BRAZIL: Children's Rights in the UN Special Procedures' Reports

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Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports.

Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity

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Report of the independent expert in the field of cultural rights, Farida Shaheed

A/HRC/17/38/Add.1

Country visit: 8 -19 November 2010

Report published: 21 March 2011

The international legal framework: Brazil has ratified major international human rights treaties which include provisions on the protection of cultural rights, such as  the Convention on the Rights of the Child (para 15).

Indigenous peoples: The independent expert observed and interacted with Guaraní communities, which together with religious groups, the academia and the local government have constituted a cultural point (Teko Arandu) in the Aldea Te'yikue in Caarapó, where they teach in their own language and build the capacity of indigenous peoples as video producers and journalists. They have rebuilt places for religious activities in close proximity to schools so as to enable culturally appropriate transmission of cultural heritage, teaching their belief systems to indigenous children and promoting their culturalmanifestations, including, sometimes, for tourism (para 72).

Afro-descendant religions and belief systems: The Government of Brazil is committed to protecting the freedom of religion but should strengthen efforts to combat ongoing discrimination and intolerance. While in Brazil, the independent expert was further informed of cases of religious intolerance against students, families and educational professionals related to the practice of Candomblé, Umbanda and other religions with African roots. Also reported were instances of physical violence against students (punching, and even stoning), forced resignation or removal of educational professionals who are adherents of religions of African origin or who teach thecontent of those religions; and the ban on the use of certain textbooks. Concern was expressed to the independent expert about the unequal access to school facilities by religious leaders, in particular those related to religions of African origin, as well as inaction to address instances of discrimination or abuse of power by teachers and principals against persons professing religions of African origin. These situations were reported to be conducive to the failure or low performance of students, drop-out or requests for transfer to other schools, as well as loss of self-esteem and cultural identity. Negative attitudes towards such religions devalorize all the cultural expressions of these communities, and adversely impacts children (para 80).

UN Working Group on People of African Descent

A/HRC/27/68/Add.1

Report Published: 23 September 2014

Country visit: 4-14 December 2013

National legislation: In the area of education, Law No. 10.369 of 2003 established guidelines and bases for national education and included mandatory teaching of Afro-Brazilian history and culture in educational institutions. Following a landmark ruling14 by the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of affirmative action in higher education, the Quota Law was adopted establishing quotas for students from public schools, Afro-Brazilians and indigenous peoples to increase access to higher education (para 16).

Significant advances have been made in the area of racial equality legislation. Decree No. 6872/2009 approved the National Plan for the Promotion of Racial Equality, including actions for employment and economic development, education, health, cultural diversity, human rights and public security, traditional peoples and communities, international policy, social development and food security, infrastructure and youth. That was translated into a federal law with the adoption of the Statute of Racial Equality, which defines the principal areas to be addressed by public bodies in order to overcome racial inequality. The Federal Public Prosecutor works on the following areas: protection of the interests of individuals and indigenous communities, families, children and young people, the elderly, minorities and consumers (paras 17, 63).

Education: Education is compulsory for children between 6 and 14 years of age and there is currently an enrolment rate of 98 per cent for this age group. The 2 per cent not enrolled tends to be in marginalized, rural communities including Quilombola communities. Afro-Brazilian children and young people have traditionally had lower access to education than Brazilians of European descent. In 2008, young Brazilians of European descent attended school for eight years, while Afro-Brazilians had only six years of schooling (para 30).

As Afro-Brazilians are overrepresented among the rural population of Brazil, one of the barriers they face is the distance from school. The Working Group welcomes initiatives to address this issue such as the Ministry of Education’s Caminho da Escola Programme, launched in 2007. It provides safe quality transport for students in rural areas to access schools.23 The Ministry’s Plan of Articulated Action includes work with States and municipalities to develop technical and financial assistance for education in indigenous, Quilombola and rural areas. Afro-Brazilians have some of the highest rates of illiteracy. White students are much more likely than Afro-Brazilian students to attend private schools. In 2008, at the first level of basic education, only 7.7 per cent of Afro-Brazilian students were in private institutions, compared to 18.2 per cent of students of European descent. At middle level, only 7.7 per cent of Afro-Brazilians were educated in private schools and 20.3 per cent of white students (paras 31, 33).

According to civil society, the history and contributions of Afro-Brazilians have been invisible within the education system. Racism and discrimination are a problem in many educational institutions with negative stereotypes of Africans. In 1985, the Government implemented the National Didactic Book Programme to prevent the use of images that transmitted racism or prejudice against indigenous peoples and people of African descent. Civil society members in Pernambuco complained of racist attitudes displayed by teachers towards their students concerning their culture, religion, hair and appearance. The adoption of Law No. 10.639 in 2003 sought to address those issues by amending the General Education Law to include African and Afro-Brazilian history in the national curriculum making African and Afro-Brazilian history and culture compulsory at basic and secondary education levels. The Working Group welcomes this law as an important step which should contribute to the elimination of racist attitudes within society and also provide Afro-Brazilian children and young people with a culturally relevant education. It notes with appreciation the many steps taken at both national and local levels for its implementation. The Working Group remains concerned at reports from civil society about the obstacles faced in the implementation of Law No. 10.639, including the lack of relevant school materials. Civil society in São Paulo spoke of the resistance of teachers to teaching Afro-Brazilian history and culture, with many failing to see their importance (paras 34, 35, 37).

The Working Group remains concerned about the limitations of applying affirmative action. In 2008, 26.3 per cent of higher education institutions provided quotas for access to education for Afro-Brazilians, indigenous peoples, public school students, Quilombo and/or students from other groups in situation of disadvantage. However, the number of quotas corresponded only to 10.5 per cent of the places available in higher education institutions. In the same year, 45.9 per cent of quotas went to students from public schools, 38.3 per cent to Afro-Brazilians including those from Quilombola communities, 3 per cent to indigenous peoples, 3.3 per cent to students with special needs and 9.5 per cent to other groups. While quotas enable initial access to higher education, associated costs can still make education difficult for students. Furthermore, certain Afro-Brazilian students face difficulties in finalizing higher education, due to the unequal access that they encounter to quality secondary education. The Working Group hopes that with the recent adoption of the Quota Law, future research will be able to show more positive data on the implementation of higher education quotas; they are certainly necessary, as a first step, to change the structural institutional racism (paras 41-43).

The Working Group notes that the adoption of the Quota Law in 2012 is a landmark step towards equality in education. It is essential that further policy steps be taken to ensure that once Afro-Brazilian students access university they are able to remain there for the duration of their studies without facing obstacles of extra financial burdens, discriminatory attitudes and lack of support. There is a need for increased investment in teacher training and curriculum materials to ensure the effective implementation of Law No. 10.639 on the teaching of Afro-Brazilian history and culture. Curriculum materials should be improved to guarantee better knowledge of the history of Africa (para 108).

Culture: A concern raised by several members of civil society was the World Cup (2014) and the Olympics (2016). For instance, the Secretary of Social Development and Human Rights in Pernambuco raised human rights concerns as a consequence of the World Cup, such as street clean-ups particularly of children living or working in the streets, sexual exploitation, and training for taxi drivers (para 51).

Violence and young people: The issue of violence against Afro-Brazilians, particularly young people, was raised repeatedly by civil society and several government representatives. Homicide is now the main cause of death among young people between 15 and 29 years of age in Brazil and it particularly affects young black males living in urban areas. That issue was raised by the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions during his mission in 2007, when he asserted that between 45,000 and 50,000 homicides were committed each year, that homicide was the leading cause of death for 15–44 year olds and that high levels of impunity meant those deaths often went unpunished (para 73).

According to the Ministry of Health, of all homicides against young people in 2010, 76.6 per cent of victims were Afro-Brazilians and 91.3 per cent were males. A report by the Mapa da Violência — Map of Violence — project shows that of 17,426 homicides involving young people that took place in Brazil in 2011, 76.9 per cent involved Afro-Brazilians. One of the biggest concerns is violence perpetrated by the police and security forces against young Afro-Brazilian males. Such complaints are not new with the Unified Black Movement having denounced cases of violence, torture and death since 1978. The infamous Candelaria massacre of eight young people in the streets of Rio de Janeiro in 1993, which raised national and international outrage, is another example of such violence against Afro-Brazilian young people. Twenty years after those events, arbitrary violence and killings of young black people remain of concern (paras 74, 75).

The Geledés organization raised concern about the lack of attention paid to that issue exemplifying the devaluation of young black lives in Brazilian society. The continued urban violence against youth of African descent was felt by many Afro-Brazilians and NGOs with whom the Working Group met as a “genocide”. The Government strongly rejected that view expressed by civil society. The violence perpetrated against young Afro-Brazilian people comes not only from agents of the State but also from organized criminal gangs, many of which involve young Afro-Brazilians in their activities. Yet the State has the responsibility to respect the right to life of all its citizens, to protect them from violence and take active steps to fulfil their right to life. The disproportionate numbers of Afro-Brazilians that live in the poorest areas, afflicted with crime and violence, means that right to a life without violence is not being fulfilled by the State for Afro-Brazilians. In many cases, the majority of the violence and deaths of young Afro-Brazilian people is carried out by the military police. State governments have little control over the behaviour of the police. The São Paulo State government has been battling to demilitarize São Paulo and asserted that it did not have the power to change police behaviour, though it could work hard to change the paths of young people through prevention work in schools and the community (paras 78, 79).

The Working Group welcomes the efforts that have been made to address that issue. In 2012, SEPPIR, in coordination with the National Secretariat for Youth launched the “Youth Alive Plan”. The initiative involves eight ministries and aims to reduce the high rates of homicide among young Afro-Brazilian people through a participatory approach. The Plan focuses its activities on the 132 municipalities where around 70 per cent of deaths have occurred. The Pernambuco Secretary for Social Defence talked about the Pacto Pela Vida (Pact for Life) initiative, a State programme initiated in 2007 to reduce violence, particularly in the capital of Recife. Pacto Pela Vida creates guidelines for all areas of the State government, not just the police. In the first four years of its existence the programme reduced violence by 30 per cent. In April 2007, there were 71 homicides and in October 2013, 26. Prevention work includes working with children in schools. Policies to prevent violence against vulnerable members of society particularly Afro-Brazilian women and young people are essential (paras 80, 81, 108).

Women and girls of African descent: Afro-Brazilian women and girls face intersectional discrimination based on their gender and ethnicity. They are overrepresented in low-paid, often exploitative jobs such as domestic work. In 2004, 67 per cent of Afro-Brazilian women earned less than US$ 1 per hour, compared to 60 per cent of Afro-Brazilian men and 43 per cent of white women (para 83).

Report of the Special Rapporteur on minority issues on her mission to Brazil,  Rita Izsák

A/HRC/31/56/Add.1

Country visit: 14 to 24 September 2015

Report published: 9 February 2016

Violence: The Special Rapporteur was shocked to learn about the levels of violence in Brazil. Regrettably this violence has a clear racial dimension. Of the 56,000 homicides that occur each year, 30,000 victims are between 15 and 29 years old, of which 77 per cent are Afro-Brazilian male youth. A significant number are perpetrated by the State, often through the apparatus of the military police. In Rio de Janeiro, in 2013, nearly 80 per cent of the victims of homicides resulting from police interventions were Afro-Brazilian, of whom 75 per cent were youth between 15 and 29 years of age. As a result of the high death rate, and the ensuing impunity, social movements have labelled the situation a “genocide of black youth” (paras 50, 51).

Criminalization of Afro-Brazilians: The Special Rapporteur is alarmed at the proposed constitutional amendment currently pending in Congress to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 years of age. The proposed constitutional amendment to lower the age of criminal responsibility of children to 16 years of age instead of 18 should be rejected, as it will further negatively impact Afro-Brazilian youth and contravenes the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (paras 55, 103).

Social and economic conditions: The Special Rapporteur also notes the situation of extreme disadvantage experienced in favela and periferia communities, which are often dominated by Afro-Brazilians. For youth in such neighbourhoods, limited access to quality education, a lack of community and leisure spaces, high rates of school dropout and of crime mean that youth have few ambitions or life perspectives (para 57).

Afro-Brazilian women: A recent study revealed that Afro-Brazilians women and girls are more likely to be victims of violence: in 2013, 66.7 per cent more Afro-Brazilian women were killed than white women and girls. The large numbers of Afro-Brazilians male homicides have a significant impact on Afro-Brazilian women, as the mothers, wives and sisters of these slain youths, and who are not provided with any psychosocial support or redress (para 59).

Afro-Brazilian women and girls are particularly vulnerable to violence, including sexual violence and domestic violence, in particular in marginalized communities such as favelas and periferias. Indeed, in periferia Brasilandia, girls as young as 10 and 11 told the Special Rapporteur that they were forbidden from leaving their houses after school for fear of being raped, a regular occurrence in the neighbourhood. In these communities, as well as elsewhere, the school dropout rate for Afro-Brazilian girls is high, as they are often obligated to take up household duties, including the care of younger siblings. Similarly, teenage pregnancy rates remain high, particularly in poorer areas. The maternal mortality rates for Afro-Brazilian women remain comparatively high (para 60).

Free prior and informed consent: In Quilombo Ilha da Maré, a traditional fishing Quilombo in Bahia, development projects have been undertaken on Quilombo lands without the consent of the community. Authorized through environmental impact assessments that were allegedly insufficient, the projects have led to the poisoning of lands and waters, and the concentration of heavy metals in water and soil. This has resulted in high rates of cancer in the community, including numerous deaths of young children from heavy metal poisoning. Furthermore, owing to the influx of workers, Quilombola women have become particularly vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence (para 66).

Education: The Special Rapporteur learned that, in some cases, a Quilombo child will need to walk 5-6 kilometres just to reach the bus stop to travel to school each day, in order then to travel one hour to school, where she or he will be unable to perform well because of constant fatigue. In another Quilombo visited, students are only provided two hours of class per day, even for pupils up to 15 years of age Few Quilombos have local schools with teachers from their communities. In view of this, the Special Rapporteur notes that, even if affirmative action programmes exist, if Afro-Brazilians, including Quilombolas, are unable to better access quality basic education, these programmes will remain powerless to address inequalities. In order to strengthen affirmative action policies, further efforts should be made to improve the quality and availability of education for minority youth in particular in impoverished and rural settings, including in favelas, periferias, Quilombos and traditional communities. Efforts should be made to better implement law 10369 of 2003, as well as to strengthen the participation of minority communities in educational programming (paras 74, 105).

Roma children: Despite the lack of data, Roma continue to be a disadvantaged, socially excluded, and largely invisible minority in Brazil. They face particular challenges with regards to accessing education, employment, health, housing and social security. Illiteracy is high, and access to public health services, education, social security, employment and housing can also be challenging, often hindered by stigmatization, institutional racism and discrimination. Early marriage remains prevalent for girls, and Roma also experience difficulties regarding the protection and preservation of their traditions and cultural heritage (para 77).

Religious minorities: Members of Afro-religions also experience discrimination and are targeted as a result of traditional dress, beads or symbols, which are often banned from the workplace (although other religious symbols such as crucifixes are not). There are allegations of discrimination against children for wearing traditional dress in schools (para 82).

The Special Rapporteur is also concerned that community members report widespread impunity surrounding attacks on their person, places of worship, or instances of discrimination, including against children in schools. Lack of responsiveness to complaints filed, or failure to investigate allegations, further contributes to a sense of marginalization and discrimination on the part of the communities. Moreover, the lack of accountability and trust in law-enforcement services has meant that followers of Afro-religions report feeling unsafe in their neighbourhoods and cities. The Special Rapporteur notes the need for police and judicial training in order to better ensure that the rights of Terreiros and their followers are protected (para 85).

Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention

A/HRC/27/48/Add.3

Country visit: 18 to 28 March 2013

Report published: 30 June 2014

Legal framework: Brazil has also adhered the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. Positive legislative reforms regarding adolescents who are in conflict with the law and in relation to persons with mental disabilities have been enacted as well (paras 34, 61).

Absence of effective legal assistance: Public defenders assigned to the penitentiary system should, by law, visit prisons and detention centres at least once a week. A common complaint heard from all parties interviewed, including members of the judiciary, was that there were not enough public defenders or sufficient legal assistance available for those in detention. The majority of those in prison are young, indigenous people and Afro-descendants with poor backgrounds who cannot afford private lawyers. The Working Group observed in general that the majority of those disadvantaged in the criminal justice system, including adolescents and women, were poor and could not afford proper legal defence (para 104).

Compulsory confinement of drug users: In the State of Rio de Janeiro, most of those targeted under compulsory drug treatment are children and adolescents living on the streets. Those detained in this context are often placed in facilities unknown to their families or lawyers, who therefore had serious difficulties visiting them. According to the Government, compulsory admission of chemical dependents, particularly crack users, does not constitute a punitive measure, since neither drug use nor drug addiction are considered crimes in Brazil. The purpose of the compulsory admission measures applied is to provide emergency treatment to chemical dependents that are in a particularly vulnerable situation. The Working Group noted that judicial periodic reviews are often not carried out once a drug user has been put in detention. If no judicial review is conducted, a person may be detained for prolonged periods, even when that person is eligible for release. This is a cause for concern, given that the number of those arrested for drug-related offences in the country is particularly high. The Working Group considers that, in all cases, drug addicts should be held in compulsory confinement only by judicial order and consent has been sought, if the person has refused medical treatment and undergone a medical examination. It should be applied for only short periods of time, and only when the drug addict is considered a threat to society (115, 117-119).

Detention of minors: The Law on Children and Adolescents (No. 8069) of 1990 makes a distinction

between a child under the age of 12 and an adolescent, between the age of 12 and 18. In exceptional cases, the law applies to those between 18 and 21 years of age (young adults). It establishes that no child or adolescent should be deprived of her/his liberty unless arrested in flagrante delicto or by written and well-founded order of a judicial authority. Pretrial detention of minors may last a maximum of 45 days. Detention is not to be applied in cases where adequate alternative measures are possible. The maximum period of detention may not exceed three years, after which the adolescent is released or placed in a system of semi-liberty or assisted liberty. Release is compulsory when the offender reaches 21 years of age. Continued detention should be re-evaluated every six months. The Working Group was informed that crimes, offences and misdemeanours committed by adolescents and children are considered infractions and recorded in the National Registry of Adolescents in Conflict with the Law. Between January and June 2011, 29,506 adolescents were subjected to socio-educational measures, and 91,321 were placed on the National Registry for various infractions. In Brasilia, the proportion of minors in detention is five times higher than that in the rest of the country (paras 120-123).

The Working Group reiterates the need to employ alternative measures to detention only as required by international human rights standards, particularly when dealing with minors. It was informed of many cases where minors had been placed in detention for minor offences or infractions that did not justify deprivation of liberty. One of the most serious findings of the Working Group related to six adolescents currently detained at the Experimental Health Unit (Unidade Experimental de Saúde) in São Paulo, which the Working Group was able to visit. The adolescents were originally detained for serious and dangerous crimes, and were close to the maximum sentence of three-years prescribed by law when they were transferred to the Experimental Health Unit, where they were institutionalized without due legal process. The Working Group is concerned at the absence of a legal basis for the detention of the above-mentioned individuals, particularly in the light of the fact that there is no clear deadline to the length of their detention. It was also informed that no effective judicial review of these cases had been conducted. Some members of the judiciary interviewed believed that their detention might even be unconstitutional. To justify the deprivation of liberty of these individuals and to respond to the social and media pressure to keep them in detention, a law dating back to the 1930s has been used to provide legal support for the detention. The law does not comply with the principles and norms enshrined in the Constitution of Brazil and in international human rights law. The Working Group is of the view that the above-mentioned type of deprivation of liberty is arbitrary under international human rights standards, particularly if it is without legal basis. The Working Group observed that the health and sanitary conditions in the juvenile detention centres it visited in Rio de Janeiro were poor (paras 124-128).

The Working Group reiterates the need to employ alternative measures to detention of minors as required by international human rights standards. The Working group is concerned at the detention of six adolescents at the Experimental Health Unit (Unidade Experimental de Saúde) in São Paulo, and at the absence of legal basis for their detention, particularly in the light of the lack of any clear deadline for their detention. In addition, there has been no effective judicial review of their cases (para 145).

Special Rapporteur on water and sanitation

Catarina de Albuquerque

A/HRC/27/55/Add.1

Country visit: 9 to 19 December 2013
Report published: 30 June 2014

Physical accessibility:

The Special Rapporteur notes that:

Water and sanitation facilities and services must be within the physical reach of all sectors of the population in all spheres of their lives, particularly at home, but also in educational institutions, the workplace, prisons, and public places. (para 52)

The Special Rapporteur recommends that:              

The State should adopt a legal framework at the federal level to define criteria for disconnections of water supply and link these with the definition of a fair social tariff. (para 99 g)

 

Water and sanitation quality:

The Special Rapporteur found that:

Low investment in sanitation results in high public health costs, with about 400,000 hospital admissions due to diarrhoea in 2011, with expenditures by the Unified Health System of R$140 million. Most of those affected (53 per cent) were children between 0 and 5 years.    Investment in sanitation has impacts on a country’s economic and development indicators. Worldwide, for every dollar invested in sanitation, there is a return of around 5 dollars of costs avoided and productivity gained. (para 84) 

The Special Rapporteur recommends that:               

The State should accelerate the process of strengthening and creating water and sanitation regulators, which should be granted the authority to independently monitor all water and sanitation service providers, including the Autonomous Water and Sewerage Services, regarding the normative content of the human right to water and sanitation, and institute a carefully crafted methodology for monitoring and evaluating developments in the regulation of basic sanitation services in Brazil. (para 99 f)

Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Maurice Glèlè-Ahanhanzo

(E/CN.4/1996/72/Add.1)

Country visit: 6 to 17 June 1995
Report published: 23 January 1996

Overview:

The 1988 Constitution guarantees civil and political as well as the generally recognized economic, social and cultural rights. Brazil is also a party to numerous regional and international instruments, including [...] the Convention on the Rights of the Child. (para 22)

Brazil’s recent human rights situation, however, has featured massacres of street children - in particular the massacre of seven children of between 11 and 19 years of age in front of the Candelaria church in the centre of Rio de Janeiro in 1993 - by death squads with well documented links with the regular law enforcement agencies; these events are not unrelated to the purpose of the mission. Other relevant situations are the conditions of detention for ordinary prisoners, whose uprisings have often been harshly put down and the disputes over land tenure, which often lead to massacres of peasants or Indians by militias in the pay of the landowners, or by pioneers. (para 23)

Constitutional Prohibition of Racism:

"The expression ’Negro’, an official in the Department of Education explains, is not negative; children are taught to see that Black people exist and that that is the way things are. Other segments of Brazilian society are referred to similarly, such as ’Germans’, ’Japanese’, or ’Italians’, of the ’German’ or ’Japanese’ community or colony. We say we are ’Brazilians’. The term ’Negro’, for example, only becomes derogatory when it is accompanied by an adjective, as in ’the wandering Negro’ or when Blacks are denied entry to nightclubs or employment; it can even be used in an affectionate and tender sense: ’mi negrigna’, my little Negress, when speaking of one’s lady-love." (para 30)

Racism and Education:

At the annual World Bank Conference on Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, held on 13 June 1995 at Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian First Lady, Mrs. Ruth Cardoso, criticized the Brazilian education system which she described as "discriminatory". She drew attention to the fact that education reproduced a "racist form of society". The discrimination experienced by Afro-Brazilians in education is part of the vicious circle of poverty in which many of them are trapped and which takes the following form: material poverty - low level of education, failure at school, lack of training, unemployment or unskilled work, low wages - material poverty. (para 44)

There are in fact private schools for rich people that provide a better education than State schools with their huge classes, although Afro-Brazilians are unable to attend them for lack of means. There are those who believe that the Brazilian education system fails to take into account the presence, history and culture of Afro-Brazilians and tends to pass on to them a sense of inferiority. This is attributable, in particular, to the fact that teaching materials fail to portray Afro-Brazilians favourably: they are only mentioned as former slaves, servants or manual workers. Afro-Brazilian culture is presented as folklore. As a result, Black children are unable to identify with the education provided and do not enjoy attending school. There is a tendency to train them for football, music and the arts, in which, one is unhesitatingly informed, they excel. So what would be the point of trying to prepare them for anything else? (para 45)

Among children aged from 10 to 14, 87.9 per cent of White children are able to attend school, 80.8 per cent of children of mixed parentage and 77.6 per cent of Blacks. Even if they obtain a place at school, many Black children are compelled to abandon their education and do odd jobs in order help their parents meet the family’s needs. (para 46)

Sterilization of Black Women:

It has also been found that more Black women are sterilized than White women. Some people believe that this method of contraception or family planning contributes to the gradual whitening of Brazil’s population. According to data provided by the Brazilian Geographical and Statistical Institute for 1986, in the State of Bahia, 75 per cent of women who had been sterilized (aged between 15 and 40) were Black or of mixed parentage, while for the country as a whole the percentage is estimated to be 61.8. (para 53)

These women, who are often poor, naturally do not wish to have any more children because they are unable to provide them with a decent standard of living, but they are not offered any alternative means of contraception; however, they may even be sterilized without their knowledge when they give birth. (para 54)

Violence against children and child labour:

Violence against children is one of the most serious problems Brazil has to face. It mainly affects street children of Black and mixed parentage. According to a study carried out by UNICEF and the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the State of São Paulo into child murders, in 1991, out of a total of 307 victims, 42.35 per cent were White, 44.63 per cent of mixed parentage and 12.05 per cent Black. In the State of Rio de Janeiro in 1993, "Judge Siro Darlan, responsible for juvenile delinquents in Rio de Janeiro, registered 1,152 violent deaths of minors, 60 per cent of which occurred in the town of Rio alone. The majority of the victims were Coloured male children". It is no easy matter to identify who is actually responsible for these murders, although members of the military or civilian police are suspected of belonging to death squads which are responsible for most of them. The investigation into the massacre at the Church of Candelaria, in Rio de Janeiro, in July 1993 revealed the involvement of police officers in child murders. (para 56)

Another form of violence is sexual violence against adolescent girls, the vast majority of whose victims are of Black or mixed parentage. In 1990, the Children’s Department of the State of São Paulo estimated that 6 million girls, i.e. 15 per cent of Brazil’s adolescent population, had suffered sexual violence. This type of violence occurs at home or outside. Many minors are also prostitutes and are thereby exposed to violence. (para 57)

Child labour is widespread and involves many children of Black or mixed parentage. In the South-east region, the percentage of children aged between 10 and 14 who work is as follows: White: 14.99 per cent; of mixed parentage: 19.96 per cent; Black: 20.56 per cent. These children are employed in agriculture and in a variety of workshops and factories. They also work as street vendors. (para 58)

The problem of street children is rooted in poverty. They come from the poorest sectors of the population. It is among them that the highest numbers of AIDS victims are to be found. This is a deeply disturbing issue. (para 59)

Governmental Measures to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination:

Organizations such as the Movimento Negro Unificado are trying to raise the political awareness of Afro-Brazilians in order to improve their participation and their political representation. Numerous cultural associations [...] are endeavouring, with very limited resources, to restore the pride of the Blacks by teaching them their history and their culture, and by providing children with a modern education in the schools they set up. Others are especially concerned with [...] street children (the Centro de Articulaçaoes de Populaçaoes Marginalizadas in Rio de Janeiro); the Casa Viva of Father Julio Renato Lancelotti which takes in children with AIDS in São Paulo and which the Special Rapporteur made a point of visiting; its remarkable work deserves encouragement. (para 72)

Conclusions and Recommendations:

(T)he Special Rapporteur puts forward the following recommendations to the Brazilian authorities: [...] The situation of the street children should be studied as a matter of urgency in order to reintegrate them in normal social systems (schools, apprenticeship institutions) and enable them to escape crime and violence; in the same context, efforts should be made to disband the semi-official police organizations and the death squads which murder street children. (para 74(2))

 

 

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Sir Nigel Rodley

(E/CN.4/2001/66/Add.2)

Country visit: 20 August – 12 September 2000

Report published: 30 March 2001

Mr. Rodley identified the following concerns:

Ill-treatment in Detainment: According to NGOs, three minors were beaten or tortured every day in facilities under the jurisdiction of FEBEM. Revolts and attempted escapes, which were said to be frequent, were reported to lead to excessive use of force, in particular severe beatings with wooden or iron bars and wires, by guards, often wearing masks or hoods, and special units called in to restore order. Beatings were also said to continue as reprisals or punishment during the nights following a revolt. It was believed that these beatings usually took place at night when technical assistants or outside visitors are not present. After revolts, inmates were also said to be locked up in punishment cells, which are built to hold one person, in groups of more than 12 for several days. Relatives of detainees were also said to have been denied access on several occasions, especially after alleged revolts. A large number of the detainees whom the Special Rapporteur met said that most of the time revolts were provoked by guards. It is reported that night-shift guards often arrive drunk or under the influence of drugs and randomly beat detainees. Minors are reportedly made to run through the so-called Polish corridor upon arrival in a new FEBEM detention facility. The Special Rapporteur received from NGOs a chronology of several alleged incidents of abuse since October 1999 in FEBEM institutions, some of which are reproduced in the annex. (para 43)

The last wing he visited was wing G, where the most dangerous inmates from Carandiru prison and those who were going to be transferred to other FEBEM institutions were said to be detained. The Special Rapporteur noticed that there were mattresses in all the cells. Detainees said that mattresses had been brought for the first time on that very day. According to the detainees, they otherwise had to sleep half-naked with dirty blankets on cement beds. The attention of the Special Rapporteur was also drawn to the fact that in at least one cell of this wing, only literally boiling hot water was coming from the shower, making washing impossible. It must be noted that in this wing, the overwhelming majority, if not all of the detainees had visible and mostly recent marks over their entire bodies, including the head, consistent with allegations of beatings with iron bars and wooden sticks. Several asked the Director in the presence of the Special Rapporteur why they were beaten by monitores if they did not threaten or attack them. The attacks by between 30 and 50 monitores, who most of the time allegedly have their faces covered and are believed to be often drunk or drugged, were said to take place at night and for no reason. Again, some detainees gave information to the Special Rapporteur regarding the place where the sticks used to beat them were kept. The Special Rapporteur was thus able to discover a number of sticks consistent with those described by detainees, hidden under a table and covered with a sheet in the monitores’ room which, as onfirmed by the Director, was only accessible to monitores themselves. (para 49)

Relatively few allegations arose in respect of the federal level or the Federal District. Torture and similar ill-treatment are meted out on a widespread and systematic basis in most of the parts of the country visited by the Special Rapporteur and, as far as indirect testimonies presented to the Special Rapporteur from reliable sources suggest, in most other parts of the country. It is found at all phases of detention: arrest, preliminary detention, other provisional detention, and in penitentiaries and institutions for juvenile offenders. It does not happen to all or everywhere; mainly it happens to poor, black common criminals involved in petty crimes or small-scale drug distribution. And it happens in the police stations and custodial institutions through which these types of offender pass. The purposes range from obtaining of information and confessions to the lubrication of systems of financial extortion. The consistency of the accounts received, the fact that most detainees still bore visible marks consistent with their testimonies and that the Special Rapporteur was able to discover in almost all police stations instruments of torture as described by alleged victims such as iron and wooden bars make it difficult to refute the numerous torture allegations brought to his attention. On two occasions (see above paras. 35 (São Paulo) and 84 (Pará)), thanks to the information given by detainees themselves, the Special Rapporteur was able to discover large wooden sticks on which had been engraved by law enforcement officials laconic comments leaving no doubt as to their use. (para 166)

In the light of the foregoing, the Special Rapporteur has formulated the following recommendations:

(a) First and foremost, the top federal and state political leaders need to declare unambiguously that they will not tolerate torture or other ill-treatment by public officials, especially military and civil police, prison personnel and personnel of juvenile institutions. They need to take vigorous measures to make such declarations credible and make clear that the culture of impunity must end. In addition to giving effect to the subsequent recommendations, these measures should include unannounced visits by them to police stations, pre-trial detention facilities and penitentiaries known for the prevalence of such treatment. In particular, they should hold those in charge of places of detention at the time abuses are perpetrated personally responsible for the abuses. Such responsibility should include, but not be limited to, the practice obtaining in some localities, according to which the occurrence of abuses during their period of authority will adversely affect promotion prospects and indeed should involve removal from office, which removal should not consist merely of transfer to another institution;

(…)

(x) There needs to be a permanent monitoring presence in every such institution and in places of detention of juveniles, independent of the authority responsible for the institution. The presence would in many places require independent security protection

(…) (para 169)

Aid Programmes in Detainment: Next to the infirmary, where only one detainee was being treated at the time of the visit of the Special Rapporteur (see annex), the Special Rapporteur saw four inmates having meetings with so-called technical assistants. The latter are in charge of educational, psychological and legal aid programmes. They indicated to the Special Rapporteur that they were responsible for 70 inmates each and were able to speak with each of them only once a week. The Special Rapporteur nevertheless notes that according to public prosecutors, it was the first time that such activities were carried out in Franco da Rocha. He also notes that during his visit a member of his delegation witnessed a discussion between a technical assistant and the chief of the education programme regarding the fact that the former had been threatened by a monitor. According to non-governmental organizations, minors are shifted from one social worker to another all the time and spend so little time with them that no real rehabilitation activities are carried out. Furthermore, it must be noted that after each revolt, a large number of detainees are transferred to other FEBEM institutions. (para 45)

Revolts: As mentioned above, detainees claimed that revolts [in Carandiru prison] were usually provoked by beatings from the guards, a claim which was also said to be often heard by public prosecutors and technical assistants. The latter told the Special Rapporteur that monitores often explained that “it was a question of knowing who was in charge of the institution, themselves or the inmates”. The Director of Franco da Rocha recognized that there was a very tense atmosphere and that conflicts between monitores and inmates were frequent. He recognized that security was a difficult matter, but denied all allegations of beatings and of provocation by guards. With respect to the mid-August rebellion, it was reported that the video system in Franco da Rocha had recorded the incident and could well explain a number of pending issues. The Secretary in charge of FEBEM told the Special Rapporteur that the tapes were currently being studied by an internal investigation team. (para 47)

Reprisals: As he does at the end of any visit to a place of detention, the Special Rapporteur asked the Director of Franco da Rocha to put in place specific measures to ensure that minors who cooperated with him and his team would not be subjected to any reprisals. In view of the fact that it was believed that the minors with whom he had spoken at the public prosecutors’ office had already been subjected to beatings as a form of reprisal for having cooperated with the Special Rapporteur, the latter requested the Director to act with due diligence in this case. It must also be noted that a large number of inmates had refused to be called in by the Special Rapporteur at the end of his tour to be individually and confidentially interviewed, for fear of reprisals. Most noted that in any case they were going to be beaten after the Special Rapporteur’s departure for having spoken with him. On 28 August 2000, the Special Rapporteur was informed by public prosecutors for children and adolescents of the City of São Paulo who had accompanied him during his visit to Franco da Rocha that after his departure at least three of the minors he had met had been subjected to intimidation and reprisals, including beatings, by monitores, some of whom were said to be wearing hoods. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur was informed that, since his visit, a large number of minors, mainly detainees in wings G and H which he had visited, had been locked in their cells 24 hours a day. It was reported that the Director, when asked by the public prosecutors to take measures to ensure the right to mental and physical integrity of the minors detained in his institution, indicated that because of the large number of minors under his responsibility, he could not control all of his subordinates. On the same day, the Special Rapporteur sent an urgent appeal to the federal and relevant state authorities. (para 51)

Pre-trial Detention: The Special Rapporteur received information on the “Unidade de Atendimento Inicial” of São Paulo, commonly referred to as Braz, where all juvenile offenders are initially taken for screening before being transferred to a FEBEM unit. It was reported that some minors waited for weeks and even months in basic conditions of detention (which were shown to the Special Rapporteur on videotapes) for their sentence to be pronounced. Minors were said to be held half-naked, sitting in complete silence on the bare concrete floor with their hands behind their heads all day long. It was reported that minors are beaten by guards if they break the rule of silence. Beatings and humiliations were said to be common. (para 42)

(…) Padre Severinoi supposed to be a pre-trial juvenile detention centre and to be used as a place where minors are detained up to 45 days (see below) before being transferred to other DEGASE institutions, if necessary. The Director nevertheless recognized that 40 per cent of the detainees were actually serving sentences. The Director said that 90 per cent of the minors held at that time had access to education, at the same time admitting that only sentenced juveniles had access to educational and recreational activities. During his visit, the Special Rapporteur saw some youths taking lessons in different classrooms while three were working on sewing machines in a workshop. According to non-governmental organizations which visit juvenile detention centres on a regular basis, and as later confirmed by the minors interviewed, this was the very first time that such classes were taking place in Padre Severino. (para 62)

Visits: Minors were said to be in the yard most of the day, from 5.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m.. Only visits from their parents were said to be allowed, on Sundays. A number of the older youths complained about the fact that their wives and children were not allowed to visit them. A large number of the minors complained of having been beaten and slapped on the face by guards, allegedly because of attempted escape, fights between inmates or non-respect of the internal disciplinary rules, in particular the rule of silence at night which was said to include a prohibition on using the toilet. It was alleged that guards often asked them on which parts of the body they would prefer to be beaten. Some still bore marks, mainly haematomas on the head/face, shoulders and back, and also more serious injuries, such as open wounds, consistent with their allegations (see annex). Some were said to have recently been threatened with a gun by some of the night-shift guards. According to the information received, some children had spent up to two months in the punishment cells in which they were said to be locked 24 hours a day. They had to share a mattress with one or two other detainees. (para 64)

Detained Mothers: Women must serve their sentences in separate establishments and persons aged over 60 years have to be accommodated in their own penal institution appropriate to their personal situation. The penal institutions designed for women will have a nursery, where the convicts will be able to nurse their children. Women prisoners must be supervised by women guards, which was not the case in the women’s prison visited by the Special Rapporteur in São Paulo (Tatuapé). The Special Rapporteur nevertheless notes that no women were found mixed with male detainees in any of the places of detention he visited. (para 121)

Arrest: In cases of “infractions” committed by adolescents or children, the Statute of the Rights of the Child and Adolescents (Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescentes, ECA - Law No. 8069 of 13 July 1990) provides for measures ranging from admonition, obligation to repair the damage, community service, assisted freedom and semi-liberty to internment in an educational institution, or measures of assistance to the family, or others as defined in article 101 of ECA. Article 122 of the ECA provides that internment may only be applied where the infraction was committed “by means of a grave threat or violence to a person” or where the case involves repetition of other grave infractions, as well as where the case involves “reiterated and unjustified non-compliance with the previously imposed measures”, in which case it may only be imposed for a period of three months. The maximum period of internment must not exceed three years, after which the adolescent should be released or placed in a system of semi-liberty or assisted liberty. The maintenance of the measure of internment should be re-evaluated every six months. Upon the age of 21, release is compulsory. (para 131)

Pursuant to article 106, “(n)o adolescent will be deprived of his freedom unless arrested in flagrante delicto or by written and well-founded order of the proper judicial authority”. The proper judicial authority, his/her parents or any other person indicated by a juvenile suspect shall be immediately notified of the arrest and the place where the minor is held. Pursuant to article 108 of the ECA, children and adolescents can be provisionally held before being sentenced for a maximum period of 45 days. Pursuant to article 141 (1) of the ECA, juvenile suspects must have access to the Office of the Public Defender, the Office of the Attorney General and the Judicial Branch, and free legal assistance is rendered to those in need of it through the public defender or a designated lawyer. (para 132)

According to public prosecutors for children and adolescents of São Paulo, a minor under arrest is taken to a police station to fill out preliminary forms. Minors should not be kept in a police station for more than 24 hours, a period during which they should have access to a lawyer. But since only a few can afford a private lawyer, juvenile suspects are generally assisted by state prosecutors who, after having heard the circumstances, can ask for further investigation of the case or can decide to file the accusations for lack of evidence. Only in cases of serious offences can a prosecutor refer the file to a judge and request temporary detention. In the State of São Paulo, minors detained temporarily are taken to the Unidade de Atendimento Intial. According to the information, the first hearing usually takes place within a week. Only sentenced minors can be transferred to a FEBEM establishment. It is believed by public prosecutors of São Paulo that the family is only informed of the arrest in two cases out of three. (para 133)

Conditions of Detainment: During his visits to juvenile detention facilities in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (see above), the Special Rapporteur observed that minors were not separated by age, physical build or seriousness of the crime for which they were provisionally being held or had been sentenced. They instead were kept all together, in an indiscriminate fashion, including mentally disturbed detainees. NGOs as well as public prosecutors for children and adolescents of São Paulo also stressed the lack of adequate psychological assistance and that the architectural structure of the establishments in which they were detained would not allow for recreational or educational activities. (para 135)

Brazilian legislation has many positive aspects. (...) Conditions of detention and treatment of detainees should be humane and, for juveniles at least, an educational experience. The problem is that they are widely ignored, an often complaisant judiciary upholding states’ departure from the requirements on various grounds, be they unavailability of resources to implement the obligations or by placing unsustainable burdens on complainants to prove their complaints. The Torture Law is virtually ignored, prosecutors and judges preferring to use the traditional, inadequate, notions of abuse of authority and causing bodily harm. The forensic medical service, under the authority of the police, does not have the independence to inspire confidence in its findings. (para 161)

 

Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler

(E/CN.4/2003/54/Add.1)

Country visit: 1 to 18 March 2002
Report published: 3 January 2003

Overview:

There has been some important recent progress in reducing malnutrition, hunger and poverty in Brazil over the 1990s. According to government figures, levels of poverty have decreased as have child malnutrition and child mortality from malnutrition-related diseases. Broader social developments also show improvements, particularly in education and eradicating illiteracy. (para 7)

However, despite this progress, millions of Brazilians continue to suffer from hunger and malnutrition. [...] Malnutrition and deficiencies in micronutrients, such as vitamin A, iron and iodine, continue to have severe consequences on the growth and potential of Brazil’s children, women and men. More than 10.5 per cent of children suffer from stunted growth. Malnutrition leaves schoolchildren unable to concentrate at school and leaves adults too weak to work. In the soup kitchens of the Catholic Church and other charities in Brazil, the Special Rapporteur met with many people, mainly women and children, who could barely walk and whose ravaged skin and hair bore all the signs of severe undernourishment and malnutrition. (para 8)

In urban areas, the hungry and malnourished are the street children, the homeless and millions of Brazilians who live in the favelas (slums) of the mega-cities, particularly women and children. [...] But in the crowded favelas of Brazil’s mega-cities, unemployment is a widespread, structural problem. Unemployment has increased from 5 per cent in 1994 to 7.7 per cent in 2001, yet this reflects only the formal sector. [...] Many poor young men end up in prison, some driven to petty crime or involvement with the drug mafias. Conditions in Brazil’s urban favelas are sometimes terrible: overcrowding (including up to 12 people living in one small room, as the Special Rapporteur saw in Sao Joao de Meriti) contributes to problems of domestic violence, child sex abuse, as well as unsanitary and unhygienic conditions for the preparation and consumption of food. (para 11)

There are vast disparities between regions. The poorest region is the North-East, particularly Maranhão and Bahia. Malnutrition levels are much worse in the North-East (17.9 per cent of children are stunted) than in the South (5.1 per cent). (para 12)

Constitutional provision for school lunches:

Agrarian reform figures prominently in the Constitution, with a specific provision that [...] providing school lunches is also included as an important element for ensuring school attendance. In regulatory legislation, the universalization of the merenda escolar programme (school lunches) across Brazil’s municipalities means that the Government has committed to providing a school lunch to every child in every school. (para 18)

Right to Food Government Initiatives:

The government report also outlines a number of innovative programmes that the federal Government has introduced to combat poverty, hunger and malnutrition and to change patterns of clientelism, whereby regional elites and local governments often exercise control over resources at the expense of targeting programmes towards the poor. [...] These programmes include the Bolsa Alimentaçao (food bonus) and the Bolsa Escola (school bonus), and another programme Merenda Scolar (school lunch) which try to improve access to food. (para 28)

The Bolsa Alimentaçao, for example, is an innovative programme that provides R$ 15 per month income support to poor mothers with children (aged 6 months to 7 years) who are considered to be at nutritional risk. A direct payment is made to the mother who can withdraw the cash from a bank. Part of the aim of this cash transfer system is to reduce the possibilities for corruption and clientelism by some municipal authorities, which existed with the distribution of food baskets. (para 29)

The innovative Bolsa Escola programme also provides R$ 15 per child (aged 6-15) in income support to families in order to encourage families to send children to school. This has had an important impact on reducing the prevalence of child labour and also adds to incomes to purchase food. However, in practice, this programme is also limited to the extent that it has not yet been widely implemented across Brazil’s municipalities and adequate resources have not been made available. (para 30)

Another innovation by the Brazilian Government is the universalization of the Merenda Escolar (school lunch) programme. This means that every child at school in Brazil is entitled to one meal a day in school. Funds are provided by the federal Government to the municipalities, who make the funds available to schools. Nonetheless, in practice, the Special Rapporteur found that in some examples the funds made available were insufficient. One school that the Special Rapporteur visited in the Alagados of Salvador was only able to feed all the children the merenda scolar because it received funds not only from the federal government programme, but also from local church and civil society organizations. (para 31)

The Special Rapporteur was able to visit some positive programmes initiated at the level of state governments. For example, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, a restaurante popular has been set up by the Governor, at which anyone can cheaply eat a nutritious meal for R$ 1 in central Rio. Other initiatives include the distribution of the “sopa da cidadania”, a vitamin-enriched soup, and a programme to ensure babies are registered for their identity documents at birth. In the state of Rio de Janeiro, 9 per cent of the population (1.26 million people) do not have a birth certificate. The Special Rapporteur was concerned to learn that, in Brazil as a whole, 20 million Brazilians are not registered, which means that they have no legal identity as citizens and consequently little access to social programmes or to justice. The Special Rapporteur also welcomed initiatives of the state authorities of Rio Grande do Sul. The model of participatory budgeting used in Rio Grande do Sul, notably in Porto Alegre, should serve as an example for other states in Brazil and other countries around the world. (para 34)

Non-governmental organisations and social movements:

During the 1990s, a mass anti-hunger movement named Açao Cidadania contra a Fome e Miseria e pela Vida (Citizens’ Action Against Hunger and Poverty and for Life) grew out of the social “Movement for Ethics in Politics”. [...] At its height, Citizens’ Action mobilized more than 30 million people, almost 20 per cent of Brazil’s population, in more than 7,000 local committees undertaking many different activities: [...] reintegration of street children [...] literacy programmes, popular education, as well as many other activities. (para 36)

In Sao Joao de Meriti, one of the most highly populated municipalities of Baixada Fluminense on the periphery of Rio de Janeiro, the Special Rapporteur was presented with a survey conducted by social and church organizations showing that 25 per cent of Sao Joao de Meriti’s children were at nutritional risk, and 6.6 per cent were found to be severely malnourished. The Special Rapporteur attended a meeting in which Dom Mauro Morelli proposed a “municipal plan for combating child and mother malnutrition and for the rights of the child” to the Prefeito Antonio de Carvalho. The Special Rapporteur urges Prefeito Carvalho to implement this plan. (para 40)

 

Report by the UN Working Group on the Right to Development

(E/CN.4/2004/WG.18/3)

Report published: 23 January 2004

The Working Group identified the following concerns:

Facts: (…) The net enrolment in basic education has risen from 84 per cent at the beginning of the decade to 95 per cent at the end; in particular, school enrolments for 7-11 years have increased from 80.5 per cent to 96.5 per cent in 2000 and illiteracy rates have dropped from 18.3 per cent to 10.2 per cent in the same period; infant mortality has declined from 47.8 per 1,000 persons in 1990 to 29.6 in 2000;access to drinking water has improved from 73 per cent in 1986 to 87 per cent in 2000. (...) (para 46)

Education: The social protection strategy directed at the poor and excluded includes mainly conditional cash transfer programmes such as the Bolsa-Escola, the programme to eradicate child labour (PETI), the rural pensions programme (for the old or disabled) and, more recently, the Zero Hunger initiative. Bolsa-Escola was started in 1995 and now covers more than one third of all school-age children in the age group 6-15 years, with the objective of promoting school enrolment and attendance. It provides for a standard transfer for up to three children per family to families with per capita incomes of less than half the minimum wage. Evaluations have revealed that the programme may have brought down the number of poor children not in school by half. It has been indicated that improved coverage, larger transfers and administrative convergence with similar initiatives (PETI) would help improve the effectiveness of the programme. Moreover, under the present cost-sharing arrangement with the federal Government, many of the poorest municipalities, where the need for this programme is the greatest, are not able to benefit from this initiative. PETI was initiated in order to address the problem of child labour in urban and rural areas. It also involved cash grants to families with working children of school age (7-14 years) whose per capita income was less than half the minimum wage, in return for the children attending school for at least 80 per cent of the required attendance as well as programmes of after-school activities. As a result of this programme, participation in which is limited to four years, the proportion of working children fell from 20 per cent in 1992 to 15 per cent in 1999. The programme is seen as a well-designed initiative that has continued relevance, given the magnitude of the problem. The disability and old-age.

 

Civil and Political Rights, Including the Question of Disappearances and Summary Executions

Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions

 Report of the Special Rapporteur, Asma Jahangir

(E/CN.4/2004/7/Add.3)

Country visit: 16 September – 8 October 2003

Report published: 28 January 2004

 

Issues raised:

Excessive use of force by law-enforcement officials: Overall, victims usually tend to be young Afro-Brazilian males between 15 and 19 years of age, sometimes involved in criminal gangs and dwelling in the poorest communities. In the course of these raids, the police, who often lack the training and the means to properly carry out these operations, have repeatedly engaged in unjustified fatal shootings of criminal suspects or local inhabitants. There are also a number of reports where police have simply used violence and killed young people living in favelas without any provocation (para.36).

Death squads: Witnesses met by the Special Rapporteur gave horrifying accounts of groups of armed men in civilian clothes, operating under hoods, using sophisticated rifles and carrying out random killings of innocent civilians. Dead bodies are found mutilated, with heads severed, ears and organs cut off while corpses are left to rot. A number of such killings are attributed to groups of people described as death squads. The motives of such killings by death squads are not always clear but the Special Rapporteur was able to identify some patterns. In Santo Antonio de Jesus, she heard numerous reports of killings and disappearances of youngsters perpetrated by a military police nicknamed “Pomponet” who, with the alleged support of influential residents, took it upon himself to “socially cleanse” the area (para.44).

Detention: In March 2001 the Special Rapporteur sent an urgent appeal relating to juvenile detainees who were reported to be at risk of reprisals by guards and police officers following an earlier riot within a Franco Da Rocha detention centre (para.48).

 

The Special Rapporteur was also informed that, since the beginning of 2003, eight adolescents detained in São Paulo minors internment units were reportedly killed by other inmates. Although the exact circumstances of these deaths were not communicated to the Special Rapporteur, interviews with relatives of the deceased revealed that these killings could most likely have been avoided by timely intervention of the prisons’ authorities (para.49).

 

The Special Rapporteur visited an institution for minors where problems were believe d to be acute – Unidade de Atendimiento Inicial of Bras. There all juvenile offenders are initially taken for screening before being transferred to a minors’ internment unit under the jurisdiction of the State Foundation for the Well-Being of Minors (Fundacao Estadual para o Bem Estar do Meno, FEBEM). Conditions of detention in this unit, in particular with respect to overcrowding, were said to be inhuman (para.50).

 

The Special Rapporteur was worried to observe that, despite the overall good conditions of detention, including the provision of educational training, the children she interviewed reported that violence towards them was an everyday practice. She also noted that the adolescents seemed terrified that there would be reprisals against them after she left. She brought these concerns to the attention of the Vice-Governor (para.51).

 

Conditions of detention at the Unidade de Atendimento Inicial were extremely basic: hundreds of adolescents were locked-up all day long in cells a few square meters wide, sitting in silence in line on the bear concrete floor and maintained in a state of complete inactivity. Similarly, all children complained of being subject to routine violence, some of them still bearing the signs of recent beatings. Overall, some 75 per cent of those interviewed by the Special Rapporteur reported having been eyewitnesses of extrajudicial killings by the police. It was important to interview child detainees on the situation of extrajudicial killings, as a number of children have been victims to this crime and institutionalized children have directly been in contact with law-enforcement agents. A very basic interview with these children confirmed the impression and information that young people are specifically targeted by the police resulting in a number of extrajudicial killings (para. 52).

 

Legal Reform: A bill about registration, ownership and use of firearms, the “Disarmament Bill” has been approved by the National Congress and is pending presidential approval. This legislation aims at strengthening federal control over the registering and use of firearms and provides for a full range of sanctions, including use of weapons by minors. It is to be hoped that, if enacted, this legislation will hamper use of unregistered weapons by the police and will encourage minors to give up on their guns (para.69).

 

Individual cases:

Alagoas:

 

  • A.C.S., 16, reportedly killed by police officers on 9 June 2001.
  • Thiago Holanda sa Silva,18, C.F. da S., 17, and S.J. da S., 15, were reportedly found dead on 2 September 2002 with gunshot wounds to the head and neck.

Bahia:

 

  • Levi Santos Silva,18, reportedly shot to death on 12 April 2002.

 

Para:

  • David Ferreira de Abreu (8 years old), was reportedly killed on 4 December 2002, by a former federal representative.

 

Pernambuco:

  • Fabio Rodrigues da Silva, 15, Luciano Francisco de Oliveira, 18, Alexandre Bonifacio da Silva, 18, were reportedly forcefully apprehended and killed on 12 June 1999.

 

Rio de Janeiro:

  • H.S.G.S., 16 years old, was reportedly killed on 21 January 2003 by police officers.
  • Wallace da Costa Pereira, 11 years old, was reportedly shot in the back and killed by military-police officer Diogo da Silva Cunha.
  • Carlos Magno de Oliveira Nascimiento, 18, reportedly targeted and shot by military police officers.

 

Sao Paulo:

  • Aparecido Adormi, 17, arrested an d killed on 28 July 2002.

 

UN Special Rapporteur on the Adverse Effects of Toxic and Dangerous Products and Human Rights, Fatma-Zohra Ksentini

(E/CN.4/1999/46/Add.1)

Country visit: 20 – 28 June 1998

Report published: 3 February 2004

No mention of children's rights.

 

UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, Juan Miguel Petit

(E/CN.4/2004/9/Add.2)

Country visit: 13 – 14 November 2003

Report published: 3 February 2004

- Read the full report - E/CN.4/2004/9/Add.2

 

Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, Miloon Kothari

(E/CN.4/2005/48/Add.3)

Country visit: 29 May to 13 June 2004
Report published: 18 February 2004

Introduction:

Based on the provisions of legal instruments, the Special Rapporteur has adopted a working definition of the right to adequate housing as “the right of every woman, man, youth and child to gain and sustain a secure home and community in which to live in peace and dignity” (E/CN.4/2001/51, para. 8). (para 2)

Privatisation of Basic Services:

Privatization also has a particular impact on women and children, especially in the case of Brazil where in 34.1 per cent of urban and 24.1 per cent of rural households women are the main income providers, as well as the head of household. (para 36)

 

UN Special Rapporteur on Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Leandro Despouy

(E/CN.4/2005/60/Add.3)

Country visit: 13 – 25 October 2004

Report published: 22 February 2005

Mr. Despouy identified the following concerns:

Lack of Access to Justice: Lack of access to justice is more of a problem for social groups who suffer from discrimination or marginalization. The Special Rapporteur heard many accounts of court cases involving people from these groups who claimed that the initial violation of their rights had been compounded by their victimization by the judicial system, which reproduces the same discrimination and the same prejudices in the administration of justice. The people most affected are children and young persons, women, people on low incomes, indigenous people, homosexuals, transvestites, the Quilombola, people of African descent, the sick and members of social movements such as landless workers and environmentalists. (para 24)

Violence: It is alleged that cases of sexual abuse and domestic violence, including against adolescents, are not dealt with by the appropriate authority or with due care by the different actors in the administration of justice. On the contrary, in some areas a prevailing machismo tends to lay the blame on the victims of these offences. For example, one judge ruled in a case concerning the sexual exploitation and abuse of a 14-year-old girl that “she was no beginner when it comes to sex and was able and old enough to get away from her aggressor”. (para 27)

The Special Rapporteur is deeply concerned about the cases of violence and sexual abuse involving individuals from the judicial and political spheres and shares the views on this subject of the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry of the National Congress, which was set up in 2003 to investigate violence against children and young persons in Brazil and the networks that sexually exploit them. The Commission reports as follows: “We find the involvement of figures of authority such as politicians and judges particularly alarming. As public officials, they can be expected to be committed to protecting society and rights in general, and the rights of children and young persons in particular ... The political influence of these individuals poisons the whole system of responsibilities, leading to absolute impunity for exploiters [of children]. It is difficult to file complaints, conduct competent investigations and try anyone who is charged ... In some cases the authorities are not directly involved in sexual exploitation but they are nevertheless accomplices either by omission or collusion. Graft becomes a factor in the impunity of many abusers who, even when they have been caught, manage to obtain their release thanks to local political influence.” (para 31)

Impunity: There is reportedly a strong sense of impunity for crimes against children and young persons, mainly in two areas: (a) murders of teenagers and young people by death squads; and (b) offences of sexual exploitation and abuse. The situation is worse when the lawyers defending the victims, or the judges in charge of the proceedings, are threatened. (para 30)

Special Criminal Courts for Young Persons: The 1990 Children and Young Persons Act provides for an exemplary system of guarantees, but has not yet been implemented throughout the country. There is thus a pressing need to establish special criminal courts to try offences against children and young persons. The experience of existing special courts has led to better care for victims and has reduced delays and impunity while raising the conviction rate. As at the beginning of 2004, the country had only four special courts, in the states of Bahia, Ceará, Pernambuco and Rondônia. (para 32)

In Porto Alegre and Recife, the Special Rapporteur heard reports of cases where the Office of the Public Defender had not been represented at any stage of the proceedings against young people in conflict with the law. However, on the basis of the principles set out in the 1990 Act, the National Council on the Rights of Children and Young Persons decided to establish, within each public defender’s office, children’s units specialized in providing more appropriate care for child victims of crime and young persons in conflict with the law. As at January 2004, there were 150 such units, but there are many states in which they have not yet been set up. (para 33)

 

Report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Racism, Doudou Diène

(E/CN.4/2006/16/Add.3)

Country visit: 17 – 26 October 2005

Report published: 28 February 2006

Mr. Diène identified the following concerns:

Education: The Special Rapporteur, in seeking to assess the political will to combat racism at the highest level, had the honour and the pleasure to meet with President Lula da Silva. He appreciated the President’s frank recognition of the existence of racism and its influence on the mentality and everyday life of Brazilian society and the strong expression of his political will to eradicate it. The President recognized that the law is not sufficient, assessed the resistance and obstacles to any meaningful change and pointed to the challenge of deeply transforming the current mentalities. In this context, the law on the teaching of African history in primary school was adopted. In the last few years, institutions and programmes specifically in charge of combating racial discrimination were established, including an affirmative action programme in universities and the establishment in 2003 of the Special Secretariat for the Promotion of Racial Equality (SEPPIR). The President admitted that very much still remains to be done. (para 10)

The Special Secretariat for Human Rights denounced the killings of many Blacks, especially those young and poor, in the suburbs of the big cities, mainly by police and death squads. Strong measures are needed in this regard. The Special Secretariat also referred to the lack of trained teachers to implement the law on the teaching of African history in primary school. In this context, SEPPIR has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education for the training of approximately 45,000 teachers at the University of Brasilia in 2006. Finally, the Special Secretariat referred to the need for the Government to invest important financial means to address the huge socio-economic disparities within Brazilian society, which were generated by the gravest form of racial discrimination: slavery. (para 12)

(...) After nursery classes, in the absence of schools, many children get involved with drug dealers in drug trafficking. The level of illiteracy is unacceptably high. The general feeling is that they have no hope of getting a decent education, good schools are unaffordable for them, and there is no chance of later going to university. They are in the hands of the drug dealers and the police do not protect them, but on the contrary, kill them. (para 38)

Terreiros are religious communities that practise Condomblé, which are religions of African origin, brought to Brazil by the enslaved Africans. They are allegedly suffering from recent campaigns by Christian neo-evangelical groups, which are spreading the message that they are linked to evil. The significant financial means of these groups facilitate their campaigns and put pressure on members of the terreiros to convert, as opposed to the very limited means of the terreiros, which cannot effectively react to these campaigns. As a result, children are discriminated against in school if they state their religion, and the same happens to adults. The Pentecostal movement threatened the leaders of some terreiros and assaulted Condomblé worshippers. The police do not protect them and are, on the contrary, aggressive with them. Terreiros feel they are victims of clear manifestations of religious intolerance and institutional racism. (para 46)

The lack of appropriate education is a major concern. The regulation of 1999 concerning indigenous education creates the categories of indigenous schools and teachers, transfers the responsibility of primary education to the State, reaffirms the duty of the State to consult with the indigenous communities before taking any decision, recognizes the right to a specific calendar, and allows Indian leaders to participate in the development of educational programmes. However, the implementation of such provision is extremely difficult. For example, in Pernambuco, the State has no such educational policy, has established no system of consultation with Indian leaders, has trained no teachers, and most worryingly has no understanding of the constitutional right to cultural diversity, which provides for the adaptation of each educational system to the lifestyle of each community. As a result, there is currently no differentiated education, infrastructures are very poor and the few assigned teachers have temporary contracts and are underpaid. (para 56)

(...)

(c) The Government should allocate appropriate resources in order to allow the implementation of a differentiated indigenous educational system, as provided for in Regulation 3 of the National Council for Education;

(…) (para 81)

Initiatives such as the socio-educational project for children, adolescents and adults carried out in the favelas, such as the one by the NGO called Ação Comunitária do Brasil in the Rio de Janeiro Favela da Maré, should receive financial and other support from the Government and local authorities and should be promoted in other favelas and indigenous areas. (para 87)

Health: The Ministry of Health is actively collaborating with SEPPIR: they jointly created a Mixed Committee composed of representatives of the Government, black researchers, leaders of social movements, which proposes programmes to the Ministry. It promoted for example, the launching of a programme to fight sickle cell anaemia, which is prevalent in the black population, as well as a programme to train black leaders on how to get involved in this Committee, which is essential for the functioning of the process. A programme to reduce the high mortality rate of black children and women was also established, as well as a campaign to fight against institutional racism within the Ministry. Concerning the sterilization of black women, the problem is being addressed but the situation is still worrisome. Blacks are also the most affected by mental health problems, mainly depression and violence, and by drugs. At the municipal level it is often still difficult to offer proper health services, especially in remote areas. (para 15)

In addition, basic services are lacking in Indian communities. Health services are extremely poor: few doctors are available in neighbouring towns, medicines are not available and months pass before a member can get an examination. FUNASA is responsible for the health of the Indians, but the system does not work, its actions are entrusted to the municipalities, or NGOs, without coordination, and services do not reach the communities. Child mortality is much higher than the national average: many die from lack of healthcare or undernutrition. Also, due to the very harsh conditions of life, the lack of perspective and the humiliation and violence suffered by the Indians, the rate of suicides is high. (para 55)

Violence: Black women are also subjected to violence. Living in poor areas with very low revenues, they are the victims of drug dealers and domestic violence. They do not denounce their husband, out of fear of violent reactions: some have been burnt or shot by their husbands. Black women are also subjected to violence and exploitation as domestic workers: one fifth of them work as domestic workers, without the protection of labour laws, are underpaid and have no right to social security or other basic rights. Seventeen per cent of them are not paid. Generally in the labour market, black women are paid 40 per cent of a white man’s salary for the same work. Also, around 30 per cent of black women have been subjected to sterilization following a governmental policy. Some mothers live without knowing the fate of their children, as in the case of the mothers of the 11 adolescents from Favela Acari who disappeared in 1993: a military police officer is suspected of having killed them and although some evidence was found, the investigations got nowhere. Some mothers learned that their children had been killed, but no justice was rendered. (para 37)

Migrants: Discrimination does not occur so much in terms of granting of refugee status, but in terms of integration, in relation to education and housing, as for the black Brazilian population. Between November 2003 and July 2004, a flow of asylum-seekers arrived in Pernambuco through Recife: according to several NGOs, the 27 asylum-seekers of African origin were treated differently from the others of white origin. They were illegally mistreated and imprisoned until the time of their repatriation. They were neither given the right to defence, and interpretation, nor were they informed of their rights. Only two were given the status of refugee because they had a document from the Red Cross identifying them as politically persecuted. The others were summarily deported, without a fair process assessing whether they would be persecuted if repatriated. The law regarding foreigners dates from the military period. In September, the Government prepared a bill that will hopefully be submitted to Parliament in 2006. The major claims relate to the possibility for foreigners to get documents and the applicability of the statute on children to children of illegal migrants and refugees. (para 60)

The Special Rapporteur met with the Bolivian, Paraguayan and Peruvian community in São Paulo where around 150,000 non-Brazilian Latin Americans live. They feel discriminated against in their daily life, and are seen and treated as inferior, mainly because of the negative image portrayed by the media, which depicts them as criminal and uncivilized people. Latin Americans are mainly employed as illegal workers in Brazil, due to restrictive immigration law. As a consequence, Latin Americans lack the freedom to freely move about and live in constant fear of the police. They also lack appropriate access to health services. Their main concern, however, is the difficulty of sending their children to school. A lack of correct documents causes many to be refused by schools.A bilateral agreement between Bolivia and Brazil provides for the payment of R$ 828 per person for the procurement of legal papers, but with their meagre salaries Bolivians need to work for years in order to legalize one family member. This means that their children have no education and no future. Some cases of forced labour, in particular by Korean employers, have been mentioned.

It appears that some Latin Americans are discriminated against because of their indigenous origins. (para 61)

 

Report by the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Jhina Jilani

A/HRC/4/37/Add.2)

Country visit: 5 – 21 December 2005

Report published: 19 December 2006

Ms. Jilani identified the following concerns:

Human Rights Defenders: NGO members monitoring and reporting on the practice of torture by the security forces and in Brazilian prisons have also been the targets of numerous threats. In January 2005, Maria Conceição Paganele, President of the Associação das Mães e Amigos da Criança e do Adolescente em Risco (AMAR), a mothers’ organization in São Paulo, started receiving regular death threats over the phone and being followed. In connection with her exposure of a case of collective torture in a detention centre for adolescents (FEBEM), which had resulted in the imprisonment of the staff involved. Social workers and educators also reported that their activities on behalf of street children or adolescents are regularly obstructed. In some instances, security forces are reported to have physically assaulted educators and the children with whom they work. (para 30)

Collective Action: On 8 March 2005, the military police in Minas Gerais violently broke up a protest against the construction of the Jurumirim Dam, reportedly beating up 35 farmers including women and children. Student organizations in Florianópolis also reported that their demonstrations to demand free public transportation were met with violence by the police who used rubber bullets and beat demonstrators. Similar violent action against student demonstrations took place in Recife, Pernambuco, in November 2005. In some instances, the Army is reported to have been called in to police protests. (para 44)

 

Report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Philip Alston

(A/HRC/8/3/Add.4)

Country visit: 4 – 14 November 2007

Report published: 14 May 2008

Mr. Alston identified the following concerns:

The major problems identified included the very high rate of homicide and the high rate of impunity. Homicide is the leading cause of death for persons between 15 and 44 years of age. For some time now, between 45,000 and 50,000 homicides are committed every year in Brazil. Although these killings have sown widespread fear and insecurity among the general population. (para 5)

 

Report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Indigenous People, James Anaya

(A/HRC/12/34/Add.2)

Country visit: 18 – 25 August 2008

Report published: 26 August 2009

Mr. Anaya identified the following concerns:

Health: Extreme poverty and a range of social ills (even malnutrition and starvation in some cases) now plague the Guarani-Kaiowá and Nhandeva peoples of Mato Grosso do Sul. The state has the highest rate of indigenous children’s death due to precarious conditions of health and access to water and food, related to lack of lands. In 2007 the federal Government established the Dourados Indigenous Actions Management Committee, which has taken a number of initiatives to address the nutritional, health and other social welfare concerns of indigenous peoples in the state, through partnerships forged with various federal agencies and local authorities. (para 47)

Of ongoing concern, nonetheless, is that FUNASA has been hamstrung by financial limitations, as well as by severe management problems, resulting in persistent shortcomings in the delivery of the health services to indigenous peoples. According to one study, even with significant increases in Government funding for indigenous health between 2003 and 2006, the delivery of services worsened in most areas and infant mortality rose among the indigenous popultion. The Government reports initiatives to develop pilot programmes for selected DSEIs and the formation of a working group within the Ministry of Health to advance in a new management model for indigenous health-care policy and services. Indigenous peoples and organizations, however, have pressed for deeper reforms, advocating for a special secretariat within the Ministry of Health to take over indigenous health-care responsibilities from FUNASA and for further measures to increase indigenous participation at all levels of health services, including the training of indigenous health providers. (para 65)

The Ministry of Health, in consultation with FUNAI and indigenous peoples, should continue efforts to improve the delivery of health services to indigenous peoples, especially in remote areas, with attention to the special health needs of indigenous women and children. Every effort should be employed to enhance indigenous peoples’ participation in the formation of health policy and delivery of services, including with a view to better incorporating traditional indigenous health practices. All medical professionals should be provided with comprehensive medical training that includes traditional methods employed and that is provided in the language of the community. (para 86)

Sexual Violence: A related problem is the invasion of lands that have remained or are now in the possession of indigenous peoples, including lands that havebeen demarcated and registered. The Special Rapporteur heard reports of the presence of new orpersistent invaders (usually for illegal mining or logging) on Yanomami and Yekua territory in the Amazon, Cinta Larga lands in Rondônia and Mato Grosso, and on Guajajara lands in Maranhão. The invasion of miners and loggers has various residual security and health implications for indigenous communities, including restrictions to freedom of movement, sexual violence against women and girls, and the arrival of new diseases brought into the territory against which indigenous peoples have little or no immunity, including malaria, tuberculosis and smallpox, among others. For example, in the territory of the Cinta Larga people, women and children are reported to have been particularly affected by abuse. In Mato Grosso the lack of adequate action to remove the illegal occupants of Maraiwatsede territory (ratified in 1998) - the land of the Xavante people - has intensified conflict. (para 51)

Poverty: The Government has developed an important redistributive programme, known as the Family Stipend (Bolsa Família), to address extreme poverty in Brazil. Cash is transferred to poor families according to the level of poverty per capita and is based on the number of children and adolescents in the household. The Government reports that nearly 56,000 indigenous families receive the Family Stipend benefit, but that the programme needs to be adapted to the sociocultural realities of indigenous peoples in order to better enable their development on the basis of their own values and ethnographic patterns. (para 60)

Education: The Constitution of Brazil of 1988 affirms the right of indigenous peoples to their native languages and their own methods of learning (art. 210.2). To that end, a series of Government initiatives beginning in 1991 provided for a model of “indigenous education” that sought to transform the existing system of “indigenous schools” (escolas indígenas) operating in indigenous communities into a vehicle of intercultural and bilingual education respectful of local indigenous cultural specificities. The Government reports that between 2002 and 2007 the total number of indigenous schools rose 45.4 per cent, from 1,706 to 2,480, and that the public resources designated for indigenous education have progressively increased. There has been a corresponding increase in the number of indigenous children enrolled in indigenous schools, from 117,196 in 2002 to 176,714 in 2007, as well as an increase in the number of indigenous teachers and an improvement in their formal qualifications. According to the Government, 95 per cent of the nearly 10,000 educators employed in indigenous schools are indigenous, and an indigenous person is the head of the Indigenous Education Steering Comittee of the Ministry of Education. (para 66)

The Special Rapporteur notes with satisfaction that the Government has taken steps to establish differentiated educational programmes and enhance educational opportunities for indigenous peoples at all levels. Significant challenges remain, however, to ensure adequate financial and human resources and culturally appropriate programming to meet the educational needs of all of Brazil’s indigenous peoples. During his visit, the Special Rapporteur received repeated reports of inadequate incorporation of indigenous languages and cultural perspectives into educational curriculums and texts, which may contribute to the fact that the vast majority of indigenous children still do not enrol in school beyond primary education, despite trends of improvement in this regard as reported by the Government. (para 68)

Further efforts should be made by FUNAI, the Ministry of Education, state and municipal educational authorities and local partners to improve the quality and availability of education to indigenous children and youth, including through the incorporation of indigenous systems of teaching, cross-cultural curriculums and bilingual programming into the education of indigenous children and youth, and to strengthen the participation of indigenous communities and their authorities in educational programming. Adequate and transparent funding for teachers, materials and infrastructure for indigenous education should be secured. (para 87)

 

Report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter

(A/HRC/13/33/Add.6)

Country visit: 12 – 18 October 2009

Report published: 19 February 2009

Mr. de Schutter identified the following concerns:

Child Malnutrition: Child malnutrition was substantially reduced between 1996 and 2006, in particular among children from the north-east region and, in general, among children of lower income families. The average stunting (height-for-age) rate observed was 7 per cent: this was higher for boys (8.1 per cent) than for girls (5.8 per cent), slightly more frequent in rural (7.5 per cent) than in urban (6.9 per cent) areas, with a much higher prevalence in the north of Brazil (14.7 per cent), than in the rest of the country. The mother’s educational level had greater bearing than income level differentials: in families where the woman had less than three years of schooling, the prevalence of stunting was eight times higher than in families where the mother had completed 12 years of schooling. Income differentials between the highest and lowest quintiles were associated with three times greater prevalence of stunting in the lowest quintiles. The average rate of wasting (weight-to-height ratio) was 1.4 per cent, and the rate did not exceed 3 per cent in any group, thereby suggesting that acute forms of malnutrition are now under greater control in the country. The prevalence of underweight children (according to weight-to-age) was 1.9 per cent nationally, although it reached 4.5 per cent in the case of children with mothers with little schooling and belonging to the lowest income quintile. Low intake of vitamin A was also observed in 17.4 per cent of children under the age of five: the highest prevalence rates were observed in the impoverished north-east (19 per cent) and comparatively wealthier south-east (21.6 per cent). Urban areas also saw higher prevalence rates than rural ones. This data also indicates that nearly 21 per cent of the population, on average, was anaemic and prevalence bore no correlation to income group or race. Considerable regional variations were observed, although the two poorest regions displayed opposite outcomes: the north had the lowest (10.4 per cent) and the north-east the highest (25.5 per cent) levels of prevalence in the country. Urban children were, on average, more at risk of anaemia than rural ones. Lastly, the risk of obesity reached a national average of 7.3 per cent. (para 7)

Monitoring Food Insecurity: The monitoring of food insecurity in Brazil has recently been significantly improved by the overhaul of the Food and Nutritional Surveillance System (SISVAN), which monitors the nutritional status and food intake of persons who use the services of the Unified Health System in all age categories. The various methodologies used include SISVAN-Web, a fully integrated national information technology platform that allows basic health units in municipalities throughout the country to provide observation data on child and mother nutrition. The provision of such data has been linked, since 2007, to the monitoring of the Bolsa Família conditionalities. In 2007, 39 per cent of municipalities had submitted some information on the nutritional situation of their population (although these submissions are admittedly not representative samples of the entire population), while among municipalities taking part in the Bolsa Famíliaprogramme, reporting was much higher, exceeding 76 per cent. In the future, this should allow policymakers to assess progress much more often and in much greater detail. (para 8)

The distinct methodologies employed within the SISVAN framework produce quite different results. The latest regional survey in the northern region reported that tremendous regional and subregional variations subsisted. Although the National Demographic and Health Survey of Infants and Mothers had observed acute malnutrition (low weight-to-age ratio) in 1.7 per cent of children nationwide, in the north, the regional survey revealed that the average rate of acute malnutrition was 3.4 per cent and, in three of the seven northern states, over 8 per cent. With respect to chronic malnutrition (low height-to-age ratio), the national average was 7 per cent, while the average for the northern region was nearly 15 per cent (and around 30 per cent in three of the seven states in this region). This suggests that an adequate and timely picture of the situation of malnutrition requires the use of tools that permit greater refinement in disaggregation, and a constant inflow of updated data. (para 9)

Efforts: The remainder of this report examines the remaining challenges to ensuring the full realization of the right to food and the policies put in place by Brazil to remove them. Brazil has placed the fight against hunger at the centre of its development strategy. Since it was adopted, the 2006 law establishing a National Food and Nutritional Security System (SISAN) has been a benchmark for many countries across the world. The law reinstated CONSEA (which ensures the active participation of civil society in drafting recommendations to the Government); it improved the coordination of the variety of programmes set up under the “Zero Hunger” strategy, as well as the accountability of the agencies responsible for implementing these programmes; and it provided that an inter-ministerial taskforce would develop a national policy and plan on food and nutritional security. The participatory nature of these programmes, particularly shown through the work of CONSEA, are remarkable, and the success of Brazil in combating hunger and malnutrition, particularly child malnutrition, bears witness to the contribution that such participatory strategies can make to fulfilling such an objective. (para 14)

An impressive set of social policies have been grouped under the “Zero Hunger” strategy pursued by the Federal Government. The strategy is to be commended, in particular, for its participatory dimension: the various policies it comprises are characterized by an impressive degree of involvement of civil society in their design and implementation, as well as by a decentralized approach that empowers local authorities and improves targeting. The “Zero Hunger” strategy encompasses 53 initiatives implemented by 11 different ministries. Among these are social protection programmes, the most important of which are the Bolsa Família cash-transfer programme and the National School Feeding Programme. They also include a low-income restaurant programme, food banks, community kitchens, and cisterns, as well as the improvement of facilities for the storage of food in rural areas. It further includes income-generation initiatives, including support for family agriculture and “solidarity economy initiatives”. The strategy has achieved significant results in reducing malnutrition and poverty: child malnutrition has been reduced by 73 per cent between 2002 and 2008 and child deaths by 45 per cent. Brazil should be commended for these efforts. (para 33)

 

Report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Slavery. Gulnara Shahinian

(A/HRC/13/33/Add.6)

Country visit: 19 – 24 May 2010

Ms. Shahinian identified the following concerns:

Forced labour in the rural areas, a slavery-like practice, is most prevalent in the cattle ranching industry followed by the sugar cane industry from which ethanol is produced. The victims are predominantly men and boys aged 15 and older.

 

Requested visits

Visits requested

  • (Requested in 2008) IE on foreign debt and human rights

Visits accepted

  • (A) SR on health (June 2013)
  • (A) SR on indigenous peoples (dates to be agreed)
  • (A) SR on water and sanitation (10 - 18 July 2013)
  • (A) WG on people of African Descent (4 - 13 Dec. 13)

 

Organisation: 
Child Rights International Network

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