silva, her translator, Ethel Kennedy, Bruce Babbitt. Photo by: Emily S. Goldman.

(RIGHT) Delegation with Minister of Agrarian Development Miguel Rossetto: (from left) Emily Goldman, Leandro Gorsdorf, Camila Moreno, Darci Frigo, Minister Rossetto, Todd Howland, Ethel Kennedy, Hattie Babbitt, Bruce Babbitt, Christine Stewart, Rafael Espada, Lynn Delaney. Photo by: Emily S. Goldman.

(LEFT) Delegation with President of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice Nilson Naves: (from left) assistant to Naves; Emily Goldman; Camila Moreno; Christine Stewart; Dom Tom·s; Darci Frigo; Ethel Kennedy; President Naves; Hattie Babbitt; Bruce Babbitt; Leandro Gorsdorf; Todd Howland. Photo by: Emily S. Goldman.

(RIGHT) Ethel Kennedy presents a book of RFKís quotations to Special Secretary for Human Rights Nilm·rio Miranda while Todd Howland looks on. Photo by: Emily S. Goldman.