Overall Federal Human Rights Policy

Continue to ratify international human rights treaties recognizing the jurisdiction of the relevant monitoring bodies: In the past four years, the government has signed or ratified several important human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (signed on December 3, 1997) and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women, the Convention of Belem do Pará (ratified on November 27, 1995). At the same time, it has taken measures to further cooperation with monitoring bodies charged with the oversight of human rights obligations.

Brazil took a critical step in this regard on December 9, 1998, when it recognized the mandatory jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (in San José, Costa Rica), in accordance with Article 62 of the American Convention on Human Rights ratified by Brazil on September 25, 1992.

The decision to permit an official on-site visit by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in December 1995--the first ever by this international body to Brazil--represented another historic advance. Similarly, in recent years the government has demonstrated an increasing willingness to resolve, through amicable means, individual cases alleging violations of Brazil's human rights obligations pending before the Inter-American Commission.

However, since Brazil ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1992, Brazil has failed to submit itself to the jurisdiction of the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations, even though the National Human Rights Program pledges Brazil to "implement the international conventions to which Brazil is a signatory." It is critical that Brazil ratify the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, thus conferring on the Human Rights Committee authority to receive and process individual complaints of violations of the rights guaranteed by the covenant. Similarly, pursuant to Article 22 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Punishment, ratified by Brazil on September 28, 1989, and Article 14 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, ratified by Brazil on March 27, 1968, the federal government should recognize the jurisdiction of the competent conventional bodies established to examine complaints alleging violations of their terms.

Finally, despite ratifying the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in January 1992, the federal government has failed to submit an initial report on the state of economic, social and cultural rights, as required by the ICESCR. Brazil should comply with its obligation, acquired as of 1994 (two years from the date of ratification of the ICESCR), to submit its initial report to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Establish concrete timetable for the implementation of the National Human Rights Program: The joint civil society-government drafting of the National Human Rights Program represented an historic milestone in Brazilian human rights policy and has already become, as President Cardoso anticipated on its release, "a point of reference" of Brazil's aspirations in terms of "the protection of women and men, children and elderly, minorities and the excluded." The program contains 227 recommendations, of which 156 are termed "short range" measures, fifty-five "medium range," and fourteen "long range."Unfortunately, nowhere in the program are these terms defined. As a result, some three years after the program's release, the vast majority of its measures have not been implemented, nor is there any anticipated date for their implementation. Given the delays to date, Human Rights Watch recommends that clear temporal goals for the implementation of the measures contained in the program be established.

Strengthen the National Human Rights Secretariat: Perhaps the single most important measure to advance the respect for human rights taken by the Cardoso administration has been the creation of the National Human Rights Secretariat. In the past two years, the secretariat has become a point of reference and trusted partner to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the struggle against human rights violations and impunity. Nonetheless, Human Rights Watch is concerned that the secretariat, currently a subdivision of the Ministry of Justice, has not been able to address fully the scores of reports and complaints it has received, due to a lack of adequate resources and budgetary autonomy. In this regard, Human Rights Watch calls on President Cardoso to recognize the critical work performed by the secretariat and to enhance its status and budget. Human Rights Watch believes that the secretariat merits ministry status with the according increase in funding and human resources. Further, we suggest that the enhanced human rights body be provided with regional offices in the various Brazilian state capitals.

Federalize grave human rights crimes: Under international human rights law, the federal government is responsible before the international community for human rights violations committed by state agents, be they municipal, state or federal employees. Despite this, however, the federal government lacks the necessary authority to investigate, prosecute, and punish those responsible for the commission of severe human rights violations. The federalization of human rights abuse involves complex issues of parallel jurisdiction and has thus created significant debate among legal scholars and politicians. Currently, several bills that would grant the federal government jurisdiction over human rights violations are pending before Congress. Among these bills is one (PL 4715-C/94) that would expand the composition and authority of the federal Council on the Defense of the Rights of the Person (Conselho da Defesa dos Direitos da Pessoa Humana, CDDPH), empowering it to determine which cases would be transferred to the jurisdiction of federal police, prosecutors, and courts. Human Rights Watch calls on the president to work to assure the passage of legislation that provides, at a minimum, back-up federal jurisdiction in cases of severe human rights violations.

Police Brutality

Perhaps no human rights issue has struck the public conscience of Brazil in these past four years as has police brutality. Television images transmitted to national and international audiences in March and April 1997 of shocking military police abuses in the Favela Naval in Diadema, São Paulo, and in Cidade de Deus neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro dramatized uniformed police violence and the failure of civilian authorities to control abusive officers. Within a week of the airing of the Diadema incident--and on the same day the Cidade de Deus video was exhibited--Congress passed, and President Cardoso signed, Law No. 9.455/97, codifying the crime of torture. In so doing, the Brazilian government complied with an international obligation it had assumed more than seven years earlier when it ratified the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1989. Soon after the occurrences in Diadema and Cidade de Deus, the minister of justice set up a working group to evaluate the public security system. Composed of twenty representatives from governmental and non-governmental organizations, the working group met for a total of sixty days to develop a report titled "Minimum Measures to Reform the Public Security System." In a parallel fashion, Brazilian and international nongovernmental organizations debated numerous measures to reform the nation's police forces and proposed a series of needed reforms in conferences, debates, seminars and in the media. On April 8, 1997, Human Rights Watch released Police Brutality in Urban Brazil, a study based on two years of research of police violence in seven Brazilian state capitals. That report both analyzed the causes of these abuses and set forth seventeen concrete recommendations to federal and state authorities.

Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of the measures proposed both by government agents and NGOs to reform the police and to guarantee civilian control of police forces have yet to be approved. The absence of effective internal and external police control mechanisms remains an obstacle to curbing future police violence. Indeed, the lack of accountability constitutes a major cause of the violence, corruption, and inefficiency within the police force. With this in mind, we believe that the following policies must be implemented on a priority basis during President Cardoso's second administration.

Transfer jurisdiction from the military justice system to the ordinary courts for all common crimes committed by police: In 1996, Congress approved and President Cardoso signed Law No. 9.299/96, thus transferring jurisdiction over intentional homicides by military police officers to the ordinary courts. Though important, this measure remains insufficient. Killings not deemed intentional and lesser violations by the military police remain in the military court system. At the same time, the military police are still allowed to oversee inquiries into intentional homicides by members of their ranks, raising the possibility of tampering with the investigation. The jurisdiction of the ordinary courts should be extended to all common crimes committed by military police. Human Rights Watch calls on President Cardoso to make the passage of Law No. 2.190/96 (Dep. Hélio Bicudo) or other legislation guaranteeing the end of military jurisdiction over common crimes, a high priority.

Guarantee the participation of the public prosecutor's offices in the pre-trial stage of cases of police abuse: Article 129, Section VII of the Brazilian Constitution grants the public prosecutor's office external oversight over the police. Nonetheless, debate has arisen as to whether individual prosecutors may draw upon this power sua sponte, or whether state legislatures, the executive, or state prosecutor's offices must first approve regulations. In practice, prosecutors rarely make use of their constitutionally granted power to oversee the police. Federal legislation specifying the nature of such oversight and affording resources for independent investigation of the police by prosecutors is vital to assure uniform and efficient implementation of this external control of police.

Support and finance the creation of oversight committees (ouvidorias) and expand their powers: The federal government should promote the creation of state police oversight committees (ouvidorias) and a federal police ouvidoria, as well as supporting the ouvidorias that already exist. Thanks to the impetus of civil society, ouvidorias, responsible for receiving and processing complaints of police abuse, have been established in at least four states, São Paulo, Pará, Minas Gerais, and most recently, Rio de Janeiro. In order to guarantee the efficiency of their work, government officials--whether federal or state--must provide the ouvidorias with public servants, civil and military police, social workers, psychologists and other professionals as well as adequate resources for their operation. Further, these ouvidorias must be guaranteed subpoena power and jurisdiction to enter into and perform searches in public installations. Human Rights Watch calls on the federal government to assure the creation and strengthening of ouvidorias through official agreements and financial incentives.

Promote control of lethal force though legislation and policy: On February 20, 1997, President Cardoso signed Law No. 9.437, which criminalizes the illegal possession of firearms and established the National Firearm System (SINARM) to control the importation, possession, and use of illegal firearms in the country through an improved system of firearm registration. While this is a positive step to control the spread of firearms generally, a more specific program of control and inspection is necessary to deter the use of non-official firearms by police officers. Human Rights Watch has documented numerous instances in which police have used unregistered weapons to kill suspects or in which they have used police weapons to kill but were not required to account for shots fired. A simple means of guaranteeing accountability for police weapons discharges would be to require police to report on any and all shots fired from their guns.

In addition, the federal government should promote non-lethal methods of detaining armed and dangerous suspects that comply with international legal standards--such as the United Nations' Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. For three years, until June 1998, the Secretary of Public Security in Rio de Janeiro maintained programs which provided cash incentives and promotions for police officers who engaged in acts of "bravery" which Human Rights Watch demonstrated in many cases to be poorly investigated killings of suspects. Federal authorities failed to act to curb this abusive practice.

Guarantee the autonomy of the Medical Legal Institutes (Institutos Médicos Legais, IMLs): In order to combat impunity, forensic examinations must be performed independently and without undue pressure from police and public security secretariats. The federal government should take measures to guarantee that state IMLs are made independent of both the police and public security secretariats, either through agreements, financial incentives and support, or both.

Register and classify all police abuse: Federal law should require that state governments register information about human rights abuse by civil police precinct or military police battalion and periodically publish reports designed to inform the public of the number of administrative and criminal procedures brought against police who have committed abuses. Federal authorities should confer with nongovernmental organizations in the process of collecting this information and should organize the data from the various states, compiling information on the types of abuses committed throughout the country.

Protect witnesses: Many witnesses to police abuse will not testify for fear of retaliation. A comprehensive national program to protect witnesses by permitting geographic relocation with altered identities is essential. Human Rights Watch supports legislation such as 3.599-A/97, recently approved by the Chamber of Deputies, that would create such a federal program.

In the meantime, Human Rights Watch urges the federal government to continue the implementation of the state-financed, NGO-administered PROVITA witness protection program, in every Brazilian state through agreements with, and the financial support of, the Ministry of Justice. The PROVITA program has proven to be an important joint government-civil society measure in the battle against impunity in cases of police violence.

Prison Conditions

The second major human rights issue to dominate public attention in the past several years has been the abysmal condition of Brazil's penitentiaries, jails and police lockups, and the violence that has characterized detention centers throughout the nation. In 1997 alone, for example, the state of São Paulo registered 195 rebellions in police lockups and jails, an increase of 175 percent from the 1996 figure of seventy-one.

In light of the continued gravity of this situation, Human Rights Watch recently conducted its most comprehensive on-site review to date of conditions of detention in Brazil from October 1997 through March 1998. Our in-depth investigation of some forty different detention centers throughout the country led to the December 1998 publication of Behind Bars in Brazil, which details the grave conditions in detention centers throughout Brazil--severe overcrowding, horrendous, frequently inhuman conditions of detention, lack of access to basic services, and routine abuses of prisoners' right to physical integrity. Severe overcrowding is perhaps the most basic and most ingrained problem plaguing the Brazilian penal system. Over a decade ago, national prison authorities estimated that the country's prison system needed an additional 50,934 prison spaces to accommodate the existing inmate population. By 1997, the deficit in prison capacity was officially estimated at 96,010. In other words, there are now 2.3 prisoners for every space that exists in the prisons. Unsurprisingly, a substantial proportion of the incidents of rioting, hunger striking, and other forms of protest occurring in the country's penal facilities is directly attributable to overcrowding.

The government of the state of São Paulo, in conjunction with the federal government, has taken an important step to reduce the chronic overcrowding in the state's detention centers by building twenty-four new facilities with capacity for 18,380 prisoners. In other states, such as Rio Grande do Norte, new facilities have been completed recently. Still, on the whole, prison construction has not kept pace with the increase in the prison population. Continued prison construction must form part of an integrated strategy that includes alternative sentences, sentence reduction, and early release programs to reduce prison populations in a manner consistent with Brazil's international obligations. Our exhaustive research of prison conditions in Brazil has convinced us that the mistreatment and neglect of prisoners is among the most serious and chronic human rights problems facing Brazil, and thus the remedial measures described below must be among the priorities of President Cardoso's second administration.

Reduce pretrial detention: An important factor contributing to overcrowding in Brazil's prisons is the confinement of unsentenced prisoners, who constitute roughly one-third of the inmate population. Because such persons have not been convicted of any crime, they are presumed innocent under the law, and some proportion of them will indeed be acquitted of the crime for which they are held, despite having already served time in confinement. Although under Article 9(3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), criminal defendants should normally be released pending trial, pretrial detention in Brazil is often not ordered in compliance with this standard, and many criminal defendants are proscribed from even requesting pretrial release. Compounding the effects of excessive pretrial detention are unjustified delays in criminal proceedings, during which time the defendant remains incarcerated; our visits to the prisons found that some unsentenced prisoners are confined for years. Measures must be taken at the federal level to streamline the criminal justice system such as altering procedural codes, increasing the number of judges dedicated to criminal cases, and others to guarantee that pretrial detention occurs only when absolutely necessary and for the minimum periods established by law.

Employ alternative sentences: The Congress approved, and President Cardoso signed on November 25, 1998, Law No. 9.714/98, which allows judges to substitute alternative sanctions for prison sentences of up to four years, rather than one. Although the national prison law embraces alternative sentencing, demonstrated by its sizeable array of provisions relating to punishments other than prison, the use of alternative sanctions remains relatively rare in practice, and has not yet had much of an impact in reducing prison overcrowding. According to the 1995 prison census, only some 2,098 offenders, roughly 1.5 percent of the total, were serving alternative sentences, the majority (64 percent) of them having been assigned community service. Human Rights Watch calls on President Cardoso to make implementation of alternative sentencing a high priority in his second administration by guaranteeing that the necessary infrastructure for oversight of alternative sentences be made available to the states.

Guarantee work and study programs: Under the terms of the national prison law, prisoners may also reduce their sentences by one day for every three days that they work a six to eight-hour day. Unfortunately, because work opportunities are scant in many prisons--and hardly exist at all in police lockups and jails--inmates are often unable to take advantage of any of the benefits of this provision. A federal commission reviewing the national prison law recently proposed to broaden the terms of the sentence reduction rules to cover prisoners who study while they are incarcerated, permitting reductions for everything from basic literacy courses to higher education. This measure is intended to encourage inmates to study and improve themselves, while shortening the prison terms of those prisoners who are least likely to commit new offenses. Human Rights Watch supports these measures and encourages President Cardoso to consider implementation of these and other steps to guarantee effective remission of sentences.

Expedite sentence progression and parole: Finally, the national prison law provides for early release or parole (livramento condicional) of inmates who satisfy a number of requirements, including having already served some minimum portion of the sentence imposed on them (at least one-third to one-half of their sentence, depending on the inmates' prior record) and having "demonstrated satisfactory conduct during the term of the sentence," a more subjective measure. Inmates' most frequent complaint about both sentence reduction and early release programs is the slowness with which applications for these benefits are processed. Due to the lack of legal assistance in the prisons and the insufficient numbers of judges of penal execution (the only ones who can authorize early release and parole), many prisoners who qualify for early release never obtain it. In recognition of this problem, legislation has been introduced in the Brazilian Congress to establish a summary procedure that would facilitate the granting of such benefits. Human Rights Watch calls on the president to support this and other legislation designed to expedite the implementation of these benefits.

Transfer convicted prisoners out of temporary detention centers: Ironically, conditions in the nation's police lockups, areas which are supposed to hold criminal suspects upon arrest for a few days at most until their release or their transfer into a larger pretrial detention facility, are generally worse than those of the prisons where only those already convicted are detained. In some states, the prison system holds only a fraction of the inmate population, and the police authority--the Secretariat of Public Security--has become the de facto prison authority, resulting in severe overcrowding in the police lockups. Human Rights Watch calls on state authorities to transfer prisoners--particularly those already convicted--out of police lockups and jails and into the penitentiary system. Failure to do so violates Brazil's international human rights obligations and constitutes a serious danger to detainees not convicted of any crime. Federal authorities, led by President Cardoso must take all necessary measures to assure that transfers be carried out without provoking crisis in the penitentiary system through an integrated series of measures.

Comply with international obligations to guarantee minimal services to prisoners: In light of the norms established in the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and as part of its focus on rehabilitation and resocialization, Brazil's national prison law mandates that prisoners have access to an array of benefits that include medical care, legal assistance, and social services. In practice, none of these benefits are provided to the extent contemplated under the law, nor is medical care--the most basic and necessary of the three services--available at even minimally adequate levels to many prisoners. Federal authorities should assure that appropriate funding is made available for the provision of these services.

Control contagious diseases: One result of this neglect has been the epidemic levels that serious contagious diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS have reached in the Brazilian inmate population. In a study concluded in 1995, researchers found that 80 percent of male prisoners tested came up positive for the tuberculosis bacillus, as did 90 percent of female prisoners--a sharp increase over rates found a few years earlier. In late 1997, researchers at the University of São Paulo estimated that some 20 percent of the Brazil's inmate population was HIV positive and that in the southeast of Brazil, HIV affected some 30 percent of the inmate population. By denying inmates proper treatment for their myriad ailments, the prison system not only endangers inmates' lives, it facilitates the transmission of such illnesses to the general population through conjugal visits and upon prisoners' release. Human Rights Watch calls on President Cardoso to take effective measures to guarantee adequate health care within detention facilities, both to assure the dignity of its prisoners and to prevent a public health catastrophe.

Guarantee legal assistance: Qualified legal assistance for prisoners is similarly scarce. Although public defenders are supposed to provide legal services to prisoners, they are little in evidence in many of the country's penal facilities. Without lawyers to follow their cases, some prisoners not only miss out on early release programs and other benefits available under the national prison law, they even remain incarcerated beyond the terms of their sentences. The federal government must take measures to assure that state-run prison facilities provide detainees with minimal legal assistance.

Rural Violence

According to the Pastoral Land Commission (Comissão Pastoral da Terra, CPT), the number of persons involved in land conflicts more than doubled from 1994 (237.501) to 1997 (477.105). The past several years have witnessed an intensification of both agrarian conflicts and land reform. While Human Rights Watch takes no position regarding agrarian reform, we oppose the use of violence to resolve land conflicts and, in accordance with international human rights law, call on the government to swiftly investigate and punish those responsible for instances of violence in the course of land disputes. Local authorities often lack the necessary independence to prosecute these crimes. According to the CPT, a small percentage of the 1,158 killings of rural laborers between 1985 and 1998 have been prosecuted. In ninety-four of the cases, gunmen were brought to trial, resulting in fifty-six convictions; in four cases middlemen were charged, resulting in two convictions; and in thirteen cases the intellectual authors of the crimes were brought to trial with seven convictions rendered.

Provide for federal prosecution of severe rural violence: The slow and inadequate efforts of prosecutors in high-profile cases such as the August 1995 killings in Corumbiara, Rondônia, and the April 1996 massacre in Eldorado dos Carajás in Pará state weigh in favor of federal intervention in instances of severe human rights abuses committed in rural settings. According to the CPT, in 1998 alone, at least forty-one rural laborers were killed in land conflicts, an increase of more than 35 percent over the 1998 figure of thirty.

In light of the hundreds of cases of impunity in the context of rural violence, we call on President Cardoso to support legislation to make the commission of severe human rights violations, including homicides in the context of land disputes, federal crimes. In this regard, as noted above, several bills are currently pending in Congress.

Forced Labor

The current administration has taken several concrete measures to reduce forced labor, beginning with the establishment in 1995 of the Executive Group for the Repression of Forced Labor (Grupo Executivo de Repressão ao Trabalho Escravo, GERTRAF) composed of representatives from the Ministries of Labor, Justice, Environment, Agrarian Reform, Social Policy, Agriculture, Industry and Commerce. The Cardoso administration also created the Special Group of Mobile Investigation of the Ministry of Labor's Secretary of Labor Investigations (Secretaria de Fiscalização do Ministério do Trabalho, SEFIT). Within forty-eight to seventy-two hours of an initial accusation of forced labor, SEFIT agents, in collaboration with the Federal Police and Regional Labor Delegations (Delegacias Regionais de Trabalho, DRTs), conduct on-site investigations of the property or company denounced.

Between 1995 and March of 1998, the Special Mobile Inspection Group inspected a total of 461 fazendas in response to accusations of forced labor which it had received. The agents confirmed the practice of forced labor in sixty-five cases, arrested eleven fazenda managers, and freed 608 workers from such labor conditions of in the states of Pará, Mato Grosso, and Mato Grosso do Sul.

Largely as a result of these measures and enhanced cooperation with civil society, over the past three years, accusations of forced labor have diminished significantly. Nonetheless, the problem has not been eradicated, and severe violations of labor law in rural areas continue to go unchecked. As such, Human Rights Watch calls on the Cardoso administration to take the following steps:

Provide SEFIT units with adequate resources: Despite their important advances, the SEFIT teams are under-equipped for their investigative work. The agents have no access to photographic cameras, video cameras, portable computers, printers, or basic instruments of communication. The vast size of many of the fazendas, coupled with the easily recognizable vehicles used by the inspection teams, makes it easy for violators to hide conditions of slave labor. If equipped with helicopters and up-to-date recording and communications equipment, inspection agents would be much more effective in discovering and exposing areas where forced labor is practiced. Human Rights Watch thus urges President Cardoso to continue with the critical efforts to combat forced labor begun during his first administration and to increase the investment in oversight units, such as the inspection teams.

Seize lands on which forced labor is practiced: Although Human Rights Watch is pleased by the presentation of legislative proposals to eradicate forced labor, we are concerned about long delays in their ratification and enactment by Congress. A proposed amendment to the Federal Constitution, PEC 232/1995, provides for governmental confiscation of land on which the practice of forced or slave labor has been established. Since November 1995, the bill has been pending in Congress.

Improve criminal legislation regarding forced labor: Bill 76/97, which criminalizes conduct favoring or characterizing forced labor and alters articles 132, 203 and 207 of Decree 2.848 of December 7, 1940, has already passed the House of Representatives but has not advanced in the Senate. In addition to criminalizing forced labor, this bill would classify a variety of labor violations, such the deduction of transportation and lodging expenses from the wages of workers recruited from outside areas and not guaranteed the possibility of return, as federal crimes. Moreover, the new law would make owners, tenants, administrators, managers, recruiters, and sub-recruiters all responsible for slave labor violations. Human Rights Watch believes that legislation of this kind should be a priority during President Cardoso's second term.

Violence against Indigenous Peoples

Despite the requirement set forth in the Constitution of 1988 that the process of demarcation--determination of legally binding boundaries of indigenous lands--be completed within five years, some 254 of a total 556 areas had not been demarcated by late 1998; two-thirds of these 556 areas (382) had not yet been fully regularized by that date. According to the Indigenist Missionary Council (Conselho Indigenista Missionário, CIMI), until the final months of President Cardoso's first term, sixty-three areas had been demarcated, roughly one-fourth of the 239 areas demarcated in prior administrations (1988-1994).

In January 1996, the Cardoso administration approved Decree 1775/96 affording additional procedural rights to those who oppose indigenous land claims. As the demarcation process has become drawn out, violent land disputes have continued. According to CIMI, in the first year following Decree 1775/96, 109 invasions of indigenous lands were registered, while the number of cases of violence against indigenous peoples rose 92 percent, reaching 121 different communities.

Prevent and punish violence against indigenous populations: Given the increase in conflicts fostered by the lack of clear boundaries for indigenous lands, Human Rights Watch calls on President Cardoso to guarantee that competent federal authorities assure the physical integrity of members of indigenous communities and the criminal prosecution of those responsible for crimes against these communities. To further secure rights of indigenous peoples, we call on the federal government to approve the Indigenous Statute, PL 2.057/91 (Estatuto das Sociedades Indígenas) or similar legislation providing clear and comprehensive guidelines for police engagement in indigenous land and establishing crimes against indigenous populations and the corresponding penalties.

Violence against Women

The Cardoso government's ratification of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Punish and Eliminate Violence against Women in 1995 demonstrates its determination to take a public, international stand on violence against women. This year, the government, pursuant to its obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), ratified by Brazil in 1984, plans to submit its first report to the Secretary General of the United Nations and to the committee which is responsible for monitoring the CEDAW on the legislative, judicial and administrative measures it has taken to give effect to the convention. Nonetheless, several elements of Brazilian penal legislation continue to discriminate against women and require revision, as recommended below.

Reclassify sex crimes from violations of custom to violations of sexual dignity: Human Rights Watch is pleased at the current administration's efforts to increase penalties for sexual crimes against women, yet concerned about congressional failure to pass proposed legislation. Last year, the Ministry of Labor, with the participation of National Council of the Rights of Women (CNDM), developed a set of statutory revisions of the Penal Code. The proposal would maintain the crimes of indecent assault (penalty of six to ten years) and the classification of sexual harassment but would transfer them from "Crimes against Customs" to "Crimes against Sexual Dignity." Human Rights Watch calls on President Cardoso to support energetically the passage of these amendments to the Penal Code.

Authorize independent forensic medical examinations: The federal government should pass legislation guaranteeing the admissibility of medical forensic evidence from nongovernmental sources so that other medical practitioners, including privately licensed doctors, may testify and appear as forensic medical experts in cases regarding sexual abuse. In addition, it should provide IMLs with incentives to recruit women and sponsor specialized forensic courses that focus on the effects and the official analysis of violent sexual crimes.

Human Rights Violations of the Military Dictatorship

Brazil's international human rights obligations require that it take measures to investigate fully gross violations of human rights committed by state agents during the military dictatorship, to disclose to victims, their families, and the society at large all information regarding these violations, and to pay an appropriate indemnization to the victims' next of kin.

The Cardoso administration and the Congress took an historic step to guarantee compensation for victims and their relatives by passing Law 9.140/95. While that measure provided compensation for 136 families of persons "disappeared" during the military dictatorship and established a special seven-member commission to determine the inclusion of others (the special commission), it failed to authorize the commission to investigate each case fully to determine the circumstances of these abuses, much less prosecute those responsible criminally.

Fully clarify and disclose all information regarding human rights violations committed during the military dictatorship: To guarantee full compliance with its international obligations, the government of Brazil should extend the attributes of the special commission created by Law 9.140/95, (recognizing the responsibility of the Brazilian government for the forced disappearance of 132 persons during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship). The special commission investigated an additional 234 allegations of political killings and forced disappearances during the dictatorship, adjudging the state responsible in 148 of these cases. Nonetheless, the special commission has not been empowered to investigate the circumstances nor the individual responsibilities of state agents in any of these cases. Human Rights Watch calls on the President to support legislation assuring the special commission full subpoena powers and expanding its mandate to include authorization and funding to draft a full, public report of its findings. In a similar vein, the federal government should assure that all files and documents in the power of federal and state authorities be preserved and released, thus guaranteeing full disclosure of the abuses of the military regime.

in Rio de Janeiro: James Cavallaro (55-21) 549-9174; 9987-6541
in Washington: José Miguel Vivanco (202) 612-4321; 612-4330
in New York: Carroll Bogert, 1-212-216-1244
in Brussels: Jean Paul Marthoz, 322-736-7838