OEA/Ser.L/V/II. Doc. 9 February 12, 2021 Original: Portuguese INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS Situation of human rights in Brazil 2021 cidh.org OAS Cataloging-in-Publication Data Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Situation of human rights in Brazil : Approved by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on February 12, 2021. ISBNp. ; cm. 978-0-8270-7181-0 (OAS. Official records ; OEA/Ser.L/V/II) 1. Human rights--Brazil. 2. Civil rights--Brazil. I. Title. II. Series. OEA/Ser.L/V/II. Doc.9/21 INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS Members Joel Hernández Antonia Urrejola Flávia Piovesan* Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño Margarette May Macaulay Julissa Mantilla Falcón Edgar Stuardo Ralón Orellana Interim Executive Secretary María Claudia Pulido Chief of Staff of the Executive Secretariat of the IACHR Norma Colledani Assistant Executive Secretary for Monitoring, Promotion and Technical Cooperation María Claudia Pulido Assistant Executive Secretary for Cases and Petitions Marisol Blanchard Vera In collaboration with: Pedro Vaca Villarreal, Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression Soledad García Muñoz, Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Rights (ESCER) * In keeping with Article 17.2 of the Commission’s Rules of Procedure, Commissioner Flávia Piovesan, a national of Brazil, did not participate in the discussion of, research and deliberations on, and approval of this report. Approved by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on February 3, 2020 February 12, 2021 INDEX 10 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 14 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 18 CHAPTER 2 HISTORICAL DISCRIMINATION AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DISCRIMINATION AS FACTORS CAUSING STRUCTURAL INEQUALITY 19 A. HISTORICAL DISCRIMINATION 19 1. Afro-descendants 24 2. Traditional or tribal (quilombola 29 3. Indigenous peoples 39 4. Women and gender-based violence) Afro-descendant communities 44 B. SOCIO-ECONOMIC DISCRIMINATION 44 1. Rural workers, campesinos, and forced migration 47 2. Street people, the homeless, and persons living in shantytowns or on the outskirts of cities 51 C. CONSEQUENCES OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC DISCRIMINATION: VICTIMS OF FORCED LABOUR OR WORKING IN CONDITIONS AKIN TO SLAVERY AND TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS 51 1. Victims of forced labor or subject to conditions akin to slavery 57 2. Victims of trafficking in persons 60 CHAPTER 3 OTHER GROUPS AT SPECIAL RISK 61 A. PERSONS DEPRIVED OF LIBERTY, THE SOCIO-EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, AND “THERAPEUTIC COMMUNITIES” (TREATMENT CENTERS) 62 1. Persons deprived of liberty 76 2. Privatization of correctional institutions (estabelecimentos penais 78 3. The socio-educational services system and accountability ) 84 4. Therapeutic communities of adolescents in conflict with the law 88 B. MIGRANT PERSONS 90 1. Venezuelan migrant persons 93 2. Xenophobia, social and formal challenges 94 C. LGBTI PERSONS 100 CHAPTER 4 CITIZEN SECURITY 102 A. SELECTIVE VIOLENCE 102 1. Violent deaths and socio-economic inequality 104 B. LACK OF SECURITY AND ORGANIZED CRIME 106 1. Violent deaths of activist and human rights defender persons 109 C. STATE’S INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSE 109 1. Advances, interruptions, and risks of backsliding in the formulation of public security policies compatible with human rights standards and 113 2. Violence perpetrated by State agents and institutional racism 118 3.parameters Militarization (citizen of public security) security 124 4. Arms control 126 CHAPTER 5 IMPUNITY 127 A. IMPUNITY AND DENIAL OF JUSTICE 136 B. GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTED UNDER THE CIVIL-MILITARY DICTATORSHIP 150 CAPÍTULO 6 DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS 151 A. THE DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 151 1. Oversight and judicial institutions 153 B. INSTITUTIONS FOR PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY 154 C. THE INSTITUTIONAL UNDERPINNING OF HUMAN RIGHTS 154 1. Institutions and Public Policies 155 2. Institutions and Policies for the Protection and Defense of Human Right 158 3. Institutions and Policies for the Promotion of Human Rights 160 4. Educational policies, inequalities, and at-risk groups 163 5. Health policies, inequalities, and at-risk groups 170 CHAPTER 7 FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND INFORMATION 172 A. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION AND SOCIAL PROTESTS 176 1. Hate speech and discrimination 178 2. Censorship and stigmatization 179 B. VIOLENCE AGAINST JOURNALISTS AND OTHER COMMUNICATORS (MEDIA PROFESSIONALS) 182 CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 183 A. CONCLUSIONS 190 B. RECOMMENDATIONS Situation of Human Rights in Brazil 10 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Organization of American States | OAS 11 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Twentyto conduct years a comprehensive after its first visitdiagnostic to Brazil, assessment the Inter-American of the human Commission rights situation on Human in that Rightscountry. (hereinafter Given the complexity “IACHR,” Inter-American of that task in Commission,”such a vast territory or “Commission”) and the particulari returned- issues and groups historically impacted by discrimination and structural inequality. ties of each region and each federated state, the Commission opted to focus on specific 2. Accordingly, in Chapter 2 of this report, the IACHR analyzes the situation of persons of African descent, including quilombola communities (akin to tribal communities, by - ers; landless and homeless people; and inhabitants of favelas - internationalsons living on parameters); the outskirts women; of cities. indigenous To that end, peoples; the Commission campesinos sought and rural to unravel work the common thread in the violations endured by those individuals(shantytowns) and communities and per and its close connection to longstanding exclusion from access to land and de facto denial of economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights. The Commission has determined that, due to ethno-racial discrimination, many of those people end up in a vicious cycle of poverty that forces them to live in extremely precarious habitats where they are exposed to the violence perpetrated by criminal groups or organi- zations, such as armed gangs (milícias ), drug traffickers, domestic and international human traffickers, and to working conditions akin to slavery. 3. Structural discrimination and inequality are also rampant in prisons, rehabilitation centers and therapeutic communities, as discussed in Chapter 3. As the IACHR ob- serves, those environments turn into institutional breeding grounds for the mar- ginalization of persons of African descent and persons living in extreme poverty. In particular, the IACHR underscored the plight of persons deprived of liberty, who are often held in overcrowded and structurally deficient prisons, maltreated, and- frequentlyters that strongly subjected resemble to torture. prisons Children and do and little adolescents to achieve at their odds core with purpose the law of find so- cialthemselves reintegration. in similar conditions, housed in rehabilitation (“socio-educational”) cen 4. Chapter 3 also addresses the drug user support system. There the Commission observes shortcomings in therapeutic communities that end up placing their users in situations that violate their rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and religion. 5. As regards freedom of expression, the IACHR ascertains an increase in the num- ber of threats by authorities to the life and bodily integrity of journalists and other media workers, a situation that worsened following the national elections in 2018. There was also an increase in hate crimes based on people’s sexual orientation, gen- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights | IACHR Situation of Human Rights in Brazil 12 der identity and/or gender expression, and in hate speech or stigmatization by State authorities around that time. In that respect, the Commission stresses that, although - es of discrimination against LGBTI persons, administrative changes point to a weak- eningthe country of public has policies made progresstowards them.with fighting discrimination and even punishes cas 6. Brazil’s lengthy history of structural discrimination and inequality also severely im- pairs citizen security. In Chapter 4, the Commission analyzes security policies and the very high number of violent deaths in the country. It likewise draws attention to the - cially those defending land rights and addressing environmental issues. The IACHR notessignificant in the increase institutional in threats, response attacks, a tendency and murders to opt offor human violent rights and punitive defenders, policies espe implemented by the police and judicial authorities. The IACHR observes, in that regard, - ber of victims of African descent, living in slums, outlying districts, and economically vulnerablea constant andareas. indiscriminate In addition to practice those policies, of racial there profiling, has been which a gradual results inmilitarization a high num of public security, which ultimately also reinforces a warlike mentality in both urban and rural settings. All of the above has rendered the Brazilian police, statistically, one of the most lethal police forces in the world as well as the one with the largest number of murdered officers. 7. The IACHR also garnered information showing that, for the most part, Brazil’s justice system has made no progress in terms of investigations, convictions, and reparation to victims of institutional violence. In the Commission’s opinion, as highlighted in Chap- ter 5, such crimes have largely gone unpunished, which, in intersection with structural discrimination, reinforces the assessment that the justice system is