3 April 2013
Last updated at 10:40 GMT
Brazil's outrage over 'racist' evangelical politician
Marco Feliciano's appointment has stirred a wave of protests both in Brazil and abroad
Human
rights and minority interests are a sensitive matter in many countries,
but in Brazil they are now at the centre of an unprecedented
controversy.
The politician charged with overseeing these issues in the
lower house of Brazil's congress stands accused of racism and
homophobia.
It is a claim that pastor and Christian Social Party
politician Marco Feliciano denies but which has nevertheless incited a
wave of anger.
Mr Feliciano was the only candidate for the post of president of the Human Rights and Minority Commission.
His election was guaranteed by an agreement among various parties as they shared out key posts in the country's congress.
'Noah's curse'
The commission has a sensitive role looking at everything
from issues of potential human rights violations to prospective
legislation.
Marco Feliciano has denied that he holds racist or homophobic views
In recent years, it has discussed and proposed laws covering
sexual exploitation of children, torture, and the running of nursing
homes.
Many campaign groups concerned with minority affairs see the committee as having a critical role in defending their rights.
So when Mr Feliciano's thoughts on homosexuality and people
of African descent emerged on social networks after his election, there
was first concern, then anger.
The most contentious comments precede his appointment, when he was little known outside his native state of Sao Paulo.
Writing on Twitter, Mr Feliciano said that "Africans descend
from an ancestry cursed by Noah". He also argued that "the curse that
Noah cast on his grandson, Canaan, spills over on the African continent,
hence the famine, pestilence, disease, ethnic wars!".
In another comment, he wrote that the "rot of homosexual feelings leads to hatred, crime, rejection".
Mr Feliciano has denied being homophobic or racist, but anger
about his comments has only spread further the more people heard about
them.
Since his appointment in early March, protests by activists
have repeatedly disrupted the commission's work. Demonstrations have
even spread abroad with people protesting outside the Brazilian embassy
in Paris.
A high-profile campaign has collected 450,000 signatures calling for his resignation.
Congressional leaders have also dropped their support for the pastor and asked him to step down.
Mr Feliciano declined to speak to the BBC about the allegations.
In previous statements, he denied being prejudiced against
gay people, but said that he was "against their practices, their
promiscuity".
He also denied allegations of racism, saying that his mother and stepfather are black.
Powerful friends
Despite the controversy surrounding him, Mr Feliciano enjoys
the support of a powerful group of conservative evangelical legislators.
Evangelical churches have grown in Brazil, and with them their political influence
His Christian Social Party is a key force in the "evangelical
bloc", a congressional group mainly made up of pastors and followers of
evangelical churches.
The group has doubled in size over the past decade and can
now count on 70 deputies and three senators, up from 36 legislators in
2003.
Philosophy Prof Roberto Romano of the University of Campinas
in Sao Paulo State says Mr Feliciano's rise mirrors the growth of
evangelical churches in Brazil.
"Until the mid-20th Century, when there was an almost
absolute majority of Catholics in the country, the presence of
evangelicals in politics was minimal," he says.
"Since then, the growth in the number of followers of Protestant churches has been reflected in political representation."
And neither Mr Feliciano nor his backers seem to want to give up their new-found influence without a fight.
He is helped by the fact that the rules governing the Human Rights and Minority Commission do not allow for his impeachment.
And while congressional leaders and several of his colleagues
have urged Mr Feliciano to step down to put an end to the controversy,
he recently said on television that only death could part him from his
post.