Contents 1. Who Are Human Rights Defenders in Brazil?
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CONTENTS 1. WHO ARE HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS IN BRAZIL? 2. CHALLENGING PREJUDICE AND IMPUNITY 3. TAKING ON THE DEATH SQUADS: Human rights activists 4. DEFENDING THE DEFENCELESS: A. Protecting street children B. Speaking up for sexual minorities C. Advocating on behalf of common prisoners D. Upholding of indigenous rights E. Campaigning on land and environment F. Church workers 5. BEARING WITNESS: Witnesses and relatives 6. TELLING THE TRUTH: Journalists and the press 7. POLICING THE POLICE: Police investigators and informants 8. ENSURING JUSTICE: Lawyers, judges, prosecutors 9. IF IT WEREN’T FOR....... 10. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE GOVERNMENT APPENDIX: FINAL DECLARATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS IN LATIN AMERICA, BOGOTÁ, 25 MAY 1996 BRAZIL Human rights defenders: Protecting human rights for everyone "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights..." Article 1, Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1. WHO ARE HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS IN BRAZIL? Human rights defenders in Brazil come from many different walks of life. Some work by choice with human rights organizations. Others become human rights defenders by accident, because chance has made them a witness to a terrible human rights abuse, and they decide to take a stand and speak out. All Brazilian human rights defenders have one thing in common however: they are vulnerable to death threats, intimidation, and physical assault by police, death squads or hired gunmen operating with official acquiescence. Every year human rights defenders are murdered because they have dared to bear witness and speak up against human rights violations. Seldom are those who threaten and kill defenders brought to justice. Who might be considered a human rights defender? The term is used very broadly to include anyone who chooses to speak up in defence of the human rights of others. Some are journalists, who investigate, expose and bring human rights violations to public attention in the press, radio and television. Some work with human rights centres and non-governmental organizations which defend the rights of particular groups. They meticulously document violations, report them to the authorities and continue to insist, often over a period of years, that those responsible should be brought to justice. And some are simply witnesses to violations perpetrated against others. In choosing to testify in court, often providing the crucial eye witness testimony for the prosecution, they directly challenge the culture of impunity in Brazil and put themselves at great personal risk. Until very recently, there has been no witness protection program in Brazil to protect these individuals and witnesses have been forced to flee the country, go into hiding or seek official protection, often after receiving death threats. Other individuals described here as human rights defenders are actually state officials, and include those working in a professional capacity within the criminal justice system. These police officers, defence lawyers, judges, prosecutors and assistant prosecutors (who represent the victims and their family) are all carrying out their professional duties, upholding the law and attempting to bring to justice those responsible for human rights violations. In doing their job, they play a vital role in defending human rights. These state offiicals have been included in this document because they too have been subject to threats, intimidation and harassment by those within the same criminal justice system who wish to hide behind the current culture of impunity and who seek to shield those who violate human rights. Current mechanisms for investigating violations committed by police are presently wholly inadequate (see 2. Challenging Prejudice and Impunity). Members of the security forces accused of violations are frequently not removed from active duty, and are at liberty therefore to intimidate those involved in investigations and criminal proceedings against them. Amnesty International April 1998 AI Index: AMR 19/08/98 2 Brazil: Human rights defenders It is notable in many of the cases detailed in this document, that many different kinds of human rights defenders -- lawyers, prosecutors, police, journalists, and human rights activists -- have become involved in collaborating in a joint effort to tackle human rights violations. It is this diverse human rights community in Brazil which has, over several years, raised the profile of human rights in Brazil, and pushed for some of the changes which have occurred over recent years. The commitment and courage of all human rights defenders are, however, not always recognised as such, particularly when they denounce violations committed against those social groups which are most marginalised, despised and rejected, such as street children, the homeless or common prisoners. Some people in Brazil claim that human rights defenders are merely "defensores de bandidos", that is, "defenders of criminals". Sometimes this argument is used by extension to excuse or justify intimidation of, and attacks on, human rights defenders. They are frequently as much the victim of social prejudice as those whom they defend. Brazilian human rights defenders have been in the front line in upholding the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and human rights". This report profiles just a few of the many human rights defenders in Brazil whose cases have been taken up by Amnesty International over the last five years. Their stories illustrate vividly the range of human rights violations that continue to occur in Brazil: death squad activity, police killings of civilians, torture in police stations, massacres in prisons, murders of land activists and trade unionists by hired gunmen. The powerlessness of the victims of these violations makes the work of human rights defenders all the more important: often they speak out when others have been brutally silenced. Almost 50 years after the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which Brazil is a signatory, many of its principles are still violated in Brazil. The Brazilian government has committed itself to the protection and promotion of human rights in Brazil in the international arena, by ratifying a number of human rights conventions. On the domestic stage, the 1988 Federal Constitution contains a number of important provisions relating to the guarantee of fundamental human rights. In some areas, Brazil’s national legislation offers wide guarantees for the respect of human rights. However, despite the existence of a National Human Rights Program, a National Human Rights Secretariat and a number of promotional programs initiated by the federal government, police violence, death squad activity, torture in detention and many other violations remain a daily reality in Brazil. Commitments to international human rights declarations, constitutional provisions and national legislation are largely meaningless unless they are implemented and enforced, unless they translate into an improved respect and protection for human rights. It is mainly human rights defenders who, through their work, have attempted to bridge the gap between rhetoric and AI Index: AMR 19/08/98 Amnesty International April 1998 Protecting human rights for everyone 3 reality, who have insisted on respect in practice to the principles to which the Brazilian authorities have committed themselves on paper. When human rights defenders uphold the rights of one individual or group, they uphold the fundamental rights of everyone, of all of us. They are the men and women on the frontline of the struggle to realise the ideals proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that all people should be free from "fear and want" Wherever there is persecution and oppression, when human rights are denied or human dignity threatened, when harased minorities or oppressed people are at risk, defenders strive to protect the weak and hold the powerful to account. Amnesty International recognises the crucial role that defenders play in the struggle for human rights and dignity in Brazil and around the world, and supports them in their valuable work. For example, in May 1996 Amnesty International convened an international regional conference in Bogotá, Colombia, on the protection of human rights defenders in Latin America and the Caribbean. The final declaration of this conference is attached in an appendix . 2. CHALLENGING PREJUDICE AND IMPUNITY Human rights are not universally enjoyed or respected in Brazil. The patterns of human rights violations in Brazil, the persistence of violations, and the degree of tolerance towards such violations suggest that to many policemen and members of the general public, some social groups are devoid of rights and may be subjected to any form of degradation, abuse, humiliation and violence. Disdain for society’s outcasts contributes to a culture of impunity, as the public has little sympathy when they are killed or hurt unlawfully. Two young military policemen arrested in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, in October 1997, accused of having carried out 11 death squad extrajudicial killings in a two month period, reportedly protested, "We don’t kill working people, only tramps and criminals".1 In October 1994, a military judge in São Paulo, reduced from 12 to six years the prison sentence handed down to a military policeman for having killed six transvestites in cold blood. The judge allegedly