CLIHHR, PPGD/UFRGS, ODSDH/UFAM, and IHRP provide joint submission to the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights

Today, the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights (CLIHHR), the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Graduate Program in Law (PPGD/UFRGS), the Observatory of Socio-Environmental Law and Human Rights in the Amazon of the Federal University of Amazonas (ODSDH/UFAM) and the University of Toronto Jackman Law’s International Human Rights Program (IHRP) provided the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights with a joint submission concerning the challenges faced by Indigenous Mura communities in Brazil with their right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) in connection with a Canadian company’s mining operation.

The submission highlights concerns related to consultation processes undertaken in relation to the Autazes Potash Project and which Mura community leaders allege are in contravention of the FPIC protocol developed by the community. Moreover, the submission calls attention to allegations that Mura community leaders have faced coercion in relation to the process, including threats and bribery, which has sadly caused division amongst community members.

The submission details the Brazilian government’s domestic and international legal obligations, which require Brazil to protect Indigenous peoples' individual and collective rights in the face of extractive projects operating in their ancestral territories. Under the Brazilian constitution and as a State Party to several international treaties and instruments, Brazil must protect the right of the Mura to self-determination, including the right to life and security of the person, and the right to freely pursue economic, social, and cultural development.

CLIHHR, PPGD/UFRGS, and the IHRP made the submission in response to a call by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, a special procedure of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), for submissions that can inform the report for the UNHRC’s 62nd session that will take place in June 2026. The submission forms part of an extensive research project with affected Mura communities of Lago Soares and Urucurituba, that included on-the-ground interviews conducted by the clinics’ students with key stakeholders. The research project culminated in a report outlining the human rights concerns and environmental risks posed by Brazil Potash’s Autazes Potash Project.

Read the full submission to the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights here.

Read the report, “Resistance: Mura Struggle Against Canadian Potash Mining in Brazil’s Amazon” here.