Are the elections in jeopardy?

The UN Human Rights Committee, on the 17th (Friday), accepted a preliminary request filed by the distinguished defense of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on July 25, 2018, together with Geoffrey Robertson QC, and ordered the Brazilian State to "take all necessary measures to allow the author [Lula] to enjoy and exercise his political rights from prison as a candidate in the 2018 presidential elections, including appropriate access to the press and members of his political party" and also "not to prevent the author [Lula] from running in the 2018 presidential elections until all pending appeals against his conviction are completed in a fair procedure and the conviction is final" (free translation).

Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, a member of the UN (United Nations) body of experts and leaders, was categorical when speaking about the preliminary decision of the UN Human Rights Committee authorizing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to run for President and campaign even from prison. "A binding decision with immediate effect." According to former minister Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, if the Brazilian government fails to comply with the decision, the country will face a "moral sanction" and "international bad reputation."

When States freely and sovereignly undertake obligations within the framework of international law, they cannot simply disregard the determinations emanating from international bodies. There is no doubt that Brazil, as a signatory to the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of December 16, 1966, is obliged to comply with the determinations of the UN Committee.

It is necessary to digress to recall, following Wanderley Guilherme dos Santos, that Criminal Action 470 – the infamous "mensalão" scandal – "inaugurated the conservative attitude of interrupting the leadership of the Workers' Party through non-electoral means, with direct ancillary intervention by the Judiciary." Further on, the researcher emphasizes that: "Criminal Action 470 debuted an ostentatious spectacle of legal intervention in the political order. It took advantage of a pretext without real foundation and instituted the first political process of degradation, in addition to penal punishment, with media support and class appeal. The roots of activism are recent, with an undisguised inclination and cataloged fertilizer."

The 2016 parliamentary coup – with the approval of the Judiciary – fueled by the oppressive media, tore up and threw in the trash more than 54 million votes that elected President Dilma Rousseff. Demonstrating, once again, the contempt for democracy and the popular will.

Not satisfied with that, the coup plotters of today and always, in an unscrupulous scheme, orchestrated – without any evidentiary basis – the conviction of Lula by a biased and incompetent judge, to prevent, contrary to the popular will, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from legitimately contesting the 2018 presidential elections.

In a democratic state, as Marcelo Semer rightly observed, "the law cannot exist as a way to bury the will of the ballot box. However inconvenient it may be. There will always be a new election so that the defeated can submit their theses and their names, their agendas and their projects to the voters."

Therefore, it is evident that any illegitimate attempt to exclude Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from the 2018 elections constitutes, once again, a blow against democracy and the burying of the popular will.

Therefore, if any semblance of democracy remains in Brazil, it is hoped that the determination of the UN Human Rights Committee will be respected and heeded by the Brazilian State, under penalty of compromising the institutions and the upcoming elections, which have been cast into suspicion before the Brazilian people and international bodies.