Torture as a method of investigation

Divulgação

Human rights organizations this Tuesday, March 10, denounced the use of torture as a method of police investigation in Brazil at the 28th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, which is taking place in Geneva until March 27.

The oral statement, read by Conectas, expressed the organizations’ condemnation of the use of torture and presented the main conclusions of a study that examined how the Brazilian justice system judges torture cases in the country.

“Torture is still being used as a method of police investigation. Despite its absolute prohibition, it remains ingrained in the Brazilian law enforcement culture,” reads an excerpt from the document.

The statement was based on the data contained in the study “Judging Torture: Analysis of jurisprudence in Brazil’s State Courts of Appeals (2005-2010)”, produced by Conectas, IBCCrim (Brazilian Criminal Sciences Institute), NEV, Pastoral Carcerária and Acat-Brazil, which analyzed 455 rulings from all Brazil’s State Courts of Appeals.

According to the study, in 66% of the cases against public officials, the torture was committed to obtain information.

It also reveals that the likelihood of an appeal resulting in the conviction of a public official (11%) is lower than for private individuals (35%).

In their statement, the organizations recommended establishing the independence of criminal forensic bodies, namely the IML (Forensic Medical Institute) and the IC (Criminology Institute), which in most states are controlled by the police.

Click here to read the full oral statement presented to the UN