Organisations condemn Doria’s veto of a bill to fight torture in Sao Paulo prisons
A joint note has been signed by around 50 institutions that work with human rights and the prison system
Laura Daudén/Conectas
Police officer monitors the outside of a cell in the Butanta Women’s Prison, in Sao Paulo, during a visit by Conectas on 5/4/2016.
On Monday 21 January, approximately 50 civil society organisations published a joint letter condemning the São Paulo governor, João Dória’s veto of a bill for the creation of a project aimed at combatting the practice of torture in São Paulo prisons.
The bill 1557/2014, to set up the State Committee for the Prevention and Combat of Torture in the State of São Paulo, had been approved by the State Legislative Assembly (Alesp) at the end of 2018 and just required the sanction of the Executive.
“The perpetration of torture and physical and psychological maltreatment, in detention centres is a systemic practice that is constantly being condemned on the national and international arenas by victims and their families and by human rights organisations, without, however, any effective policy to revert the situation.” Quoted by the institutions signing the document.
São Paulo is the state with the highest number of people deprived of freedom in Brazil -around 220 thousand people. The proposal to create a State Committee for the Prevention and Combat of Torture in the State of São Paulo was in line with a federal law that sets out a national system on the subject. The creation of state committees is the first step towards making the system function properly. These bodies are made up of civil society organisations and government representatives who, among other responsibilities, select a group of specialists – a so-called mechanism to prevent and combat torture – with the autonomy to inspect prisons and present reports.
“When vetoing the proposal, Governor João Doria adopted an erroneous interpretation on the work of the Legislative Power and also disregarded the long, wide-ranged public debate surrounding the presentation of the bill and its approval.” Reads an extract of the letter.
