ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This report was written by Michael Bochenek, Fernando Delgado, Stephen Hanmer, and Helena Romanach. Michael Bochenek is counsel to the Children's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. Fernando Delgado is a 2004 A.B. graduate of Princeton University and the Henry Richardson Labouisse '26 Fellow for Human Rights Watch in Rio de Janeiro for 2004-2005. Stephen Hanmer is a third-year law and social work student at Columbia University. Helena Romanach is a Brazilian lawyer and a 2004 LL.M. graduate of the New York University School of Law. Bochenek and Hanmer conducted a two-week field investigation following eight weeks of preparatory work by Hanmer in Rio de Janeiro. Romanach gathered additional research from New York and São Paulo, and Delgado conducted further research in Rio de Janeiro following the conclusion of the field investigation.
Lois Whitman, executive director of the Children's Rights Division; Sahr MuhammedAlly, Alan R. Finberg Fellow in the Children's Rights Division; Wilder Tayler, legal and policy director of Human Rights Watch; and Iain Levine, program director of Human Rights Watch, edited the report. Joanne Mariner, deputy director of the Americas Division, and Jamie Fellner, director of the U.S. Program, also reviewed and commented on the manuscript. John Emerson designed the maps. Fitzroy Hepkins, Andrea Holley, Veronica Matushaj, and Dana Sommers provided production assistance. Reginaldo Alcantara translated the report from English into Portuguese.
Human Rights Watch is indebted to the many nongovernmental organizations and individuals who generously assisted us in the course of our field research, among them Luke Dowdney, coordinator, Children and Youth in Organized Armed Violence Program, Viva Rio; Rubem César Fernandes, executive director, Viva Rio; Pedro Pereira, attorney, Centro de Defesa Dom Luciano Mendes; and Karyna Sposato, executive director, U.N. Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Delinquents (ILANUD).
We would also like to thank the federal and state officials who agreed to be interviewed for this report and who facilitated access to juvenile detention facilities, including Dr. Guaraci de Campos Vianna, chief judge, 2da. Vara da Infância e Juventude, Rio de Janeiro; Dr. Sérgio Novo, director general, Departamento Geral de Ações Sócio-Educativas, Rio de Janeiro; Dr. Nilmário Miranda, minister, Special Secretariat of Human Rights, Brasília; Dr. João Luiz Duboc Pinaud, former secretary of state for human rights, state of Rio de Janeiro; Dr. Regiane Cristina Dias Pinto and Dr. Clisange Ferreira Gonçalves, public prosecutors, 4o. Centro de Apoio Operacional das Promotorias de Justiça da Infância e Juventude; Sidney Telles da Silva, former director general of DEGASE; Dr. Simone Moreira da Souza and the staff of the office of the public defender of Rio de Janeiro; and the members of ASDEGASE, the union that represents some of the guards in Rio de Janeiro's juvenile detention centers.
Finally, we would like to thank the many children and parents we interviewed, whose names have been changed in this report to protect their privacy.
Human Rights Watch gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Malcolm Hewitt Foundation, the Independence Foundation, the Oak Foundation, and the community of people who support Human Rights Watch's work to defend children.
Previous Human Rights Watch reports on Brazil
Cruel Confinement: Abuses Against Detained Children in Northern Brazil, 2003
Behind Bars in Brazil, 1998
Urban Police Brutality in Brazil, 1997
Fighting Violence with Violence: Human Rights Abuse and Criminality in Rio de Janeiro, 1996
Final Justice: Police and Death Squad Homicides of Adolescents in Brazil, 1994
Violence Against the Macuxi and Wapixana Indians in Raposa Serra do Sol and Northern Roraima from 1988 to 1994, 1994
Forced Labor in Brazil Re-Visited: On-Site Investigations Document That Practice Continues, 1993
The Killings in Candelária and Vigário Geral: The Urgent Need to Police the Brazilian Police, 1993
Urban Police Violence in Brazil: Torture and Police Killings in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro After Five Years, 1993
The Struggle for Land in Brazil: Rural Violence Continues, 1992
Criminal Injustice: Violence Against Women in Brazil, 1991
Rural Violence in Brazil, 1991
"Forced Labor in Brazil," News from Americas Watch, 1990
Police Abuse in Brazil: Summary Executions and Torture in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, 1987
Previous Human Rights Watch reports on juvenile justice and conditions of confinement for children
Cruel Confinement: Abuses Against Detained Children in Northern Brazil, 2003
Charged with Being Children: Egyptian Police Abuse of Children in Need of Protection, 2003
No Minor Matter: Children in Maryland's Jails, 1999
"Nobody's Children": Jamaican Children in Police Detention and Government Institutions, 1999
Prison Bound: The Denial of Juvenile Justice in Pakistan, 1999
Juvenile Injustice: Police Abuse and Detention of Street Children in Kenya, 1997
Guatemala's Forgotten Children: Police Violence and Arbitrary Detention, 1997
High Country Lockup: Children in Confinement in Colorado, 1997
Children of Bulgaria: Police Violence and Arbitrary Confinement, 1996
Modern Capital of Human Rights? Abuses in the State of Georgia, 1996
Police Abuse and Killings of Street Children in India, 1996
Children in Confinement in Louisiana, 1995
Final Justice: Police and Death Squad Homicides of Adolescents in Brazil, 1994
Jamaica: Children Improperly Detained in Police Lockups, 1994
Children in Northern Ireland: Abused by Security Forces and Paramilitaries, 1992
Nothing Unusual: The Torture of Children in Turkey, 1992