{"id":5645,"date":"2016-08-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.conectas.org.inf.br\/wp\/noticias\/a-resounding-no\/"},"modified":"2021-03-25T20:55:33","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T20:55:33","slug":"a-resounding-no","status":"publish","type":"noticia","link":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/noticias\/a-resounding-no\/","title":"A resounding No","content":"

The Constitution and Justice Commission of the Senate discussed today, August 11, in a public hearing, Constitutional Amendment Proposal 33\/2012<\/u><\/a> to reduce the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 for serious crimes \u2013 those described in Brazil\u2019s Heinous Crimes Law<\/u><\/a>, as well as premeditated murder, bodily injury resulting in death and aggravated robbery. In these cases, the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office in each state would have to prepare a report asking the judge to reduce the age of criminal responsibility.<\/p>\n

The proposed amendment, drafted by Senator Aloysio Nunes, has already received a favorable vote from its sponsor in the Commission, Senator Ricardo Ferra\u00e7o \u2013 who did not participate in today\u2019s hearing. If approved by the Commission, the amendment will be voted on the Senate floor, where it will need a qualified majority in two rounds of voting before proceeding to the Lower House of Congress.<\/p>\n

Representatives from 15 civil society organizations and bodies of the Executive and the Judiciary debated the constitutionality and the content of the amendment. For most of the participants, the text commits the same error as Amendment 171\/93<\/u><\/a>, approved a year ago by the lower house of Congress<\/u><\/a>, by considering young people as the perpetrators instead of the victims of violence.<\/p>\n

One of the most emphatic statements was made by the National Human Rights Secretary, Flavia Piovesan, who said the reduction of the age of criminal responsibility \u201cviolates constitutional and international frameworks\u201d and \u201clacks any factual grounding\u201d as a solution to violence and impunity. \u201cThe simplicity and immediacy of the measure makes it incapable of solving the complex challenges facing Brazil, which has one of the highest murder rates among young people anywhere in the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

According to research<\/u><\/a> published in 2015 by Flacso (Latin American School of Social Sciences), 29 children and adolescents aged up to 19 are killed in Brazil every 24 hours. It also revealed that Brazil is third in the ranking of countries with the highest murder rate in this age group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis shows a real indifference towards the poor black youth of Brazil,\u201d said Mariana Chies, coordinator of the Childhood and Youth Commission of IBCCrim (Brazilian Criminal Sciences Institute). \u201cIn situations when adolescents have their rights threatened or violated, it is not they who are in the wrong, but instead the institutions that are responsible for their well-being,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Chies also pointed out the growth in the number of adolescents deprived of liberty: between 1996 and 2013, there was a 443% increase. \u201cWe are increasingly punishing our adolescents with detention. [Lowering the age of criminal responsibility] is populist rhetoric devoid of any empirical arguments,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

For some at the hearing, besides unconstitutional and ineffective in combating violence, the proposed amendment is also counterproductive because it would deliver more people into the hands of the criminal gangs that currently control the prison system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a prison system that doesn\u2019t rehabilitate anyone. On the contrary, at some point these people will return to society and we forget about this,\u201d said Bruno Moura, of the Bahia State Public Defender\u2019s Office. \u201cIf we want to address the problem of violence, we need to take a different approach,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

According to Raquel Lima, a representative of the Criminal Justice Network, the approval of the amendment would be inadmissible and violate international treaties signed voluntarily by Brazil, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child<\/u><\/a>, which sets the age of criminal responsibility at 18. She said that countries such as the United States have already faced international condemnation for violating this rule.<\/p>\n

Of the 15 speakers at the hearing, only two were in favor of approving the amendment: Congressman Laerte Bessa, sponsor of Amendment 171\/93 in the Constitution and Justice Commission of the Lower House, and Wladimir S\u00e9rgio Reale, vice president of Adepol (Association of Police Commissioners). Bessa said he supported Amendment 33 because \u201cthe Brazilian people are sick of impunity for violent youth\u201d. \u201cThe reduction of the age of criminal responsibility would only apply for irremediable criminals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The statement by the congressman drew condemnation from the other authorities and experts on the panel. \u201cThe Constitution and the Child and Adolescent Act repeat several times that young people must be treated with dignity and respect. There is no such thing as a child or adolescent irremediable criminal,\u201d refuted Olympio de S\u00e1, a prosecutor from the Paran\u00e1 State Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Watch the full debate below:<\/p>\n