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Enforced disappearances Brazil
| Numbers and Context |
|---|
| UNWGEID Cases |
| 14 disappearances have been denounced, from which none have been resolved |
| NGOs Numbers |
| 163 disappearances in Brazil, 7 in Argentina, 1 in Bolivia and 5 in Chile, according to the formation Tortura Nunca Mais/RJ |
| Context |
The majority of cases denounced to the UNWGEID occurred between 1969 and 1975 under the military government and particularly during the period of guerrilla in the Aerugo region Coup e'tat in 1964 . Disappearations were used by authorities as way of repression
In the country 14 disappearances have been denounced, from which none have been resolved. The majority of cases denounced to the UNWGEID occurred between 1969 and 1975 under the military government and particularly during the period of guerrilla in the Aerugo region Coup e'tat in 1964 . Disappearances were used by authorities as way of repression. There are serious issues regarding human rights violations. Brazil had a remarkably poor record during the dictatorship of the 1960s, and still it has many problems today. These include the use of police brutality, corruption, torture and summary executions by civil and military police and prison authorities. In the recent years, the 1992 Carandiru Massacre is considered the major violation of the human rights in Brazil.Police violence continues to be one of the country’s most intractable human rights problems. Faced with high levels of violent crime, especially in the country’s urban centers, some police engage in abusive practices rather than pursuing sound policing policies. Prison conditions are abysmal. In rural regions, violence and land conflicts are ongoing, and human rights defenders suffer threats and attacks. And, while the Brazilian government has made efforts to redress human rights abuses, it has rarely held accountable those responsible for the violations.
Brazil continues to face major problems in the area of public security. The country’s metropolitan areas, and especially their low-income neighbourhoods (favelas), are plagued by widespread violence, perpetrated by criminal gangs, abusive police, and, in the case of Rio de Janeiro, militias reportedly linked to the police. Every year, roughly 50,000 people are murdered in Brazil. In Rio, criminal gangs launched a series of coordinated attacks against police officers, buses, and public buildings in December 2006, killing 11 people, including two officers. Reacting to the attacks, police killed seven people that they classified as suspects. Earlier in the year, in São Paulo state, a criminal gang’s coordinated attacks on police and public buildings led to clashes between police and gang members that left more than 100 civilians and some 40 security agents in the state of São Paulo dead. It is alleged that many of the killings documented during this period were extrajudicial executions.
According to official figures, police killed 694 people in the first six months of 2007 in Rio de Janeiro in situations described as “resistance followed by death,” 33.5 percent more than in same period last year. The number includes 44 people killed during a two-month police operation aimed at dismantling drug trafficking gangs in Complexo do Alemão, Rio de Janeiro’s poorest neighborhood. Violence reached a peak on 27th of June 2007, when 19 people were killed during alleged confrontations with the police. According to residents and local nongovernmental organizations, many of the killings were summary executions. In October, at least 12 people were killed during a police incursion in Favela da Coréia, including a 4-year-old boy.Police violence was also common in the state of São Paulo, where officers killed 201 people in the first half of 2007, according to official data. Fifteen officers were killed during the same period.
Torture remains a serious problem in Brazil. The federal government’s National Campaign against Torture reported receiving 1,336 complaints of torture between October 2001 and July 2003. There have been credible reports of police and prison guards torturing people in their custody as a form of punishment, intimidation, and extortion. Police have also allegedly used torture as a means of obtaining information or coercing confessions from criminal suspects. Abusive police officers are rarely sanctioned, and abuses are sometimes justified by authorities as an inevitable by-product of efforts to combat Brazil’s very high crime rates.
Human rights violations in Brazil are rarely prosecuted. In an effort to remedy this problem, the Brazilian government passed a constitutional amendment in 2004 that makes human rights crimes federal offences. It allows certain human rights violations to be transferred from the state to the federal justice system for investigation and trial. The transfer, however, can only happen if requested by the Federal Prosecutor General and accepted by the Superior Tribunal of Justice. To date, there have been no such transfers. Brazil has never prosecuted those responsible for atrocities committed in the period of military rule (1964-1985). An amnesty law passed in 1979 pardoned both government agents and members of armed political groups who had committed abuses.
The Brazilian federal government released in August 2007 a report on the results of an 11-year investigation by the national Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances to determine the fate of government opponents who were killed or “disappeared” by state security forces between 1961 and 1988. The commission was unable to clarify important aspects of these crimes, including the whereabouts of the majority of the “disappeared,” because the Brazilian armed forces have never opened key archives from the military years. In September, the Superior Tribunal of Justice ordered the armed forces to open secret files and reveal what happened to the remains of Brazilians who died or disappeared when the government sent troops to fight the Araguaia guerrilla uprising in 1971.
Sources of information
|
| Federations and Organisations | |
|---|---|
| Federation | Federación Latinoamericana de Asociaciones de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos (FEDEFAM) |
| Website | http://www.desaparecidos.org/fedefam |
| Contact | Postal Address: Fedefam 2444 - Carmelitas 1010-A Caracas, Venezuela Office: Edif. Aldomar Piso 7 - Oficina 55, Marrón a Cují TF: +58.2.564.0503 Fax: +58.2.564.2746 e-mail: fedefamorg(at)cantv.net |
| Focus | Enforced Disappearances in Latin American Region |
| Organisation | Grupo Tortura Nunca Mais |
| Website | www.torturanuncamais-rj.org.br |
| Contact | R. General Polidoro, 238 s/loja Tel:(55)(21) 2286-8762 Tel/Fax: (55)(21) 2538-0428 CEP: 22280-000 - Botafogo - RJ e-mail: gtnm(at)alternex.com.br |
| Focus | Enforced Disappearances and Torture in Brazil |
| Member of | Federación Latinoamericana de Asociaciones de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos (FEDEFAM) |