Logic of the war on drugs has failed in Brazil, says OAS
In an unprecedented hearing, IACHR criticizes mass incarceration for drug-related crimes
According to James Cavallaro, commissioner of the IACHR (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the OAS), “the logic of the war on drugs has failed and Brazil should abandon it”. The statement was made during an unprecedented hearing on human rights violations resulting from the current Brazilian policy of combating drugs. The meeting took place this morning, May 24, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was requested by Conectas Human Rights and the Brazilian Drug Policy Platform.
The IACHR had already discussed the topic in 2014, but from a Latin American perspective. It is, therefore, the first time that Brazil’s drug policy has been addressed specifically by the Commission.
“The staging of an exclusive hearing on Brazil indicates that the OAS is aware of what is happening in the country – both the violence with which the police treat users and the breakdown of the prison system,” said Rafael Custódio, coordinator of the Justice program at Conectas, who was present at the meeting.
Watch the hearing below:
The hearing took place against the backdrop of a massive police operation undertaken by the São Paulo municipal government in the downtown region of the capital known as Cracolândia (Crackland). The organizations told the commissioners they want the authorities to immediately halt their violent actions and resume the policies of social assistance for addicts.
“It is unacceptable that social cleansing policies such this are still being adopted today,” said Gabriel Elias, coordinator of institutional relations at the Brazilian Drug Policy Platform. He also mentioned the municipal government’s request for the compulsory confinement of more than 400 people living in Cracolândia. “This is an attempt by the State to legitimize new forms of incarceration of drug users, which runs counter to both international guidelines and Brazilian legislation,” he added.
Prison system
Another key topic of the hearing was the negative impact of the current Drug Law (No. 11,343/2006) on the prison system. According to data from the Ministry of Justice from December 2014 (the most recent available), 25.7% of male prisoners and 64.1% of female prisoners are there for crimes related to drug trafficking. In states such as São Paulo, trafficking is responsible for the presence of 40% of adolescents in the youth detention system.
“The combination of the Heinous Crimes Law and the current Drug Law is largely responsible for the unconstitutional state of affairs in the Brazilian prison system,” said Custódio during the hearing.
According to the organizations, the inclusion of drug trafficking in the Heinous Crimes Law (No. 8,072/1990) is used by judges, prosecutors and police officers to deny basic rights to certain segments of the population. For example, it prevents drug trafficking suspects from being released on recognizance or from receiving non-custodial sentences, and it also gets in the way of their sentence progression.
As a symbolic case, the organizations told the story of Desireè Mendes Pinto, who was arrested in 2012 during another police raid in Cracolândia. In the five years since she has been awaiting her trial on recognizance, she has gone back to school and opened a small business as a confectioner, but her freedom and recovery are now at risk after the Public Prosecutor’s Office filed a warrant for her imprisonment on May 9.
“The political approach of the Brazilian State has been disproportionate, harmful and inefficient. Worse: the 2006 Drug Law has resulted in an increase in minimum sentencing from three to five years imprisonment, which has led to an explosion in the number of prisoners in Brazil,” said Custódio.
This conclusion was shared by the commissioners, who agreed that the connection between drug policy and prison overcrowding is direct and needs to be reviewed. Representatives of the Brazilian government recognized the need to look into non-custodial alternatives, but they stressed that the problem of drugs is not exclusive to Brazil.
