A Follow-up Report to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the Economic, Social and Cultural Root Causes of Torture and Other Forms of Violence in Brazil

• The poor,excluded and other vulnerable groups are often the first and most numerousvictims of violence, including torture and cruel, inhuman and degradingtreatment.
• Levels of violence in a given community or society can be such thatindividuals or groups are unable to enjoy their economic, social and culturalrights.
• Violence isinflicted on persons because they demand respect for economic, social orcultural rights – their own or those of others.
• Policies andprogrammes by governments, private actors or development and financialinstitutions can exacerbate poverty and inequalities and lead to increasedlevels of official, criminal and domestic violence.

TheAlternative Report on BrazilAn important activity foreseen underOMCT’s project involves working with UN Treaty Body Committees and thesubmission of alternative reports to assist their reflections. On 6 and 7 May 2009, The Committee onEconomic, Social and Cultural Rights considered the second periodic report ofBrazil on the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Socialand Cultural Rights. In order to support the Committee’s work and to makeavailable complementary information, the secretariat of the World OrganisationAgainst Torture (OMCT) in Switzerland joined with Justiça Global and theNational Movement of Street Boys and Girls (MovimentoNacional de Meninose Meninasde Rua- MNMMR) in Brazil to develop an Alternative Report. This report - The Criminalisation Of Poverty. A Report onthe Economic, Social and Cultural Root Causes of Torture and Other Forms ofViolence in Brazil - was submitted for the Committee’s consideration inApril 2009. In order to prepare this AlternativeReport, a mission to the state of Pernambuco was carried out by MNMMR and OMCTfrom 9 to 15 February 2009. Justiça Global and OMCT subsequently carried out amission in the city of Rio de Janeiro from 15 to 17 February. The resultingAlternative Report was not intended to offer an exhaustive appraisal of thedenial of economic, social and cultural rights in Brazil. Rather, it addressedsome of the key areas where there is a clear and direct link between violationsof economic, social and cultural rights and violence, or the threat of violencein this country and offered recommendations in this regard. At the heart of the Alternative Report isthe assertion that violence is an inherent element of poverty in Brazil: itdisproportionately affects the poorest communities, in urban and rural areasalike, and in turn reinforces this poverty. Furthermore, State actors engagedin law enforcement tend to “profile” the poor, and particularly the poorresidents of Brazil’s favelas, as“criminals”. This identification is reinforced by media reports, and evenstatements by public figures. In turn, the criminalisation of the poorjustifies public security strategies that violate a range of human rights,including the right to life, as police engage in arbitrary actions against favela residents, particularly young,black males. Identified as criminals by the police, the poor are at the sametime also victims of crime, and organised gangs control much of the economicresources in Brazil’s poor urban neighbourhoods. The Alternative Report by Justiça Global, MNMMR andOMCT makes concrete recommendations as to how theBrazilian Government should address the issue of violence against its poorestand most vulnerable citizens (see appendix 5). Several of these recommendations– and particularly those dealing with policing strategies - are echoed in theprogrammatic actions proposed under Brazil’s Third National Human RightsProgramme (Programa Nacional de Deraitos Humanos – PNDH-3, Decree no. 7.037),approved on 21 December 2010 (see below). Follow-upactivitiesOMCT’s project on “Preventing Torture andOther Forms of Violence by Acting on their Economic, Social and Cultural RootCauses” not only foresees the production of alternative reports, but alsoincludes provisions for follow-up missions to assess the progress of Stateparties in implementing the recommendations produced by UN Treaty BodyCommittees. It was in this context that OMCT conducted a five-day follow-upmission to Brazil from 14 to 19 March 2010. The purpose of this mission wastwofold: to assess developments in the enjoyment of economic, social andcultural rights in the light of the Committee’s recommendations to theGovernment of Brazil following the submission of the State Party’s secondperiodic report – and in particular those recommendations most closely linkedto the issue of violence in Brazilian society - and to assist in the launch anddissemination of the Alternative Report on Brazil prepared by OMCT, JusticaGlobal and MNMMR in April 2009. This follow-up mission was carried out inRio de Janeiro by a representative of OMCT, with important support provided bythe staff of Justiça Global. The mission schedule is reproduced in appendix 1to this report. Appendix 2 provides details of the launch of the report and theassociated public debate, appendix 3 reproduces the statement by OMCT at thisevent, and appendix 4 provides examples of media coverage.

[1] See OMCT, Attacking the Root Causes of Torture: Poverty, Inequality and Violence– An Interdisciplinary Study, Geneva, 2006, www.omct.org.In his role as UN Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, Sir NigelRodley noted: “as long as national societies and, indeed, the international communityfail to address the problems of the poor, the marginalized and the vulnerable,they are indirectly and, as far as the exposure to the risk of torture isconcerned, directly contributing to the vicious circle of brutalization that isa blot on and a threat to our aspirations for a life of dignity and respect forall”, Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission of HumanRights on the question of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degradingtreatment or punishment, UN Doc. A/55/290, 11 August 2000, para. 37. [2] Of course, many other measures must be taken to eliminate torture inaddition to addressing its economic, social and cultural root causes. These aredealt with in OMCT-sponsored alternative reports to the UN Human Rights Committee,the UN Committee Against Torture, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Childand the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.