CAFOD director writes to Nick Clegg ahead of the Deputy PM’s Brazil visit

Ahead of the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg’s 3-day visit to Brazil, on the 20th June, CAFOD Director, Chris Bain wrote to Mr Clegg urging him to raise important environmental and humanitarian issues with the Brazilian government.

In his letter, Chris acknowledged that while the visit is related to UK trade, Mr Clegg should raise the issues of forest clearances in the Amazon and the surge in violence towards social and environmental activists fighting the deforestation.

The letter is also accompanied by a short briefing which discusses the issues in more detail and calls on Mr Clegg to ask the Brazilian government to:

• stop the increase in deforestation in the Amazon Basin
• veto the proposed changes to the Forest Code
• provide protection against violence for social and environmental activists
• bring to justice the individuals who have ordered the recent killings of activists
• release those activists wrongly facing imprisonment for standing up for social justice.

In the letter, Mr Bain states, ‘Your supporters look to you personally as a champion of environmental issues, social justice and human rights within the Coalition government, and will look to you next week to have the leadership and conviction to defend those principles and raise these issues your visit to Brazil. The Coalition’s objective to be the ‘greenest government ever’ cannot stop at the water’s edge.’

Find out more

The briefing paper and letter can be downloaded from this page.