"Law exclusion zones": mega-events as sites of procedural and substantive human rights violations.

• Author: Corrarino, Megan

"Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?"

--Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (1847)

INTRODUCTION

In the Rio de Janeiro community of Vila Harmonia, nestled amidst the beachfront high-rises of the city's growing middle and upper classes and future sites of the 2016 Olympic Games, residents awoke to eviction notices ordering them out of their long-time homes within "zero days." (2) At 2014 World Cup sites throughout Brazil, construction workers are being advised that their normal collective bargaining rights have been suspended because of the urgency of the projects. (3) Traditional food-sellers in one World Cup host city, Belo Horizonte, were summarily evicted from the stadium-adjacent area where they held the right to work for years, (4) and where generations of families have gone for a pre-game churrasco. (5) In another city, Natal, mandatory environmental analyses have been ignored as the city speeds ahead with transportation projects that threaten the environment around the city's world-famous beach dunes. (6) These decisions and scores of others have been made behind closed doors, without normal participatory processes. In 2013, the Secretary General of the Federation Internationale de Football Association ("FIFA") said, tellingly, "[L]ess democracy is sometimes better for organizing a World Cup." (7) With major sporting events approaching, the official narrative seems to go, there simply is not time for the human rights protections enshrined in national and international law. (8)

In Brazil, the upcoming World Cup and Olympics offer a pretext for domestic and international elite interests, supported by international sporting organizations and their sponsors, to fast-track highly profitable projects by circumventing normal participatory processes and human rights protections. In this respect, Brazil's event preparation processes are not unique--in fact, they are common enough to have been predicted (9) by regular observers of "mega-events," or large-scale cultural events of international significance. (10) London's 2012 Olympic Games, for example, made headlines for their "brand exclusion zones," in which local businesses were banned from using an artist's rendering of the Olympic rings, or even an innocuous phrase like "two thousand twelve," and non-sponsor vendors were pushed out of their usual workplaces. (11)

Given the enormous amounts of money at stake; (12) the pressures from international organizations and domestic politicians eager to put on a smooth, orderly, and impressive event; and the massive media hype, mega-events--and particularly sporting events--create precisely the sort of perceived "emergency" moments in which rights abuses become more likely, and legal protections are therefore all the more essential. And yet, when the mega-event juggernaut rolls into town, regular laws, rights-balancing considerations, and supposedly inviolable constitutional protections are often forgotten. Using the case study of Brazil, host of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, this Note argues that mega-events create pretexts for the implementation of "law exclusion zones"--spaces, both physical and metaphorical, in which normal legal processes are jettisoned and new, exceptional legal regimes take their place--and that these regimes often undermine normal human rights protections, allowing a few to profit at the expense of the many.

This paper proceeds in three parts. Part I describes how mega-event boosters use rhetorical strategies and transnational alliances to create a policy environment in which legal exceptionalism is acceptable and even encouraged, and how those special legal regimes undermine accountability and contribute to the exclusion of citizen voices. Part II offers case studies drawn from Brazil to illustrate how fast-track decision-making, citizen exclusion, and other violations of participatory rights create a legal regime in which a host of rights can be violated with impunity. Finally, Part III concludes with some recommendations for strengthening legal protections for human rights during mega-event preparations and implementation.

1. WHEN THE WORLD ARRIVES: HOW ELITE INTERESTS USE MEGA-EVENTS TO REFRAME THE POLITICAL DEBATE

   The "law exclusion zones" being carved out in Brazil's host cities are part of a broader global pattern in which legal exceptionalism is tolerated, and even encouraged, as countries prepare for and host mega-events. Such mega-events range from major international policy conferences to global sporting competitions to commercial exhibitions. While specific policy considerations may differ from one to the other, in the age of globalization, mega-events have become an increasingly important part of statecraft, giving countries opportunities to show off their "world-class" cities and city governments opportunities to negotiate for resources and support from the central government. (13) British sociologist Maurice Roche, who described mega-events as "some of modern society's great 'parades' and 'shows,'" (14) defines them as:

   ... large-scale cultural (including commercial and sporting) events which have a dramatic character, mass popular appeal and international significance. They are typically organised by variable combinations of national governmental and international non-governmental organisations and thus can be said to be important elements in "official" versions of public culture. (15) This Part first describes how mega-events function as sites of legal exceptionalism. It next describes how mega-events, and particularly largescale sporting events, are marketed to citizens of host cities in three interrelated ways: as a source of civic pride, as an opportunity for economic growth, and as a chance to modernize the host city. It concludes with an overview of how the support and coercive power of the international community can provide an additional advantage for local elites within the domestic debate. It argues that the public promises made to citizens about mega-events are often hollow--the benefits that do accrue are concentrated in the hands of a few well-connected developers, while the promised urban transformation pushes working class citizens even further toward the physical and social margins of their own cities. Crucially, however, those promises, combined with the international community's support for rapid transformation, provide a policy environment in which rapid and normally unfeasible legislative changes can take place, laying the groundwork for regimes of legal exceptionalism.

   1. Mega-Events as Sites of Legal Exceptionalism

      Mega-events serve as both literal and figurative sites of legal exceptionalism. For example, the areas around mega-event venues are sometimes designated special legal zones, in which the law of the state is replaced by special legal regimes, as was the case with the London Olympics' "brand exclusion zones." (16) In effect, mega-event sites often function as tiny embassies--except that instead of being governed by the law of another state under a reciprocal relationship, as diplomatic law would allow, they are governed (non-reciprocally) by the law of a corporate or intergovernmental entity. They also become figurative sites of legal exceptionalism, fostering a sense that "bigger" concerns about national pride justify laws that differ from what would normally be acceptable. For example, mega-events might be used to justify free speech bans that ordinarily would be questionable, (17) evict or displace people without normal due process protections, (18) fast-track construction deals without full transparency, (19) or authorize the use of brutal methods to quickly squash ongoing crime problems. (20)

      The special laws are made possible at least in part because citizens are often shut out of the conversation, leaving civil society groups to--at best--participate in harm-mitigation, rather than constructive discussions about the mega-event legacy that citizens want for their city. (21) As the following sections discuss, such fast-track lawmaking and authoritarianism are facilitated by rhetoric about civic pride, economic growth, and modernization, as well as transnational elite alliances, and typically advance the commercial interests of a small group of developers and other well-connected host-city elites.

   2. Mega-Events and Public Opinion

      A landmark Brazilian civil society report on human rights abuses in mega-event planning opened with a quote from Michel, a man whose home and community were razed to make way for Olympics construction projects in the Rio de Janeiro neighborhood of Restringa. Michel lamented:

      I feel like such a sucker, because when Brazil won these damn Olympics I was in my car on the Linha Amarela [expressway], honking like a fool. Now I'm paying for it. This is the World Cup? This is the Olympic spirit? (22) Most of us likely empathize with Michel's early enthusiasm for his city's winning bid. (23) The Olympics enjoy enormous global goodwill, and winning a bid can be the source of tremendous municipal and national pride. After Brazil was awarded the 2016 Olympics, then-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said ("tearfully," the press observed):

      This is a victory for 19 million [Brazilian] souls, a victory for all of Latin America, a victory for the Olympics.... Brazil today won her international citizenship; we broke the last barrier of prejudice. (24) A mega-event done well can indeed enhance the global profile and prestige of a city. (25) But the groundswell of civic pride that accompanies a winning mega-event bid, and particularly a successful Olympics bid, can also produce opportunities to manipulate public opinion. After all, in the face of such...