The National Human Rights Council (CNDH) recommended to IBAMA the incorporation of the Riverside Council to the environmental licensing process of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant. The recommendation is based on a suggestion made by a multidisciplinary group of researchers from various fields, coordinated by the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC), which encompasses the Human Rights and Business Research Group (GDHeE) of FGV’s Sao Paulo Law School (Direito SP).

At the request of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the multidisciplinary group was formed to examine the problem of riverside residents displaced from their territories on the banks of the Xingu River with the construction of the Belo Monte Power Plant. The group brought together legal scholars, anthropologists, sociologists, physicians, psychologists, and engineers, among other experts, to assess the impact of the dam on the social, legal, and environmental situation of the riverside population, which were forced to leave the flooded area or had their survival threatened by the lack of water and fish in the length of the river with reduced flow.

The group was created to point out solutions that allow the resettlement of displaced riverside residents and to guarantee the continuity of their way of life in the Xingu region. One of the group’s suggestions was the creation of the Riverside Council, based on the concept that the direct and effective participation of the area’s residents in developing their life plan, in assisting in the recognition of riverside social groups, and in the collective organization and management of the traditionally occupied territories is the only way to guarantee legitimacy and effectiveness to the process.

Sao Paulo Law School’s Human Rights and Business Research Group is formed by an interdisciplinary team of researchers, driven by the goal to produce applied research designed to lay out the groundwork for public policies and business practices that ensure the protection of populations impacted by enterprises. In addition to the GDHeE, the team of researchers coordinated by SBPC featured representatives from various institutions, including Federal University of Pará (UFPA), University of São Paulo (USP), PUC-PR, Unicamp, and the National Amazon Research Institute (INPA).