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 Dorothy Stang, an American nun murdered in Brazil three years ago and the slain Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto are among the recipients of a United Nations prize, awarded for outstanding work in the field of human rights, the General Assembly President has just announced.
Sister Stang of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur defended the human rights of the poor, landless and indigenous populations of the Anapu region of Brazil, in the northern state of Pará, for nearly 40 years, despite numerous death threats.
She worked with farmers to help rebuild their livelihoods, cultivate their land and defend their rights from loggers and ranchers, becoming a symbol of the fight to preserve the rainforest before being murdered in 2005.
Previous recipients of the UN Prize in the Field of Human Rights have included Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter and Amnesty International in recognition of their contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
This year's winners are Louise Arbour, Ramsey Clark, Carolyn Gomes, Denis Mukwege, and Human Rights Watch, as well as Benazir Bhutto and Dorothy Stang, who are being honored posthumously.
"As we mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we acknowledge the tireless work and invaluable contribution of these individuals and organizations that have fought to see the rights and freedoms embodied in this historic document become a reality for people in all corners of the world," said Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto.
"These awardees constitute symbols of persistence, valor and tenacity in their resistance to public and private authorities that violate human rights. They constitute a moral force to put an end to systematic human rights violations," Mr. D'Escoto said in a press release issued today.
The human rights prize was first awarded on 10 December 1968 on the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is awarded every five years to coincide with the date. This year's award winners will receive their prize at a plenary meeting of the General Assembly 60 years after the landmark document was signed.
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The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
The murderers are FREE and one of them will even get ELECTED !!!!!!
Hip...hip...Lula, hip...hip Lula !
Brazil is a real human tragedy, a shame to humanity !
Be proud ! Continue caressing your navel...with your Brazilian Model....you are dreaming to export the World Over !