{"id":6118,"date":"2017-05-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.conectas.org.inf.br\/wp\/noticias\/logic-of-the-war-on-drugs-has-failed-in-brazil-says-oas\/"},"modified":"2021-04-12T18:39:22","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T18:39:22","slug":"logic-of-the-war-on-drugs-has-failed-in-brazil-says-oas","status":"publish","type":"noticia","link":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/noticias\/logic-of-the-war-on-drugs-has-failed-in-brazil-says-oas\/","title":"Logic of the war on drugs has failed in Brazil, says OAS","content":"<div class=\"tts_content_wrapper_1\" ><p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 400px; height: 267px;\" title=\"Ricky Levy\/IACHR\" src=\"\/arquivos\/editor\/images\/34704661312_f69b6ac75e_o_alt.jpg\" alt=\"\" longdesc=\"Commissioners say small-time trafficking should not be considered a \u201cheinous crime\u201d\" \/>According to James Cavallaro, commissioner of the IACHR (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the OAS), \u201cthe logic of the war on drugs has failed and Brazil should abandon it\u201d. The statement was made during an unprecedented hearing on human rights violations resulting from the current Brazilian policy of combating drugs. The meeting took place this morning, May 24, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was requested by <a href=\"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\">Conectas Human Rights<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/pbpd.org.br\/\">Brazilian Drug Policy Platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The IACHR had already <a href=\"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/actions\/justice\/news\/16979-historic-hearing\">discussed the topic in 2014<\/a>, but from a Latin American perspective. It is, therefore, the first time that Brazil\u2019s drug policy has been addressed specifically by the Commission.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe staging of an exclusive hearing on Brazil indicates that the OAS is aware of what is happening in the country &#8211; both the violence with which the police treat users and the breakdown of the prison system,\u201d said Rafael Cust\u00f3dio, coordinator of the Justice program at Conectas, who was present at the meeting.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Watch the hearing below:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qqGHtRo25iY\" width=\"680\" height=\"383\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>The hearing took place against the backdrop of a massive police operation undertaken by the S\u00e3o Paulo municipal government in the downtown region of the capital known as Cracol\u00e2ndia (Crackland). The organizations told the commissioners they want the authorities to immediately halt their violent actions and resume the policies of social assistance for addicts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is unacceptable that social cleansing policies such this are still being adopted today,\u201d said Gabriel Elias, coordinator of institutional relations at the Brazilian Drug Policy Platform. He also mentioned the municipal government\u2019s request for the compulsory confinement of more than 400 people living in Cracol\u00e2ndia. \u201cThis is an attempt by the State to legitimize new forms of incarceration of drug users, which runs counter to both international guidelines and Brazilian legislation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 400px; height: 267px; float: right;\" title=\"Ricky Levy\/IACHR\" src=\"\/arquivos\/editor\/images\/34024764344_c42180c4b8_o_alt.jpg\" alt=\"\" longdesc=\"According to Rafael Cust\u00f3dio, of Conectas, the classification of drug dealing as a \u201cheinous crime\u201d is largely responsible for the breakdown of prisons\" \/>Prison system<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Another key topic of the hearing was the negative impact of the current Drug Law (No. 11,343\/2006) on the prison system. According to data from the Ministry of Justice from December 2014 (the most recent available), 25.7% of male prisoners and 64.1% of female prisoners are there for crimes related to drug trafficking. In states such as S\u00e3o Paulo, trafficking is responsible for the presence of 40% of adolescents in the youth detention system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe combination of the Heinous Crimes Law and the current Drug Law is largely responsible for the unconstitutional state of affairs in the Brazilian prison system,\u201d said Cust\u00f3dio during the hearing.<\/p>\n<p>According to the organizations, the inclusion of drug trafficking in the Heinous Crimes Law (No. 8,072\/1990) is used by judges, prosecutors and police officers to deny basic rights to certain segments of the population. For example, it prevents drug trafficking suspects from being released on recognizance or from receiving non-custodial sentences, and it also gets in the way of their sentence progression.<\/p>\n<p>As a symbolic case, the organizations told the story of Desire\u00e8 Mendes Pinto, who was arrested in 2012 during another police raid in Cracol\u00e2ndia. In the five years since she has been awaiting her trial on recognizance, she has gone back to school and opened a small business as a confectioner, but her freedom and recovery are now at risk after the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office filed a warrant for her imprisonment on May 9.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe political approach of the Brazilian State has been disproportionate, harmful and inefficient. Worse: the 2006 Drug Law has resulted in an increase in minimum sentencing from three to five years imprisonment, which has led to an explosion in the number of prisoners in Brazil,\u201d said Cust\u00f3dio.<\/p>\n<p>This conclusion was shared by the commissioners, who agreed that the connection between drug policy and prison overcrowding is direct and needs to be reviewed. Representatives of the Brazilian government recognized the need to look into non-custodial alternatives, but they stressed that the problem of drugs is not exclusive to Brazil.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"tts__custom-position_bottom_fixed\" ><\/div>","excerpt":"<p>In an unprecedented hearing, IACHR criticizes mass incarceration for drug-related crimes<\/p>\n","author":2,"featured_media":25117,"parent":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[7],"tags":[12564,12602,111,349,12881,12821],"tema":[12270],"class_list":["post-6118","noticia","type-noticia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cidh-en","tag-cracolandia-en-2","tag-drugs","tag-iachr-en","tag-james-cavallaro-en","tag-rafael-custodio-en","tema-confronting-institutional-violence"],"acf":{"author":false,"subtitle-pt":"In an unprecedented hearing, IACHR criticizes mass incarceration for drug-related 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