The vote on a bill for Brazil to recognize Holodomor as genocide (PL 423/2022) has been postponed to next week. The project rapporteur, Senator Oriovisto Guimarães (Podemos-PR), announced the decision Wednesday (23). Manuscripts must go through the Commission on Education (EC) and Human Rights (CDH) before returning to Plenary.
Holodomor is the name given to the Soviet Union’s policy of collectivization of land and food demand in the 1930s, which resulted in the deaths of millions of peasants, mostly Ukrainians. This term means “starving to death” in Ukrainian. According to estimates, the number of victims may reach 3.5 million.
Oriovisto stated that Brazil owes this gesture to the Ukrainian people and highlighted the current war scenario sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We live in war these days. We saw power plants destroy hospitals and schools, we saw children being killed. Once again we have this Dantesque spectacle. The aim of the project is to pay attention to the horrors that humanity has committed to prevent them from happening again.
PL 423 will make Brazil the 17th country in the world to recognize Holodomor as genocide. Among the countries that have formalized this recognition are the United States, Portugal, Mexico, Canada, and Australia. He also designated the fourth Saturday of November as “Remembrance Day for Holodomor Victims”. The project was presented by Senator Alvaro Dias (Pode-PR).
About 600,000 Ukrainians live in Brazil, according to 2020 data from the NGO World Congress of Ukraine. Most of this population inhabits the states of Paraná and São Paulo.
Agência Senado (Reproduction permitted with reference to Agncia Senado)
“Geek zombie. Subtly charming social media scholar. Beer enthusiast. Lifelong bacon pioneer.”
