UN Rights Expert reports on torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Brazil

11 April 2001







An expert of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights said today that torture is widespread and systematic in police stations and custodial institutions in most parts of Brazil.

Sir Nigel Rodley, Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, told the Commission this morning that abuses took place in a majority of the places he had visited during a mission to Brazil last year and, “as far as indirect testimonies presented to me from reliable sources suggest, in most other parts of the country”.

The Special Rapporteur said torture and similar ill-treatment are 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”, he continued . “Mainly it happens to poor, black criminal suspects accused of having committed petty crimes or small-scale drug distribution”.

The Special Rapporteur added that he had been informed that the authorities had taken a number of initiatives that he considered positive, such as the convening of a conference of officials responsible for the administration of justice on the need for application of the 1997 Law against Torture and plans to launch this month a national campaign of public awareness-raising about the problem of torture, including the setting up of a national telephone hotline to receive allegations of torture. Today he also welcomed the expressed willingness of Brazilian authorities to continue their cooperation with his mandate.

Sir Nigel visited Brazil from 20 August to 12 September 2000. The report on the visit is contained in UN document E/CN.4/2001/66/Add. 2. The Special Rapporteur's general report is found in UN document E/CN.4/2001/66.



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