Torture in Brazilian Prisons Exposed at the United Nations
Nana Oliveira has been a criminal lawyer for 22 years and, since 2007, manager and founder of Assessoria Popular Maria Felipa, where she coordinates the Solta Elas project, which seeks the release of mothers and women from Brazilian prisons. From 2023 to January 2024, she was general coordinator of Combating Torture and Serious Violations of Human Rights at the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship of the federal government. This article was written by Gomes especially for issue 107 of the WBO weekly newsletter, dated Mars 15, 2024. To subscribe to the newsletter, enter your email in the field below.
On Women's Day, March 8, Assessoria Popular Maria Felipa (Public Defender Maria Felipa, APMF), in partnership with the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analysis and the Washington Brazil Office, reported at the 55th Session of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on hunger, thirst, torture and ill-treatment in prisons and in the courts of the state of Minas Gerais.
The complaint took place in the space dedicated to interactive dialogue about torture. This moment is for the special rapporteur to present her annual work. Next, the UN member states present their statements on the topic. In the final stage of the dialogue, ten civil society entities participate – a stage in which Maria Felipa intervened, before more than one hundred representatives of states that make up the United Nations.
In our presentation we highlight the occurrence of “sexual violations, the unreasonable application of penalties for indiscipline and the transfer of prisoners from one prison to another as instruments to silence those who report torture.” The representative of Assessoria Popular Maria Felipa and the public defense lawyer Isabela Corby highlighted that the Brazilian Public Defenders Ministry and the judiciary are silent when confronted with these accusations.”
The strategy in this interactive dialogue was to use a mechanism called “Urgent Appeal” to present the case of a victim named Soraia, who is the mother of three children – one 5 months old, another 4 years old, and the third 11 years old. She was being treated for diabetes, hypertension, cardiac dysfunction, and schizophrenia.
Soraia was arrested in the last months of her pregnancy in 2023. The victim defended her ex-partner in a physical fight during a crisis of crack abuse, stabbing the attacker. The injury led to the attacker’s death. She was convicted for committing a homicide. Today she is serving her sentence at the Belo Horizonte 1 Prison, better known as the Inspector Estevão Pinto Prison (PIEP). She served part of her prison sentence at the Vespasiano pregnancy center, also in Minas Gerais. Her son was born in prison. The mother only breastfed him for two weeks, although the legislation provides for a minimum period of six months.
It is important to note that the National Mechanism for the Prevention and Combat of Torture (MNPCT) inspected this prison in Belo Horizonte, where the victim is serving her sentence. In 2021, the MNPCT report pointed out several structural situations of torture and ill-treatment that have not been addressed according to the reports of prison survivors. PIEP administrators have recorded at least 12 suicides since the last inspection. In addition to suicides, there were unsuccessful attempts and other incidents of self-harm. The unit has unhealthy cells, without adequate ventilation, where there are restrictions on food and water and a neglect of prisoners’ health.
In this case, the mother was unable to give her opinion in the custody process due to discrimination because she was a person with mental issues, and her rights to motherhood, health and full defense in the process were denied her. She was never referred for adequate mental health care, even though there is a specific program in Minas Gerais, the Comprehensive Care Program for Judicial Patients with Mental Suffering (PAI-PJ), created by the Court of Justice of Minas Gerais.
She was also denied a request for house arrest via habeas corpus. The arguments for the denial were his antecedents and the dangerousness of her ex-partner, the father of her newborn. In this case, prison ended up becoming a strategy to protect women who are victims of domestic violence. At the same time, it shows a disregard for the fundamental importance in the child's development of contact with the mother's skin, odor, and voice.
Everything that this woman and mother has been experiencing in the Brazilian judicial system is unfortunately common. The natural way in which rights are relativized has been something constant in the case of women – and not just in the case of women prisoners.
We recall the Bangkok Rules, which recommend that “before or at the time of arrest, women with childcare responsibilities shall be permitted to make arrangements for such children, including the possibility of a reasonable suspension of detention, taking into account the best interests of the children.” Mandela's rule 29 also applies, according to which “the decision to allow a child to remain with his or her parents in prison must be based on the best interests of the child concerned”.
The case presented in this Urgent Appeal is an example of what occurs in the women's prison system. It is a case that shows the malfunctioning of the Brazilian criminal justice system, which is removed from reality.
Soraia is not an exception, but a rule, which is eventually affected by an exception.
The Brazilian criminal justice system has the Military Police at one end and the prison system at the other. Assessoria Popular Maria Felipa understands that its actions seel to reduce the damage caused by this system, as from the moment a person is approached by the Military Police, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment begin, and they will not cease, as the institutions that should function to contain these practices ignore these violations in the name of “fighting crime” or “fighting criminal organizations.” In Brazil, any group of three people can receive the pompous title of “criminal organization,” and, from this title, fundamental rights and guarantees, also called human rights, are suspended in practice.
In a very direct way, Brazil is more like a “Gotham City,” where the poor and vulnerable will, sooner or later, interact with the criminal justice system for the simple fact that they exist. The decision on this or that type of criminal offense is just a necessary mask to maintain control over the Brazilian people, whether out of fear or the desire to differentiate themselves from the “Brazilian rabble,” as sociologist Jessé de Souza has argued.
We continue in the incessant fight for the freedom of women and LGBTQIAPN+ people. We do not believe that prison is a public security measure for anyone, given Brazilian conditions. It is imperative that Brazilian society rationalize the debate on public security.
The case presented continues with the APMF legal and psychosocial team, which was responsible for the Urgent Appeal. The intention is not only to promote reparation and safety for this victim, but also for the more than 300 others who have been tortured or received poor treatment, that the organization works with, as well as more than a thousand family members.
The person who suffers torture in the Brazilian prison system and reports it does not receive any protection from the state apparatus, as they do not fit into the provisions that regulate the program for human rights defenders, communicators and environmentalists (PPDH) or the Protection Program for Threatened Victims and Witnesses. In fact, there is a revictimization of those who report human rights violations, as the person becomes the target of more violence and omissions. Furthermore, they run the risk of being subject to disciplinary proceedings as reprisal, resulting in further imprisonment.
Presenting Soraia's case to the UN System is a necessary action to make visible to the government of Brazil and Minas Gerais the need for a program to protect victims who report torture that takes place in the prison system and remain under its custody, as a strategy to prevent and combat torture.
