{"id":4761,"date":"2015-05-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.conectas.org.inf.br\/wp\/noticias\/together-against-lowering-the-age-of-criminal-responsibility\/"},"modified":"2018-01-26T00:11:40","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T00:11:40","slug":"together-against-lowering-the-age-of-criminal-responsibility","status":"publish","type":"noticia","link":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/noticias\/together-against-lowering-the-age-of-criminal-responsibility\/","title":"Together against lowering the age of criminal responsibility","content":"

The Grand Hall of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo Law School was too small to accommodate the thousand or so people who came to attend the event<\/u><\/a> on April 28 against Constitutional Amendment 171\/1993<\/u><\/a>, which would lower the age of criminal responsibility<\/u><\/a> from 18 to 16. In the doorways, the corridors and on the floor, the public gathered to see and hear talks by former ministers, social leaders, academics, jurists and human rights defenders against the proposed amendment that is pending in the lower house of Congress.<\/p>\n

The event was organized by several organizations, namely the Brazilian Criminal Sciences Institute<\/u><\/a>, Conectas, the August XI Academic Center<\/u><\/a>, the S\u00e3o Paulo Public Defender\u2019s Office Ombudsman<\/u><\/a>, the S\u00e3o Paulo Regional Council of Psychology<\/u><\/a> and the Association of Judges for Democracy<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The diversity of the voices demonstrated the extent of the opposition to the amendment. Among those present at the event were two former ministers of justice from the administration of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Miguel Reale Jr. and Jos\u00e9 Carlos Dias; the S\u00e3o Paulo State Attorney General, M\u00e1rcio Fernando Elias Rosa; the president of the S\u00e3o Paulo State Court, Jos\u00e9 Renato Nalini; the state\u2019s chief public defender, Rafael Vernaschi; and the president of the Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Casa youth reform center, Berenice Giannella.<\/p>\n

\"\"More than 60 organizations and social movements also participated, such as the Mothers of May Movement<\/u><\/a>, Educafro<\/u><\/a>, the Homeless Workers Movement<\/u><\/a> and the CUT<\/u><\/a> trade union federation.\u00a0Also serving on the panel, chaired by Professor Salom\u00e3o Shecaira of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo Law School, were former senator Eduardo Suplicy and former minister Paulo Sergio Pinheiro.<\/p>\n

In the talks, different views of the problems and impacts of the amendment conveyed a single message: the proposal must not be approved by lawmakers. According to Miguel Reale Jr., the reintroduction of the proposal by the current president of the lower house, Congressman Eduardo Cunha, is directly related to the growing unpopularity of Congress. \u201cIt was done to please the masses, establishing a major fraud,\u201d he said. \u201cThe amendment is intended to mislead the people. But we won\u2019t be deceived, we\u2019ll denounce the fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others also argued that the proposal is unconstitutional, challenging the decision of the Constitution and Justice Commission of the lower house, which approved the admissibility of the amendment in March.\u00a0\u201cIt is unconstitutional both from a formal point of view and in terms of content, since it presents the image of a vindictive State, which is incompatible with the democratic rule of law,\u201d explained M\u00e1rcio Elias Rosa.\u00a0\u201cMoreover, it will not reduce violence because violence is not associated with age.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"For D\u00e9bora Silva, founder of the Mothers of May Movement, the debate surrounding the proposal overlooks a much larger problem, which is the violence suffered by the country\u2019s poor, black youth. \u201cBrazil should not be discussing lowering the age of criminal responsibility, but instead the veiled killings in the poor outskirts of our cities.\u201d This viewpoint was echoed by Gabriel Medina, Brazil\u2019s national youth secretary. \u201cYoung people are not the perpetrators of violence, but its main victims,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not by throwing our young people into the prison system that we will reduce violence in our country. It\u2019s worth remembering that Brazil loses only to Nigeria in the number of killings of young people,\u201d said Fl\u00e1via Piovesan, a professor at the Catholic University of S\u00e3o Paulo (PUC-SP). \u201cBreaking with the culture of trivializing death requires a break with the trivialization of the life of our young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the event, the former minister Jos\u00e9 Carlos Dias read a statement that will be delivered to lawmakers calling for the rejection of the amendment.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/u><\/a> to read the document in full<\/strong><\/p>\n

See below the video about the event:<\/strong><\/p>\n