that deaths caused by law enforcement force by the police was not promptly and personnel increased by 185% in January and effectively investigated in accordance with February 2021, compared to the first four international standards. At the time of the months after the Court order. Police killings, the police involved in the operation operations using heavy weaponry resulted in were absolved of responsibility before the hours of intense shooting in the favelas and proper investigations were carried out. The other marginalized neighbourhoods. acquittal represented an example of the The excessive use of force also took the historical impunity that has perpetuated the form of raids on homes, the destruction of cycle of violence and human rights violations belongings, sexual violence, psychological by state agents, especially in favelas and torture, restrictions on freedom of movement disadvantaged neighbourhoods. In 2017, the and the suspension of essential services, Inter-American Court of Human Rights such as schools and health facilities. condemned the Brazilian state for police UNLAWFUL KILLINGS violence in the Nova Brasília case. On 6 May, a police operation in the HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS Jacarezinho favela, Rio de Janeiro, resulted in the death of 27 residents and one police The killings of city councillor and human officer. The operation was launched based on rights defender Marielle Franco and her photographs of alleged suspects on social driver Anderson Gomes in March 2018 had media. Images and preliminary investigations yet to be resolved. The families and civil pointed to summary executions and evidence society continued to press for justice. In July tampering at the crime scenes. Investigations 2021, the Rio de Janeiro prosecutors who into the deaths had not been concluded by had been in charge of the investigations the end of the year. since 2018 asked to be removed from their On 8 June, Kathlen Romeu, who was four positions, raising concerns about the months pregnant, died after being shot progress and outcomes of the investigation during a Military Police operation in the and the case. The two men charged with the community of Lins de Vasconcelos in killings remained in prison and no date had northern Rio de Janeiro. The investigation been set for a trial by the end of the year. into the circumstances of her death was Those behind the killings remained continuing at the end of the year. unidentified. On 22 November, nine people were found The NGO Global Witness reported that dead in circumstances suggesting they had Brazil was the country with the fourth highest been summarily executed in the Complexo number of killings of environmental leaders do Salgueiro favela, Rio de Janeiro. On 20 and land rights defenders in the world. In November a policeman had been killed January, activist and rural worker Fernando during a police operation, and preliminary dos Santos Araújo was killed in the state of investigations indicated that the nine killings Pará. He was a survivor and one of the main were an act of revenge. Investigations were witnesses of the Pau D’Arco massacre in May continuing at the end of the year. 2017 in which 10 land rights activists were IMPUNITY killed by military and civil police officers. In August, five police officers charged with In May, Lindolfo Kosmaski, a gender and the killings of 13 people almost three sexual diversity activist from the Landless decades earlier in the 1994 massacre in the Workers Movement, was found shot dead in Nova Brasília favela, Rio de Janeiro, were a burnt-out car in the state of Paraná. acquitted for lack of evidence. In addition to RIGHT TO A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT the fact that it took 27 years for the case to be brought to trial, the result was considered According to the NGO Imazon, in August the inadequate by the victims and human rights Brazilian Amazon had the highest organizations. The excessive and lethal use of deforestation rate for the month of August in Amnesty International Report 2021/22 102