Brazil’s president-elect Luiz Inلcio Lula da Silva should give priority to the critical human rights issues of forced labor, prison conditions, accountability and HIV/AIDS, Human Rights Watch said in a letter sent to the president-elect today. President-elect da Silva takes office on January 1, 2003.
"President-elect Lula da Silva has long been an outspoken advocate for the welfare of marginalized populations,” said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. “We hope that this commitment will now translate into an aggressive program to address the chronic human rights problems that affect the lives of many Brazilians.”
The letter offered specific recommendations on how Lula da Silva could make significant progress in improving human rights conditions. These include:
Forced labor: The use of forced labor in Brazil’s ranching and timber industries is an extremely disturbing problem that demands an aggressive response from the Brazilian government. The new administration should promote legislation currently before Congress that would establish more severe punishments for those involved in forced labor practices.
Prison conditions: Brazil’s prisons, jails, and police lockups subject prisoners to truly abysmal conditions. Human Rights Watch documented the chronic mistreatment of adult prisoners in its 1998 report, “Behind Bars in Brazil,” as well as the mistreatment of juvenile detainees in a report that will be published in early 2003. The new administration should take steps to reduce overcrowding in detention facilities, curb police and guard brutality, ameliorate harsh physical conditions, and correct the severe deficiencies in the provision of medical care.
Accountability: Many human rights crimes are prosecuted and tried by state-level authorities who are often susceptible to undue influence by local political and economic elites. The result is that serious violations go unpunished. The new administration should promote a constitutional amendment pending before Congress that would address the problem by giving the federal government jurisdiction over grave human rights violations.
HIV/AIDS: Brazil has reduced AIDS-related mortality by more than 50 percent since 1996, largely through the production of generic equivalents of brand name drugs, which has driven down treatment costs. Unfortunately, other countries in the region wishing to emulate Brazil’s success face an international patent system that restricts the production of generic equivalents of patented drugs. The incoming administration should expand access to generic drugs to those marginalized populations within Brazil that have not yet benefited from the country’s AIDS program. It should also take an active role in promoting the right of other countries to import these generics when they are incapable of producing them independently.
Brazil’s outgoing president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, took important steps to identify and acknowledge the country’s human rights problems. His administration also made progress toward articulating policies that might address these problems. Unfortunately, however, insufficient progress was made toward implementing these recommendations—in large part because of President Cardoso’s lack of success in pushing needed legislation through Brazil’s congress.
“The challenge your government will now face is to work with the legislature to move Brazil’s human rights policy from diagnosis to action,” the letter stated.
