International Reaction

A Largely Superficial Response from the International Community

As the movement in Brazil slowly devolved to a disturbing degree of violence, the protests began to gain more international recognition. The police’s violent and repressive tactics shocked and outraged people on the world stage and incited a response from groups like Amnesty International and the UN Human Rights Office.

Amnesty International published an article condemning the police’s use of teargas and rubber bullets on protestors and calling on police to avoid excessive use of force. These sentiments were echoed by the UN. In a press conference, Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said,

“We call on the Government of Brazil to take all necessary measures to guarantee the right to peaceful assembly and to prevent the disproportionate use of force during protests. We further call on authorities to conduct prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigations into reported excessive force.” (see this article.)

Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, blamed the uprisings in his country (which happened around the same time as the Brazil protests) on an anti-government conspiracy, and suggested that the government of Brazil had been victim to the same conspiracy, consisting of, paraphrased by a news article, “unspecified foreign forces, bankers and foreign and Turkish media outlets.” He suggested, “The same game is now being played over Brazil. The symbols are the same, the posters are the same, Twitter, Facebook are the same, the international media is the same. They [the protests] are being led from the same center.”

Erdogan’s response is indicative of a generally superficial understanding of the protests. He quickly discounts the legitimacy of the protests in Brazil by suggesting they are being led by other sources of power rather than the anger and discontent of an entire population. The response of the UN and Amnesty International pertained to immediate injustices in how the protests were responded to by the government and police force, and they made no comment on the real economic and political injustices that prevail today. American news outlets, with exceptions, fulfilled their journalistic duty by reporting on the protests in reports rather than editorials. Coverage of the issue has disappeared since the actual protests, despite the remaining sentiments of discontent and the likelihood of a renewal of the movement.

A handful of recent articles published by FOX News (see this, for example,) report on the policing of the FIFA World Cup to subvert protests. This reporting indicates the primary interest of the international stage: the success of the World Cup this summer and the Olympics in two years. An article in The Economist suggests that the protests happened because Brazil was being watched by the world during the Confederations Cup, a “dress rehearsal” for the full tournament this year.

Sadly, recognition of the movement has not extended much beyond outrage over the police’s behavior during the protest and worry over the success of important sporting events. If the Brazilian citizens want the powers of organizations, governments, and opinion all over the world, they must voice their issues in a way that piques the interest and sympathy of people internationally.