violations of the rights of the guarani of mato grosso do sul state, brazil

and which can poison food. Dr. João Paulo BotelhoVieira Filho of the Escola Paulista de Medicina(School of Medicine) of the Federal Universityof São Paulo- UNIFESP, who has worked inindigenous health for many years, reported that‘it is very probable that the pesticides used in thefrequent aerial spraying are contaminating theground, the water and the food of the children’. 66In the region of Dourados in the south of MatoGrosso do Sul, the number of children who diedbefore their first birthday was 64 per 1,000 bornalive in 2004. 67 Meanwhile, the national averagewas 30 per 1,000. 68Meanwhile, life expectancy of the Guarani ismuch lower than that of Brazilians as a whole.Life expectancy of the Guarani Kaiowá is 45 69whilst the life expectancy of Brazilians as awhole is 72 years. 70The high rates of malnutrition and infant mortalityand the low life expectancy of the Guarani areanother result of the poor diet and sanitaryconditions resulting from the overcrowdedsettlements and the lack of land.Malnutrition and lack of health care is mostextreme amongst the communities living on theroadside. In their recent declaration, thecommunity of Kurusu Mba stated that ‘It hasbeen almost four years since we have beenliving on the side of Highway MS 289… whereour families, our children, are only drinkingdirty water. We are not able to continue withor subsistence agriculture, we have no healthservices and no prospects for the future. Wehave been thrown into this fate, stripped of allour dignity and living a supposed ‘life’ whichin fact is death for us’. 72A statement by the Guarani Kaiowá IndigenousRights Commission says that ‘death andstarvation are due to many factors, amongwhich is the loss of land, which leads to thebreak up of our economy, of our way ofproducing food and feeding ourselves, andof our families... We were a free people wholived surrounded by abundance. Today welive dependent on the government’s aid. Wefeel that this policy is paternalistic and doesnot enable us to go back and produce ourown food’. 73Meanwhile, the health services available to theGuarani are scarce and wholly inadequate. ILOConvention 169 states in Article 25.1 that‘governments shall ensure that adequate healthservices are made available to the peoplesconcerned, or shall provide them with resourcesto allow them to design and deliver such servicesunder their own responsibility and control, so thatthey may enjoy the highest attainable standard ofphysical and mental health’.The laws of Brazil’s Ministry of Health recognisethat ‘access to food is a fundamental human right’,and that ‘it is imperative that we act to reduce theinequalities and make every effort to allowindigenous peoples to have an equal chanceof living a healthy life and having their right tofood guaranteed’. 71The government’s External Commission on deathsof indigenous children of Mato Grosso and MatoGrosso do Sul observes that ‘Having analysed thereality of the Guarani Kaiowá in the IndigenousReserve of Dourados, it is clear that the problemsof malnutrition, suicide, alcoholism, the searchfor work in the factories and ranches of the area,begging in urban areas and low self-esteem arethe result of the lack of land where the GuaraniKaiowá can practice their culture, agriculturaland ancestral activities.’ 74‘We have been thrown into this fate, strippedof all our dignity and living a supposed ‘life’which in fact is death for us.’Guarani community of Kurusu Mba, Brazil14