The humiliation persists
In a hearing at the Inter-American Commission, organizations denounce the continuance of abusive searches in Brazil and in São Paulo
Seven Brazilian organizations, including Conectas, will denounce in the IACHR (Inter-American Commission of the OAS) this Friday, October 23, the persistence of ‘abusive searches’ – undressing and genital inspections – to which women, children and elderly people are submitted when they visit their relatives in the country’s prisons.
In addition to the absence of legislation banning the practice on the national level, the organizations will criticize the government of São Paulo – the state with the largest prison population in Brazil – for non-compliance with the state law (15,552/2014) that puts an end to these types of searches in São Paulo’s prisons.
According to reports, abusive searches are still being conducted in the state’s prisons even though the law was passed more than a year ago. In 2014, research by the Criminal Justice Network based on official documents of the State Prison Administration Department revealed that contraband was found in just three of every 10,000 searches.
“Reports show that this search procedure, besides being extremely invasive and violating individual guarantees such as the dignity of the human person, is conducted in unsanitary conditions, without any consideration for hygiene or respect for minimum health standards, exposing visitors to the risk of communicable diseases,” say the organizations.
The statement will be made in a public hearing at the 156th Session of the IACHR (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights) in Washington, starting at 5.15 pm (Brasília time). Click here to watch the broadcast online.
Almost nine years ago, the IACHR determined that the procedure is incompatible with the American Convention on Human Rights, which was ratified by Brazil in 1992. Last year, the UN rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, also stated that the inspection constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, in conflict with the Convention against Torture, which has also been ratified by the country, in 1989.
According to the Map of the Abusive Search, there are 24 laws, bills, decrees, court decisions and other rules banning the procedure in Brazil’s states and municipalities.
Over the course of the past year, a bill banning these searches in all prison facilities across the country was approved unanimously in the Senate and in the Commission on Human Rights and Minorities of the Lower House of Congress. This bill, now numbered 7764/2014, still needs to be approved by the Public Security Commission and the Constitution and Justice Commission of the Lower House and signed into law by President Dilma Rousseff.
Click here to read the report by the Brazilian organizations submitted to the IACHR.
Watch the video of the campaign “For an End to the Abusive Search”, narrated by Denise Fraga:
IACHR
The IACHR is a principal and autonomous body of the OAS whose mission is to promote and protect human rights in the American hemisphere. It is formed by seven independent members who serve in a personal capacity. Created in 1959, the Commission has its headquarters in Washington DC and, together with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IAHR Court), installed in 1979, it is one of the institutions of the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS).
