In this week's News from Brazil:
Urgent Action Request:
Stop the Redirecting of the Sao Francisco River
Dear News from Brazil readers,
Throughout this year, we have
been tracking the story of the government's plan to redirect the
São
Francisco river. As we have mentioned, many NGOs and social
movements
here in Brazil are against the project, which, according to the
arguments, will spend billions out of the public coffers, drastically
change ecosystems, cause migration of peoples, and bring few benefits
for those who most need the water. The beneficiaries will be
the big
agricultural companies.
Two years ago, the Catholic bishop of
the diocese of Barra, Bahia, Luiz Flavio Cappio, known as Frei Luiz,
took a bold initiative and began a hunger strike as means to divert
national attention to the project, and to ask the government to halt
the project. His strike ended when President Lula promised to
put the
project on hold and to sponsor nation-wide debates on it. In
July of
2006, the government began to organize itself for these debates;
however, as 2006 was an election year, the plans were
dropped. In
December of that year, a federal judge ruled against measures to
prevent the work from proceeding. The only thing preventing
the
project from going forward was licensing from the government's
environmental agency (Ibama). That was conceded in March of
2007. In
June, the army began the initial work on the project, and were met with
resistance from 1,200 people who occupied the area. The
General
Procurator of the Republic, Antonio Fernando Souza, presented a
petition for the immediate suspension of the work. To date,
no
judgments have been rendered on the cessation of the project as it
continues to move forward.
"It has been two years that we have
been waiting for this debate. So I am returning to my fast
and
prayer. It will only end once the army is withdrawn from the
North and
East Branch [of the river] and the project of the redirecting of the
São Francisco River has been filed away," wrote Frei Luiz to
President
Lula, laying down the conditions for the end to his hunger strike.
If
you would like to send a letter in support of Bishop Luiz Flavio Cappio
to President Lula, you can go to this site:
http://www.presidencia.gov.br/presidente/falecom/. Click on
the link
that says, "Escreva sua mensagem." Fill out the information
and click
on "Enviar". You then will receive an email from the site,
and then
you must click on "confirmar" to send the message.
Thank you for your interest and support!
Education
and Violence in Brazil
Ariel de Castro Alves
The
society frightened by the problem of violence, which no longer affects
just big cities but also small cities previously considered paradises
of tranquility and quality of life, oftentimes clamors for an increase
in punishments and a reduction in the minimum age for incarceration,
the death penalty, and life sentences, among other illusory
“solutions”
to the growing rate of crime which afflicts all citizens.
However, one
does not see the same clamor or mobilization to defend the inclusion of
children between the ages of 0-3 years in preschools/daycares, nor of
children and adolescents in quality elementary or middle schools, and
even less of youth in universities, preferably public ones.
The cycle
of exclusion and marginalization begins in infancy. In order
to
guarantee the social and economic inclusion of the child and the youth,
the State, the family, and society should prioritize the whole care
from the prenatal period until the first job. However, we are
not on
this road, in spite of it being well-trodden since 1988 in the
Brazilian Federal Constitution and in the Statute of Children and
Adolescents (Law 8.069 of 1990). Brazil has 11.5 million
children in
the 0-3 age group, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography
and Statistics (IBGE), but only 13% of them are attending
preschools/daycares, according to data from the National Institute of
Education and Educational Research (Inep). Besides
being a right of
mothers and fathers, established in the workers’ legislation,
preschool/daycare is a fundamental right of the child, according to the
Statute of Children and Adolescents itself and the Law of Directives
and Bases of Education (LDB). Children’s education
is the basis of the
learning and development of the child. With regard to
elementary and
middle school, the country has evolved considerably in
attendance. For
example, according to the IBGE, 81% of adolescents between the ages of
15 and 17 attend school. However, the quality of education
and the
grave social situation of many students generate enormous difficulties
in learning, learning gaps, and school avoidance. A study by
UNESCO
(United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization),
conducted in 2005 in the 26 Brazilian states, showed that oftentimes
schools exclude more than they include. According to the
survey, 21%
of children and adolescents who were not in school had already
previously abandoned their schooling. Another 14% had already
left
their studies three or more times. Regarding university
education,
only 31% of youth between the ages of 18 and 24 had the possibility of
access to university.
On the other side of the educational
collapse of the country, we have the prisons. To maintain
someone in
prison is the most expensive way of making a person worse.
The prison
collapse is reflected in the educational and social crisis which exists
in Brazil. The fewer the schools and universities that are
constructed
today, the more prisons will have to be constructed. First,
we have to
consider that it is a great contradiction to imprison someone in order
to teach that person how to live in freedom. Formally, the
prison
system has the objective of depriving, temporarily, the freedom of a
person who, on account of his or her conduct and of the crimes
committed, generates social problems, presents danger and represents a
risk to the public order. That person needs to be contained in order to
be re-educated and re-socialized through study, work, religion, health
care, psychological care, and the understanding that there exist laws
and rules of social coexistence. However, instead of meeting
these
objectives, the majority of prisons and a good part of the internment
centers for juvenile offenders are really facilities of
crime. In
Brazil, approximately 240,000 adults are in prison. There are
15,000
adolescents who are completing socio-educative measures of
internment.
The educational data on these youth clearly show the relationship: lack
of education leads to crime. Among these interned youth in
366
Brazilian centers, 51% did not attend school, 90% did not even complete
primary school, and 85% were drug users. Various studies
already
conducted with those interned at the Fundação
Casa (ex-youth reform
center of São Paulo) showed that those adolescents
maintained there are
from the neighborhoods with the largest child and youth populations but
with the least opportunities--places which lack preschools/daycares,
schools, health posts, recreational, cultural and sporting spaces,
etc.. It is where the youth go to find work in commerce or
industry
and there are never any openings, but the drugs are always there. They
live in violent contexts, without opportunities and perspectives,
except that of crime.
The monthly cost to the public coffers of
each person deprived of liberty, on average, is around US$550 per month
in the adult system and US$1,150 monthly for each interned
adolescent.
On the other hand, studies already conducted by ILANUD (United Nations
Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of the
Delinquent) showed that one child in a public school costs the state,
on average, US$350 per year. Aside from this, Brazil spends
10% of its
Gross Domestic Product (PIB) on public and private security, according
to studies carried out at the beginning of the decade by the
Getúlio
Vargas Foundation (FGV). However, it invests less than 4% of
the PIB
on education, according to its own Ministry of Education.
In
order to reduce the growth of criminality, instead of investing in
education and in social policies, some want to invest more in
prisons.
In this context, many have been discussing a reduction in the penal age
as a measure against criminality. However, I highlight five
points,
among many, to be observed:
1) Brazil has approximately 60
million children and adolescents; 21 million live below the poverty
line, without basic rights. There are 25 million people
between the
ages of 12 and 16 in the country, and only 0.2% of them have committed
crimes.
2) Children and adolescents are more victims of
violence than authors of violence. According to UNICEF
(United Nations
Children’s Emergency Fund), 16 children and adolescents are
assassinated per day in Brazil. One study conducted by the
Institute
of Security and Citizenship showed that while adolescents commit 9% of
the crimes in Rio de Janeiro, 90% of the crimes are perpetrated by
adults against children and adolescents. A survey by the
Secretary for
Public Safety in São Paulo, publicized at the end of 2003,
showed that
adolescents are responsible for just 1% of the homicides committed in
the state and for less than 4% of the total crimes.
3) The
recidivism in Brazilian prisons comes to 70%. In the
internment system
of adolescents, in spite of the problems, the recidivism is around
30%. However, in experiences of correct application of the
socio-educative measures, as well as internment, the recidivism does
not exceed 5%, as in the examples of the works developed in
São Carlos
(SP), in Florianópolis (SC), and in some cities of Rio
Grande do Sul.
4)
Another argument of those who defend the lowering of the penal age is
that adults use children and adolescents in executing crimes.
In these
cases, we have to punish more seriously those who use, and not those
who are used/exploited. If we also take into consideration
that
argument, the penal age would be reduced to 16 years. The
problem
would not be resolved! Certainly, they would propose the
reduction to
14, 12, 10, 8, and so on, without any success. On the
contrary, we
would have more and more precocious criminals.
5) Some
countries who reduced the penal age four years ago, like Spain and
Germany, verified an increase in crimes among adolescents and ended up
re-establishing the penal age to 18 years old, and continuing with a
special treatment, with socio-educative measures, for youth between 18
and 21 years of age.
In the face of all this, would it be better to apply resources to
prisons or to education? It’s for the reader to
reflect on!
Source: Adital
PRESS
RELEASE
BRAZIL MUST SHOW
COMMITMENT TO FIGHT TORTURE NOW
World Organisation Against Torture
Case postale 21- 8, rue du Vieux Billard
CH 1211 Geneva 8, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 809 49 39 – Fax: +41 22 809 49 29 –
E-mail: omct@omct.org – www.omct.org
Due diligence in the case of sexual torture of 15-year-old girl is a
test Brazil cannot fail
Geneva, 11 December 2007: The international NGO World Organisation
Against Torture
(OMCT) recalls that as a Party to the UN Convention against Torture
Brazil must carry out a
prompt, impartial and thorough investigation into the sexual torture of
a 15-year-old girl in pretrial
detention in the state of Pará. It must also hold
accountable all those directly and
indirectly responsible and apply adequate sanctions as provided by the
law.
In the eyes of the international community, Brazil has recently given
signs of genuine commitment to
fight the widespread torture that plagues the country, as denounced in
reports by the United Nations
Rapporteur on Torture and by the Committee against Torture after their
respective visits in 2001 and
2005. In July, Brazil ratified the Optional Protocol to the UN
Convention against Torture and other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, only one year
after having recognised the
competence of the Convention's monitoring body to receive individual
complaints on violations
thereof.
However, increased openness to international scrutiny alone will not
bring about a decrease in the
incidence of torture in the country. As the recent case of rape of an
adolescent girl in a police cell
shows, some of the most basic safeguards to prevent torture and
ill-treatment, as provided in the
Brazilian Constitution and international treaties are consistently
overlooked by the State. These
include the separation of children and adults and men and women in
detention.
L. was arrested on suspicion of petty theft in October and placed in
pre-trial detention in the city of
Abaetetuba, Pará State. For a period of 26 days she was held
in a police cell with about 20 adult male
prisoners.. While the police, Public Ministry, judiciary and detention
system officials claim good faith in
believing that she was an adult, none of them prevented her detention
with and subsequent rape by
several prisoners. Moreover, OMCT asserts that good faith cannot
constitute a criterion for failure to
apply due diligence and points out that, since children from the age of
12 are subject to specific
measures, the relevant authorities had the obligation to base their
decision to detain L. on clear
evidence as to her age. And even so, under no circumstance could a
female suspect have been held
with men.
The case has prompted public outcry, and administrative investigations
were promptly instructed at
police and judiciary levels once an anonymous complaint reached the
Conselho Tutelar, the
governmental body responsible for the protection and welfare of
children and adolescents, in
November. However, in what appears to be a coordinated approach, there
have been many attempts
by public officials in declarations to the Brazilian media to minimise
their respective organ's
responsibility in these events.
OMCT recalls that according to the UN Convention, torture consists of
an act by which severe pain or
suffering is intentionally inflicted on a person for a specific
purpose, such as discrimination on the
basis of sex or age, by a person acting in an official capacity, at his
or her instigation or with his or her
consent or acquiescence. Given the apparent opportunity that law
enforcement and judicial personnel
had to prevent this episode, State negligence alone provides grounds
for these officials and the
rapists to be prosecuted for torture. Any proof of a person’s
complicity requires him or her to be held
accountable and duly prosecuted.
OMCT commends the protection that has been afforded to the victim and
her family, including their
removal from the State of Pará. It further commends the
Governor's order to transfer all women in the
State from police stations to more adequate facilities and the prompt
appointment of commissions to
visit such places. At the same time, this development has meant that
some women are now hundreds
of kilometers away from their families and this should therefore not be
regarded as a long-term
solution. OMCT is also deeply concerned by declarations that mainly
announce disciplinary measures
while little is said by the competent authorities about the criminal
prosecution of those responsible.
Indeed, on 5 December, an official request by the National Council for
Criminal and Penitentiary
Policy of the Justice Ministry was addressed to the Prosecutor-General
of the State of Pará calling on
him to order the criminal prosecution for torture, rape and "violent
assault on public decency" of all
those officials in the prison system, police, Public Ministry and
judiciary involved in the case, as well
as those superiors that had knowledge of the situation but failed to
order measures to promptly
address it. OMCT supports the National Council's recommendation, while
emphasising that this
should by no means exonerate the detainees themselves of their criminal
responsibility for the same
acts.
OMCT recalls that administrative measures alone do not suffice to
ensure compliance with
international law, as either action or omission by public officials in
such a case amounts to a violation
of the prohibition of torture. Moreover, the UN Convention provides for
the State's duty to ensure full
reparation for torture victims, including compensation and
rehabilitation.
More generally, OMCT calls on the federal authorities to take this
opportunity to adopt and implement
structural measures nationwide to prevent further violations of this
kind and to ensure that safeguards
provided in national law are fully enforced. Indeed, this is not the
first such case, and as the number of
women arrested and detained in Brazil rapidly increases, facilities
that fully meet the requirements for
protection of women’s physical and psychological integrity
must be put in place and effective
monitoring mechanisms made operational.
For further information, contact OMCT’s Violence against
Women Programme: Mariana Duarte,
md@omct.org or Child Rights Programme: Cécile Trochu Grasso,
ct@omct.org
The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) is the world’s
largest coalition of non-governmental
organisations fighting against arbitrary detention, torture, summary
and extrajudicial executions, forced
disappearances and other forms of violence. Its global network
comprises nearly 300 local, national and
regional organisations, which share the common goal of eradicating such
practices and enabling the respect
of human rights for all.
Visit our website: www.omct.org
