Amnesty International notes human rights deterioration in Brazil

The year 2015 was marked by more human rights setbacks than advances in Brazil, according to Amnesty International. Its State of the World's Human Rights 2015/16 report released Tuesday (Feb. 23) provides an overview of where 160 countries stand when it comes to human rights.

According to the report, Brazil's legislature has played an important role in this deterioration. Examples were the approval of a bill that defines terrorism and criminalizes social movements; a proposed repeal of the Disarmament Statute; the lowering by the Chamber of Deputies of the age of criminal liability; the adoption of the Statute on Families which revokes a number of rights, particularly those of the LGBT population; a proposal to restrict raped women's right to legal abortion; Legislature attempts to take over authority to implement indigenous land policy from the Executive branch, and others. Indigenous people and human rights advocates in rural areas are pointed out to have been the main victims of human rights violations in Brazil in 2015.

Homicides

The total number of homicides in 2015 could not be accurately established because of a lack of transparency in most states, but it was certainly higher than in 2014, when more than 58,000 people were murdered in Brazil.

Talking about killings committed by police while on duty, Amnesty International Director for Brazil, Atila Roque, said that most cases have not been investigated, and there were frequent reports of involved officers trying to make the victims seem guilty by altering the crime scene.

“If you look at the data for 2015, you find that virtually every month the way police worked has led to the deaths of innocent people and children, and people who didn't pose threats to anyone to be treated with such lethal force,” he noted. He concluded by noting that an “extremely high proportion” of killings reported by police as “self-defense” were extrajudicial executions.

Notable cases

Some cases gained prominence in Brazil in 2015. In February, 12 people were killed by military police officers and four were wounded during an operation in Cabula, a district in Salvador, Bahia. Civil Police (the investigative arm of police departments in Brazil) concluded that the police officers had acted in self-defense. But civil society organizations found evidence that 12 people had been extrajudicially executed. The Public Prosecutor's Office condemned the actions of the police officers involved in the killings and raised concerns about the impartiality of the investigation conducted by Civil Police. One of the activists who reported the massacre was threatened with death and had to flee from Salvador.

In April, Eduardo de Jesus Ferreira, a 10-year-old boy, was killed by military police officers just outside his home in Complexo do Alemão, a slum complex in the north region of Rio de Janeiro. The officers tried to tamper with the crime scene and remove the body, but were prevented by the boy's family and neighbors. After receiving death threats, Eduardo's mother and other family members had to leave the city. He had been the fourth victim of shooting in the area in less than two days.

In September, a 13-year-old boy was killed during a police operation in another slum. He was playing football in a street in Manguinhos, North Rio.

In November, five young black men aged between 16 and 25 were shot in a car by military police officers in Costa Barros, North Rio. The police men fired more than 100 shots at the car with the boys inside.

In Manaus, 37 people were killed on one weekend in July. Suspicions are the killing was in retaliation for the death of a policeman.

In Osasco, São Paulo metropolitan area, 18 people were killed in one night. Preliminary investigations indicated the involvement of military police officers.

However, Amnesty International highlighted the role of social movements, especially youth and women, in fighting against the human rights abuses in 2015. “I think in a time Brazil faces huge disrepute over its political shortcomings, it is encouraging and positive to see that the youth have not given up fighting for their values, actively engaging in communal life, and taking action trying to influence the government and Congress,” Atila Roque said.

Translated by Mayra Borges