Manifestation of Pablo Ortellado to minister Gilberto Carvalho at the Government-Civil Society dialogue session at the Palácio do Planalto:

“First of all, I would like to welcome the initiative for a national policy on social participation and I hope that the winds of June will allow this measure to become truly effective.
I would also like to draw attention to one of the elements that is a condition for social participation, which is government transparency.
Recently, we saw a courageous action by a former US government official who denounced an illegal US government program that monitored all digital communications from Brazilian citizens and public and private institutions.
Edward Snowden’s courageous action to publicize this program is converging with the efforts many of us make in civil society for greater government transparency – he is a member of our community.
This member of our community is currently in a vulnerable situation in a transit space at the Moscow airport with great difficulty in asserting his right to asylum, which is supported by international law.
In addition to these important efforts at transparency and participation, the Brazilian government would give an unmistakable sign of commitment to transparency if it granted asylum to our comrade Edward Snowden.
In the current scenario, the Brazilian government is today one of the few governments that are both independent and strong enough for an offer of political asylum to be effective.
I would therefore like to ask Minister Gilberto Carvalho to convey this appeal to President Dilma with great emphasis.
Thanks.”

Pablo Ortellado he is a Ph.D. in philosophy, professor of the Public Policy Management course and of the Graduate Program in Cultural Studies at the School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities at the University of São Paulo (EACH-USP).