Thank you, Mr. President
UN Human Rights Council – 27th session (September 10th 2014)
Oral statement – Item 3, Cluster ID with Working Group Arbitrary Detention
Conectas Direitos Humanos
Conectas Direitos Humanos, together with the Brazilian Network of Criminal Justice1, would like to call this
Council’s attention to the grave situation of arbitrary detentions in Brazil2.
Excellences,
The Working Group has raised crucial issues in its report about the visit to Brazil. It made clear the need for
strengthening alternative measures to detention in a country that has more than 500 thousand prisoners. Brazil
has the 4th largest prison population in the world. Mass incarceration is a clear policy choice: in 2012, federal
investments in building new prison facilities were 30 times larger than the amount allocated to alternatives
measures3.
Moreover, thousands of inmates that have had their right to regime progression granted by criminal courts still
live in highly crowded facilities. State deficiencies are violating prisoners’ rights. In Sao Paulo alone, at least 14
thousand persons face this situation.
The reduction of the abusive rate of 40% of pre-trial detentions requires that Brazil adopts the custodial hearing
procedure, as required by the American Convention on Human Rights.
Working Group is also concerned with the existence, in Sao Paulo, of the Experimental Health Unity, which
holds juveniles in undetermined confinement under its custody, with no legal or constitutional basis. The mere
existence of this establishment is in itself appalling to those who fight for human rights.
We hope that this Council makes clear to Brazil that it must seriously invest in policies of alternative measures to
detention, comply with the law that guarantees sentence progression, establish custodial hearings4 and close the
Experimental Health Unity, relocating inmates to appropriate unities.
To our regret, in the ID we did not hear from the Brazilian delegation a substantive response on how the
government will tackle the main problem raised by the WG: the culture of mass incarceration. Moreover, any
word was said about the process to implement the recommendations made by the Group.
I thank you.
1
2
Rede Justiça Criminal: www.redejusticacriminal.org
In March 2013, the Working Group in Arbitrary Detentions visited Brazil and documented a worrisome situation. Conectas and the Brazilian Criminal Justice Network had already
brought denounces before this same Council ahead of the Working Group country-visit.
3
In figures, 158 million dollars were invested in new detention facilities in contrast to 4.8 million dollars allocated to alternative measures (source: FUNPEN Em Números, Ministério da
Justiça 2011)
4 There is a Senate Bill number 554/2011 on this issue