Paraguay: Alarming Increase In Use Of Pesticides Compromises Human Rights Says UN Expert

[Judi Lynn]

Saturday, 15 October 2022, 6:12 am

ASUNCION/GENEVA (14 October 2022) The excessive use of pesticides in Paraguay is poisoning the country and seriously affecting the lives and health of its people, a UN expert said today.

"Laws that control pesticides are not enforced in Paraguay. This generates impunity for human rights violations and abuses of thousands of people exposed to toxic contamination," said Marcos Orellana, UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, following an official visit to Paraguay.

Presenting his preliminary observations at the end of the visit, Orellana said that while there were cooperatives that seek to work the land responsibly, the agro-industrial production model favoured by the State has victimised communities through the relentless increase in aerial and ground spraying of hazardous pesticides.

The expert said that indigenous peoples and peasant communities were being cornered by monocultures and other crops dependent on pesticides. “Those who oppose the contamination of their communities are often criminalised by the Public Prosecutor's Office,” Orellana said.

More:
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO2210/S00102/paraguay-alarming-increase-in-use-of-pesticides-compromises-human-rights-says-un-expert.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. UN expert warns about excessive pesticide use in Paraguay

Special rapporteur says pesticides affecting land, lives, health of Paraguayans
Bala Chambers |
15.10.2022

Paraguay's excessive pesticide use is "poisoning the country and seriously affecting the lives and health of its people," a UN expert said Friday.

"Laws that control pesticides are not enforced in Paraguay. This generates impunity for human rights violations and abuses of thousands of people exposed to toxic contamination," said Marcos Orellana, special rapporteur on toxics and human rights.

Orellana said some cooperatives tend the land responsibly. But Paraguay's agroindustrial model has affected different communities due to an increase in aerial and ground spraying of "hazardous pesticides," he said in preliminary observations shared in a statement.

He warned that indigenous people and subsistence communities are being cornered by monocultures and other crops dependent on pesticides.

More:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/un-expert-warns-about-excessive-pesticide-use-in-paraguay/2712258