A GROUP of Brazilian Bishops has rejected several points of the national programme on human rights announced by President Luiz Lula da Silva.
The programme, implemented by the minister in that area, Paulo Vanucci, provides for the establishment of the national commission for the truth about the crimes of the dictatorship, some aspects regarding conflicts over land, the decriminalisation of abortion, and civil unions between homosexuals. The programme had already been questioned by some military leaders who oppose the investigation of crimes committed by the dictatorship between 1964 and 1985. Moreover, the economic groups linked to agricultural production, have opposed the initiative that includes 27 bills that would be turned into law within the next 11 months. Bishop Jose Simao of Assis told Fides news agency: “We see these initiatives as an arbitrary and undemocratic attitude of Lula’s government. The Church is against it. All the bishops are against it.”