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Monitoring protection mechanisms / Statements / Brazil / 2019 / June

Brazil: Weakening key anti-torture body is first step in dismantling rule of law

June 12, 2019

The decision by the Brazilian Government to cripple its key national anti-torture body will have devastating effects on the situation of people deprived of liberty, said today Justiça Global, GAJOP and the World Organization against Torture (OMCT).

In a Presidential Decree published on 11 June 2019, the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro dismissed the eleven members of the National Mechanism to Prevent and Combat Torture (MNCPT), an institution established in 2013 whose role is to inspect the prisons in Brazil and monitor the concrete situation of persons deprived of liberty and the respect of their human rights. The Decree also establishes that the new MNCPT will now function on a voluntary and unpaid basis, as its role is considered as a public service provision that would not require any remuneration.

“In practice, this Decree sounds the death knell for an institution that was a crucial buffer providing a modicum of protection to detainees,” said Gerald Staberock, OMCT Secretary General. “Only last month, an OMCT team visiting two detention centres for children in the State of Pernambuco witnessed clear human rights violations amounting to torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Together we our partners in Brazil, we urge the Government to rescind this decision.”

The measures foreseen in the Decree will prevent the MNCPT from carrying out its mandate, as this requires financial resources and the availability of its members. The financial resources of the MNCPT are also a key element to guarantee its autonomy and independence, including in receiving complaints of human rights violations. The Decree is therefore a crucial threat to the functioning of the MNCPT, which would only exist on paper if this Decree was implemented.

During its mission to Brazil, the OMCT met with members of the MNPCT and identified its crucial role in preventing torture and ill-treatment of children and in coordinating with the Local Preventive Mechanisms that exist in some of the States of Brazil. Any weakening of the institution and limitation to its activities would have a severe impact on the lives of children deprived of liberty and expose them to additional risks of torture and ill-treatment.

Worse still, this presidential Decree is issued only a few days after the death of more than 50 detainees in a prison of the state of Amazonas. During these critical moments, the work of the MNCPT has been essential to report human rights violations and to describe extensively the structural state of deterioration that continues to characterize Brazilian prisons as a whole. 

The OMCT, Justiça Global and GAJOP wants to recall that establishing a National Preventive Mechanism and granting the necessary resources to its functioning, both in financial and human terms, is an international obligation for all Sates parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), which Brazil has ratified in 2007.

The OMCT, Justiça Global and GAJOP urge the Government of Brazil to revoke its Decree n 9.831 and to guarantee to its National Preventive Mechanism all the necessary resources that will allow it to be fully operational and thus prevent situations of torture and ill-treatment against persons deprived of liberty.

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Date: June 12, 2019
Activity: Monitoring Protection Mechanisms
Type: Statements
Country: Brazil

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