Note from BW of Brazil: Black Lives Matter was the message that caught on last year after police murders of black men in the United States. The same applies in Brazil where even more black men are killed although one would never know it according to the lack of international press coverage of the situation. On March 20th at a Public Hearing on the 154th Session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington DC, Brazilian activists took the struggle to the international stage. The number of murders in Brazil are equal to statistics of a country at war and considered genocidal when considering the alarming rates of black males that figure into these stats. Below is a brief report on the situation.
The genocide of the black population by the Brazilian State denounced at the hearing of the OAS in Washington, DC
Courtesy of the Negro Belchior blog
Justiça Global (Global Justice) and ANCED requested that the Brazilian State approves the PL 4471, putting an end to autos de resistência (acts of resistance).
From the Global Justice Site
Brazil kills 30,000 young people a year, and of these, almost 80% were black, according to the Mapa da Violência 2014 (Map of Violence 2014). The extermination of black youth will be reported on Friday, March 20 in a hearing about rights violations at the Comissão Interamericana de Direitos Humanos (CIDH or IACHR – Inter-American Commission on Human Rights) of the Organização dos Estados Americanos (OEA or Organization of American States – OAS) in Washington.
Institutional racism is drawn from criminalization measures of black youth through the deprivation of liberty; the expansion of militarization policies in impoverished areas of the cities, such as the UPP’s (Unidade de Polícia Pacificadora or Pacifying Police Unit), the army occupation in the group of Maré favelas (slums) and the Força Nacional in Morro do Santo Amaro, in Rio de Janeiro; and the maintenance of legal instruments such as auto de resistência (self resistance) (1) worsen the scenario. According to the Índice de Vulnerabilidade Juvenil à Violência e Desigualdade (IVJ (Youth Vulnerability Index of Violence and Inequality or IVJ) in 2014 the chances of a black man between 12 and 29 years being murdered in Brazil is 2.5 times higher compared to whites. Between 2002 and 2012, for example, the number of white youth homicides fell 32.3%, while that of young black men increased 32.4%.
Criminalization, violations and deaths in socio-educative system
The Brazilian socio-educative system has 15,414 places for 18,378 inmates. Most of these young people are black and poor, and have as their reason for his being interned, non-violent crimes of character such as theft. In 16 states, the wards are overcrowded. In Maranhão, for example, there are 73 vacancies and 335 interned. The situation of these sites is marked by overcrowding, torture, lack of access to health, education and legal assistance.
According to the study “Pelo Direito de Viver com Dignidade – Homicídios de adolescentes em cumprimento de Medida Socioeducativa de Internação” (For the Right to Living with Dignity in enforcement – Homicide of adolescents in Socio-educative Measure of Internment) of ANCED (Associação Nacional dos Centros de Defesa da Criança e do Adolescente or National Association of Centers of Defense of Children and Adolescents), in 11 Brazilian states, 73 deaths just between the years 2006 and 2010 were identified. Another study shows that violations of adolescents in the socio-educative system was conducted by the Conselho Nacional de Justiça (CNJ or National Council of Justice), which indicates that in 34 areas surveyed at least one teenager was sexually abused in the past 12 months, and in19 establishments there were deaths of adolescents in fulfillment of socio-educational measures.
Auto de resistência: license to kill
According to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), in São Paulo alone, the number of deaths typified as “Auto de Resistência” went from 369 in 2013 to 728 in 2014; an increase of almost 100%. The lethality of São Paulo Military Police (MP) is high, and data show that the main victims of police violence are young people. In São Paulo, 78% of people killed by the police between 2009 and 2011 were between the ages of 15 and 29.
For Natália Damázio, Justiça Global lawyer, “a great part of the auto de resistência cases have run marks of execution, with shots in the neck, head or back at close range, most cases ends up being archived, because of this it is emerging that bill 4471 be approved, which extinguishes auto de resistência and creates rules for investigation of deaths and injuries resulting from actions of state agents.”
The petitioners of the audience are the ANCED, Quilombo Xis Ação Cultural Comunitária (Xis Quilombo Community Cultural Action)/Campanha Reaja ou será morta (React or You Will Be Killed Campaign), and Global Justice.
Source: Negro Belchior
Note
1. Meaning death resulting from a police action or resisting arrest
WOW! I am so happy to see this movement gaining strength in Brazil, and that people have begun to organize and make themselves heard! Attempting to change mass consciousness and shed light on issues of Black and Brown communities is ALWAYS something that requires organized, rigorous, and sustained effort. While there is still a long way to go for all of us everywhere, I am so happy to see the progress that has been made here in Brazil!