"As always, the poor population from the favelas is the one to suffer the worst consequences of this militarisation." Security operation at the 2016 Olympic Games. Wikimedia/Tomaz Silva/Agência Brasil. Some rights reserved. I arrived in Rio de Janeiro from my hometown in northern Brazil exactly one month before the opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, to help film a campaign about human rights defenders (HRDs) for Front Line Defenders. As I left the airport, welcome signs to the Olympics on a solid plastic wall effectively hid the poverty at the entrance to the city. This was my introduction to the efforts of the government to hide Rio's problems from international tourists, athletes, and journalists visiting us this month.
Sporting mega-events often take place at the expense of local populations. Governments from Azerbaijan to Russia to Bahrain have hosted international games, reaping the financial and reputational reward whilst punishing those who work to expose human rights violations behind the glamour. Rio de Janeiro faced similar problems in 2007 and 2014, when the city hosted the Pan-American Games and the World Cup respectively. This summer, Rio is hosting another mega-event, and human rights defenders are facing renewed challenges as they work to protect those most vulnerable from the negative impacts of the Olympics. “I know the problems this city faces, but the killings of black and poor youth in the favelas is much more urgent — these are lives which are taken away and society could not care less about this reality.”
Brazil is known for topping the list of human rights defenders killed in 2016, with at least 24 HRDs killed in the first third of the year. HRDs working in Rio de Janeiro on different human rights issues have been brutally persecuted and silenced.
