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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the status of the current Brazilian regulations regarding the Brazilian Air Force (BAF) operations during disaster response compared with the real BAF operations in the landslides that affected the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2011. This analysis reveals the evolutions and challenges that warrant further discussion, even six years after the deadliest disaster in recent Brazilian history.

The research is structured using a case study method and a process approach. The data gathered from official BAF reports and professionals and BAF regulations are compared using a theoretical reference process model as a guide.

The spread of documentations and laws that prescribe the BAF operations during disaster response limit the replication of BAF standards in future disasters. Among the 96 processes described in the theoretical reference process model, 12 processes that are identified in the BAF reports and interviews that address the response to the Rio landslides of 2011 remain unaddressed in the BAF regulations. Considering the BAF expertise, three additional processes are suggested for future consideration in the reference process model that guided this research.

This paper does not discuss the collaborative perspective of BAF operations with other military forces and stakeholders in disaster response.

The findings are indications of improvement in BAF regulations.

In addition to providing an analysis of the military force operations in response to a massive disaster, this paper can also serve as a reference for a benchmark discussion of military operations in disaster response.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic has been managed in Brazil, especially at the Federal Administrative level, with the focus being on the implications for human rights and public health in the country.

The research is built on a qualitative design made up of a case-study and review of the literature and is based on inductive reasoning.

Main conclusions were that: by not making sufficient efforts to safeguard the lives of Brazilians or to strengthen public health institutions amid the pandemic, Bolsonaro’s Administration may be violating the rights to life and health, among others, by omission; it was demonstrated that the President has worked unceasingly to bulldoze anti-COVID-19 efforts, which can be better explained through the concepts of necropolitics and neoliberal authoritarianism.

One of the limitations to this research is that this paper was not able to discuss more thoroughly which other human rights norms and principles (apart from the right to health, life and the duty to protect vulnerable populations) have possibly been violated amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. Overall, this research can help expand the literature on human rights in health management during and after emergency times.

This paper focuses on recent events and on urgent matters that need to be addressed immediately in Brazil. This study provides an innovative health policy/human rights analysis to build an academic account of the ongoing pandemic in the largest country in South America.