A review of setbacks
Brazil’s assessment in the UN exposes human rights violations in the country
Led by the Minister of Human Rights, Luislinda Valois, a delegation of 36 federal government authorities had to explain to 109 UN Member States the challenges facing the country and the setbacks in terms of human rights. The hearing, known as the UPR (Universal Periodic Review), occurred on May 5 in the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.
It is the first international mechanism for reviewing the human rights situation in countries that make up the United Nations.
Click here to learn more about Brazil’s UPR.
For more than three hours, the government heard 255 recommendations on a wide variety of topics, from police violence to the acceptance of immigrants and refugees. Many of them reflected the record participation of Brazilian civil society throughout the whole review process. Conectas signed eight of the 53 independent reports prepared by civil society organizations to inform the UN and the countries that participated in the hearing.
Click here to see all the reports submitted by Conectas and partner organizations to Brazil’s UPR.
Several countries stressed, in their statements, their concern over violence and torture in Brazilian prisons and disrespect for indigenous rights.
At least 33 of the recommendations to Brazil addressed prison conditions and access to justice, and another 26 focused on violence against indigenous peoples and access to land. Police violence, particularly against black youth from poor neighborhoods, was the subject of 15 recommendations, while racism and racial inequality featured in 18 of them.
The Brazilian delegation used the opportunities it had to speak during the review to present initiatives considered positive by the federal government. Minister Valois went so far as to promise a 10% reduction in the Brazilian prison population by 2019, without giving any details about how this would be achieved.
As far as Conectas is concerned, the announcement was demagogic because it does not take into account the annual growth in the prison population and because the government has not been willing to change its current drug policy, which is one of the main causes of imprisonment in the country.
In spite of the focus on the prison system and indigenous rights during the UPR, the Brazilian delegation did not have any representatives from the Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for these two topics.
The analysis of the recommendations by region identifies trends and priorities among different groups of countries.
Nearly 23% of all the recommendations made by European nations, for example, dealt with the failure of the prison system and police violence. Violations against indigenous peoples and human rights defenders were the subject of 22% of the recommendations from the European block.
Among Asian countries, education and poverty reduction together totaled more than 26% of the recommendations. The proposals from Latin American countries, meanwhile, were equally distributed among the prison system, education and immigrants and refugees (7% each) and racism and racial inequality (11%).
Among African nations (excluding northern African countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Sudan), the recommendations were more concerned with racism and racial inequality and with the prison system (15% each). Violence against indigenous peoples was mentioned in 12% of the recommendations from African nations.
However, not all the recommendations made by the countries that took part in the hearing reflected the main concerns of human rights organizations. One of the proposals made by the Vatican, for example, was harshly criticized by these organizations. The country asked that Brazil “continue protecting the natural family and marriage, formed by a husband and a wife, as the fundamental unit of society, as well as the unborn”.
This was not the first time that the Vatican made a recommendation that violates the constitutional principles of Brazil. In the previous UPR cycle, in 2012, the Holy See made a similar recommendation, asserting that this type of family provides “the best conditions for raising children” – and the proposal was partially accepted by Brazil.
At a side event held immediately after the review, civil society organizations emphasized the mismatch between the diplomatic discourse employed by Brazil and the reality of the violations and setbacks faced internally. Moreover, they called for social participation and transparency in defining which recommendations will be accepted by the Brazilian government. The organizations said it is important for Brazil to make a real commitment to effectively implement the measures and for it to adopt clear indicators and technical standards to monitor and assess them.
The federal government has until the September session of the Human Rights Council to present the list of accepted recommendations.
Watch Brazil’s UPR in the UN in full:
Watch the side event organized by civil society to debate the results of the review:
See some of the main recommendations made at Brazil’s UPR:
PRISON SYSTEM, TORTURE AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE
| Country | Recommendation |
| Spain | Take measures to reduce mass incarceration, notably by encouraging the use of alternative sentencing and by making sure that pre-trial hearings are widely used. |
| Thailand | Improve facilities dedicated to pregnancy and maternity in prisons, in line with the Bangkok Rules. |
| Turkey | Address the problem of severely overcrowded prisons to eliminate inhumane conditions and take all measures to prevent torture; create local preventive mechanisms at each state level for effective implementation of the National Mechanism to Combat and Prevent Torture. |
| United States | Improve judicial processes to minimize the length of pre-trial detention and speed up trials, and consider alternatives to detention to address prison overcrowding. |
| Austria | Ensure respect for and protection of human rights for all detainees including by guaranteeing detention conditions in compliance with domestic as well as international law and standards and by protecting against cruel and inhuman treatment. |
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
| Country | Recommendation |
| Norway | Ensure that indigenous peoples are protected from threats, attacks and forced evictions; advance with the agenda to ensure indigenous peoples have the right to free, prior and informed consent. |
| Peru | Continue the process of demarcation of indigenous lands. |
| Canada | Guarantee the constitutional rights of indigenous peoples, including by ensuring that the National Indian Foundation (Funai) has the necessary resources to carry out its work, particularly relating to the demarcation of indigenous lands, and take measures to conclude investigations into all killings of indigenous peoples. |
| Germany | Guarantee adequate consultation and full participation of indigenous peoples in all legislative and administrative measures affecting them; protect indigenous peoples, including indigenous human rights defenders, from threats and attacks; and protect their land rights, in particular by strengthening protection programs, completing pending land demarcation processes and providing adequate funding and capacity to the National Indian Foundation (Funai). |
POLICE VIOLENCE
| Country | Recommendation |
| United Kingdom | Introduce mandatory human rights training for police agencies and implement an evidence-based policing program to reduce deaths from police action by 10 percent over the universal periodic review cycle. |
| Italy | Implement a human rights training program for the security forces, emphasizing the use of force according to the criteria of necessity and proportionality. |
| France | Ensure that acts of violence committed by members of security forces are prosecuted in order to combat impunity. |
| Slovakia | Adopt a code of conduct based on international human rights standards in order to define specific conditions for the use of force by law enforcement officers during protests. |
BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
| Country | Recommendation |
| Netherlands | Develop a National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights in order to prevent development projects from violating the rights of traditional populations, indigenous peoples and workers and causing damage to the environment, and in order to ensure effective remedy with meaningful consultation to the affected communities. |
| Paraguay | Draft a comprehensive National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights that takes into account the UN Guiding Principles. |
| Ecuador | Further continue the efforts to punish those responsible for the collapse of the retaining walls in Jacarei and Mariana; and ensure that the victims of this event are guaranteed access to justice and their right to fair compensation and reparations for the damages caused. |
IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES
| Country | Recommendation |
| East Timor | Implement the recently approved Immigration Law and its human rights perspective to the immigration issue. |
| Greece | Fully implement the new Immigration Law. |
| Philippines | Accelerate efforts towards ratification of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families and ILO Convention 189. |
