Leandro Scalabrín is part of 'Movimento dos Antigidos por Barregens - MAB (Dam-Affected People's Movement). He works in the Human Rights section of MAB, organising marches and peaceful demonstrations for those affected by dams. During these acts of non-violence, people suffer threats and aggression, political repression and are criminalised. Leandro works in the judicial defendce of those that have been prosecuted and compiles reports of human rights' violations.

"The Movement of the Dam-Affected People (MAB – Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens) – is a popular grassroots movement, whose aim is the mobilisation of people threatened or affected by dams, the majority of whom are hydroelectric dams. Those affected are mainly peasants, small farmers, landless people, indigenous people, fishermen, “ribeirinhos” (riverbank settlers) and "quilombolas” (black communities), mineral hunters and urban communities. It is a movement that struggles to guarantee these communities the right of access to land, and that pushes for and contributes to the construction of a model of a new alternative and popular energy policy for Brazil. In Brazil, where there are more than 2000 dams, which cover an area of more than 34.000 km2, more than one million people have already been displaced from their lands, houses and communities by the dictatorial methods of the dam construction companies. Of 100 families affected, 70 have been evicted without any compensation. The 2015 Federal Government Plan forecasts the construction of more than 494 Hydro-electrical Power plants and it is estimated that more than 800.000 people will become displaced as a consequence. The benefits of dams accrue mainly to industries with high energy demands, some of which are listed below:

• Large equipment manufacturers for generation and transmission (such as Siemens and Alston;
• Construction companies, such as (Camargo Corrêa, Odebrecht and Andrade Gutierrez these are the three biggest hydro-electrical construction companies in the world)
• Within the financial sector, (such as Bradesco Bank, Citicorp, BNDES, Santander, Safra, Bank of Brasil),
• Electro intensive industries companies such as metal production, paper and cellulose, iron, aluminum and petrochemical (Alcoa, Novelis, Aracruz, Bunge, Camargo Corrêa,Cia. Vale do Rio Doce, Gerdau and the Votorantim Group, BHP Billiton)
• Foreign investors: French-Belgian Suez-Tractebel which is the biggest private investor in dams in Brazil, AES Corporation, Eletricidade de Portugal – EDP, Southern Company (USA), Electricité de France, Duke Energy (USA), Endesa (Spain).

In general it can be said that the abuses carried out against human rights activists, affected by Dams in Brazil are listed as follows:

a) Attempts threatening life ( The Bishop of Xingu, Mr Erwin Krautler, 67 years old, Austrian born and Brazilian citizen and Joaquim Bernardo Pereira are currently under death threats because of their involvement in the struggle against the Hydro-electrics Belo Montey Candonga;

b) Physical assaults using non-lethal arms, such as rubber bullets and tear gas are often used by the security forces in their operations against anti-dam movement protests. In 2006, in Belo Horizonte, MG, on the 2nd of April, during the protest in CEMIG, 17 people were hospitalised, 30 were injured and 7 were jailed. In Anita Garibaldi (SC), on the 15th of February at the protest at the offices of BAESA S/A 20 people were injured and another 04 were jailed;

c) Threats and other hostile actions (leaders are often followed by the police, lawyers have been brought before the court);

d) Violation of housing and other arbitrary interference or abusive acts to the properties of the entities or phone calls and e-mails. The military police of Santa Catarina invaded 9 houses without a court order;

e) Identification of Human rights defenders as enemies, principally through the social media;

f) Intelligence and espionage activities directed against the Human rights activists and restrictions of access to Information under the control of the State; moral humiliation of defenders linking the defenders to criminals and drug traffickers. Antero Marcos, Civil Police Inspector in Ponte Nova, MG, confessed being assigned to the task of identifying the leaders of various MAB mobilisations;

g) Arbitrary imprisonment and criminalisation of the defenders.

On the 14th of March 2006, the International Day of Action against Dams, Hina Jilani, Special Representative of United Nations, published a similar preliminary report in connection with the promotion and protection of Human rights defenders in Brazil. While Hina Jilani was in Santa Catarina, she learned about the MAB and the situation of the communities affected by dams. In addition to confirming what we currently denounce- risks including life threatening risks faced by those people fighting against dams in Brazil, the Rapporteur was disturbed by the criminalisation of these activists, where the conservative position of the powerful prevails ahead of the desires and claims of affected communities. This is, in part, explained by the absence of a legal and regulatory framework regarding the rights of the people affected by Dams."