Setback averted
Reduction of the age of criminal responsibility is blocked in Lower House
The bill to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 was overturned in a full session of the Lower House of Congress early this morning, July 1. The text of Amendment 171/1993, approved by a special commission two weeks ago, received 303 in favor, but it needed 308 to survive for a second round of voting.
Members of Congress, human rights organizations and social movements opposing the bill celebrated the result, but warned about other proposals on the same subject that are still pending in Congress – including Amendment 171 itself and all the bills appended to it.
“This time, the guarantee of rights has prevailed over the criminalization of youth with simplistic and counterproductive measures,” said Marcos Fuchs, associate director of Conectas.
“The defeat of the proposal to lower the age of criminal responsibility also sends an important message to supporters of other bills that, instead of expanding rights, promote strategies that have notoriously failed to tackle social challenges in the country. Civil society remains on alert to avoid any attempt at a setback,” he added.
Yesterday evening, June 30, the Senate postponed its vote on bill 333/2015 that raises the amount of time convicted adolescents can be detained for heinous crimes involving violence from 3 to 8 years. The bill submitted by Senator José Pimentel also creates a special regime for these cases – which would require the construction of exclusive prisons or special wings in the youth detention system.
International Support
Over the past few days, international organizations and agencies have joined the Brazilian mobilization against Amendment 171. In a statement published on Monday, June 29, Amnesty International USA, in conjunction with Conectas, condemned the bill as a “misguided populist measure”.
Last week, the proposal to lower the age of criminal responsibility was the subject of condemnation in the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva, and of a joint letter signed by 92 human rights organizations around the world.
Click here to watch the condemnation in the UN (13th place).
Click here to read the joint letter in full.
Experts and authorities have also spoken out. On June 26, in a statement recorded in Uruguay by the CDNU (Committee on the Rights of the Child – Uruguay), Jorge Cardona, a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, said “there is not a country in world that has reduced delinquency by applying a strong-handed policy against adolescents”. In an interview with the O Estado de São Paulo newspaper on June 29, Rosa Maria Ortíz, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) Rapporteur on the Rights of the Child, stated that the approval of the bill would represent “a serious setback for Brazil”.
