Tom Phillips, Author at Toward Freedom

Brazilian judge orders construction of Amazon dam to stop

Tom Phillips October 3, 2011 Tom Phillips

A Brazilian judge has ordered construction to be suspended on a controversial hydroelectric dam in the Amazon.

In his ruling, Judge Carlos Castro Martins said that all working on the Belo Monte dam that interfered with the natural course of the Xingu river should be halted because of the risk that fish stocks would be damaged.

The £7bn dam would reputedly be the third largest in the world, after China’s Three Gorges and the Itaipu project on the Brazil-Paraguay border. read more

Police Violence in Rio de Janeiro

Tom Phillips January 30, 2006 Tom Phillips

Death is nothing new to the Morro do Estado, a mish-mash of redbrick favela housing that clings to the slopes high above central Niteroi, a city near Rio de Janeiro. But as locals crowded into the Bar do Raimundo for a game of snooker one Sunday night in December they had little idea just how close it was.

Within minutes five residents - among them three boys under the age of 15 - lay dead. The weathered cement walls outside the bar were pockmarked with gunshots and the pavement covered in a thick coat of blood.

Human Rights Abuses in Brazil’s Youth Detention Centers

Tom Phillips July 19, 2005 Tom Phillips

Even sitting down, Wellington's body is in constant motion. Rubbing his forehead, his gaze darts repeatedly out into the street. The 15-year-old kid furrows his smooth brow, searching for the words to describe his stay in Rio de Janeiro's Padre Severino Young Offenders Institution. His right arm jerks into the air; he opens his mouth, closes it and then, finally, speaks.