Organisations ask the Supreme Federal Court to lift confidentiality surrounding police operations that have taken place in Rio
Projéteis deixados em viela do Jacarezinho após ação violenta da polícia do Rio de Janeiro (crédito: Vozes da Comunidade)
On Friday (28), nineteen civil society organisations lodged an appeal with the Supreme Federal Court (STF) calling for the suspension of the confidentiality measures imposed by the state of Rio authorities, with regards to police operations since June 2020, including the action in Jacarezinho on 6 May of this year. The appeal was sent to Minister Edson Fachin, Rapporteur of ADPF 635 (claim of non-compliance with fundamental precept), known as the ADPF of the Favelas. The move was a collective one and its main objective is to reduce police lethality in Rio de Janeiro.
The document sent to Fachin also calls for an investigation by the Federal Prosecutor´s Office into the possible practice of crimes by Rio authorities in their failure to abide by the STF decision to impose restrictions on police operations in Rio´s favelas during the pandemic. The request reinforces the need to fulfil the order of the State Prosecutor´s Office to provide the contents of attachments, maintaining confidentiality only for potential intelligence-related information which is not pertinent to the fulfilment of the STF decisions in ADPF 635.
The request is based on information provided by media outlets who, under the Access to Information Act, asked for data and the official note sent by the Civil Police to Global Justice, advising that all investigations related to police operations since June 2020 were being kept confidential. This date coincides with the monocratic decision, granted in the terms of the ADPF by Minister and Rapporteur Edson Fachin, in an incidental interim protection, to suspend police operations during the pandemic, barring exceptional circumstances. This was later ratified in an STF plenary session.
“The imposition of blanket confidentiality of any information pertaining to police operations that have been carried out and investigations in progress, is a clear and absurd distortion of constitutional principles that uphold the right to information,” it says in an excerpt from the appeal. It continues:
“The protection of the right to information is even more necessary in cases involving the violation of human rights, particularly because the authorities that carry out these violations almost always attempt to hide them from the public.”
In addition to the creator of the action, the PSB (Brazilian Socialist Party), the following also signed the appeal: State of Rio de Janeiro Defender´s Office, CNDH (National Human Rights Committee), Educafro, Global Justice, Conectas, Associação Redes de Desenvolvimento da Maré (Maré Development Networks Association), ISER (Religious Studies Institute), Movimento Mães de Manguinhos (Manguinhos Mothers´ Movement), Rede de Comunidades e Movimentos contra a Violência (Network of Communities and Movements Against Violence), Fala Akari Collective, Papo Reto Collective, Iniciativa Direito à Memória e Justiça Racial (The Right to Memory and Racial Justice Initiative), MNU (Unified Black Movement), Instituto Alana, CEJIL (Centre for Justice and International Law), IBCCRIM (Brazilian Institute for Criminal Sciences), Laboratório de Direitos Humanos da UFRJ (Human Rights Think Tank at the Rio de Janeiro Federal University) and Núcleo de Assessoria Jurídica Universitária Popular Luiza Mahin (Luiza Mahin, University Centre for Legal Aid).
