For Amnesty International Torture and Impunity Are Still the Law of the Land, in Brazil

In Brazil torture is practiced by agents of the State in a generalized and systematic fashion, according to the non-governmental organization (NGO), Amnesty International (AI).

The organization released a report, Tuesday. October 25, informing that attacks on human rights persist in Brazil. The document expresses the organization’s concern over the "large number of homicides practiced by the police and the dissemination of torture and mistreatment in the country" and goes on to say that

"Amnesty International laments the failure of Brazilian authorities to ensure minimal human rights protection for the entire population since 1996."

The report emphasizes that the main victims are poor, black youth. The organization affirms that most of these cases remain "without investigation or any kind of punishment of the guilty parties."

The author of the report, Tim Cahill, underscores the existence of death squads in the country, "as in the case of the assassination of 29 poor people in the Lowland zone of Rio de Janeiro (Baixada Fluminense) in April, 2005."

Cahill also refers to the murder of the US-born missionary, Dorothy Stang. According to Cahill, this crime aroused international concern over the issue. Stang was shot to death by gunmen in the state of Pará in February of this year.

"The federal and state governments publicly condemned these deaths, promising to bring the guilty parties to justice. However, these cases occurred in areas with a long history of persistent impunity," he affirms.

The document was forwarded to the United Nations (UN). Last year Brazil presented the UN with its second report on policies developed to deal with this issue (the first was presented in 1994).

The report praises the Program for the Protection of Human Rights Advocates, launched by the federal government last year. According to the NGO, it represented "a notable contribution to promote the efforts of those who fight for rights in Brazil." But the country "remains without infrastructure for the effective implementation of this plan to become a reality," it amends.

Cahill also criticizes the National Public Safety Plan adopted by the federal government in 2003. "Two years later, the reforms planned for the sector have not been implemented in an efficient manner, and very little has been done to try to reverse the situation," he reports.

Agência Brasil

Tags:

You May Also Like

Brazil’s Foreign Debt Falls US$ 9.7 Billion. It’s Still US$ 183 Bi.

Brazil’s foreign debt closed out the month of August at US$ 182.62 billion, down ...

U.S.A. Calendar

SUNDAY 1 POMPANO BEACH, FLOR. 7:00 PM – Pagode at Panorama – (305) 784-8136 ...

The U.S. Amasses Its Troops and Mercenaries at Brazil’s Doors

It would be easy to make fun of President Bush’s recent fiasco at the ...

Brazil’s Gift to the World in 2009: Lowest Amazon Deforestation in 20 Years

According to Brazil's first National Inventory of Greenhouse Gases, up to 75% of Brazil's ...

The Dark Face of Brazil’s Carnaval

Airplanes full of hopeful revellers descend on Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, in the days before ...

Quiet Riot

I imagined the stories I could tell when I got back to Europe, about ...

Brazil Wants China to Teach Her How to Fish

Building on understandings reached last year at the Expo Brazil-China, Brazilian Minister José Fritsch, ...

Supreme Decision Means Losers Are Now Winners in Brazilian Congress

Brazil’s Supreme Court has ruled that the Clean Criminal Record law known as “Ficha ...

Brazil’s Sierra, a Touch of Class to Sell Furniture in Over 20 Countries

Headquartered in the city of Gramado, in Rio Grande do Sul, in the Brazilian ...

Inquiry Shows Brasília’s Corruption Saga Might Be Decades Old

Federal government attorneys in Brazil intend to expand their investigation into a corruption ring ...