BELO MONTE DAM: RURAL RESETTLEMENT, PARTICIPATORY PROCESS AND THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE HOUSING

Abstract

In the context of compulsory displacement caused by major infrastructure and development projects, resettlement is indicated as the best way out of the affected population's reallocation by its potential to guarantee the right to adequate housing and the accompaniment of restructuring of the livelihoods of those affected (MATHUR, 2011; VANCLAY, 2017). Adequate housing includes not only the objective conditions linked to the place of housing, but also the networks of social relations, the places where productive activities are carried out, as well as the different forms of land use (ONU, 1991; ONU, 1997; ROLNIK, 2010). The displacement of the rural population affected by the Belo Monte Dam (UHE Belo Monte) was marked by the failure of the Collective Rural Resettlements (RRC), which we understood as violation of the right to adequate housing. Among the factors that led to this violation, we highlight the difficult access to information and low social participation. This article is organized in three parts: the first one presents the guiding concepts of the research, namely the centrality of those affected, adequate housing and compulsory displacement; the second one contextualizes the Belo Monte Dam, and the population affected by the project; and the third one points out the relationship between access to information, participatory process and its influence on the right to adequate housing in the context of those affected by the UHE in rural areas.