Truth Commission: legacies progress slowly after 10 years – 12/25/2024 – Power

by Andrea
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The recommendations made in its final report, dated December 2014, were slowly implemented over the last ten years, which compromised the expectation that the investigation of facts from (1964-1985) would produce immediate legacies.

The 29 suggestions, directed to the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary, were intended to demand punishment from perpetrators of crimes such as torture and contribute to the fields of reparation and memory, in an effort to avoid a repetition of authoritarian adventures and the perpetuation of practices inherited from the regime. The stagnation is attributed to the political context and .

The Vladimir Herzog Institute, which independently monitors the implementation of the recommendations, considers that only 2 of them, equivalent to 7%, were completely carried out. Those classified as not realized total 17 (59%), and those classified as partially realized are 10 (34%).

came to count 7 recommendations (24%) in which there was a setback in implementation — reaching a worse stage than in 2014, when —, but the researchers say that, at the end of this year, this balance was at zero.

The assessment changed because points that were set back in the government (), in the authors’ interpretation, saw progress in management (), cases of the resumption of policies to combat torture and the interruption of official events commemorating the .

The two recommendations considered fully fulfilled are , labeled as “authoritarian rubbish”, and the operation, as of 2015, of , seen as an instrument to combat torture and illegal prisons.

The issue of hearings, however, is a cause for warning for those responsible for observation. They see problems in , after the in-person model was made more flexible due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite recognizing advances under Lula, such as the recomposition of the , activists and researchers were dissatisfied with the current government for the slowness in the , a campaign promise from the PT member.

Extinct by Bolsonaro, the collegiate was installed by the Ministry of Citizenship in August this year. The wait was a result of the delicate moment between the Executive and the current government’s efforts to .

Lula began the government with a relationship of distrust with the segment, after the barracks’ intense participation in the Bolsonaro administration. The situation worsened in 2023 and entered an acute phase with .

Just like its former member Bolsonaro, the Armed Forces, with arguments such as that it adopted a partial stance and encouraged persecution of the military.

The CNV’s number 1 recommendation is the “recognition, by the Armed Forces, of their institutional responsibility for the occurrence of serious human rights violations during the military dictatorship”. The chance of an apology is seen as remote, especially in the current context.

For the executive director of Vladimir Herzog, political pacification with the military cannot serve as a pretext for the Brazilian State to fail to comply with the recommendations.

“I am fully aware of the complexity of the situation and the difficulties in which the current government operates, in this political scenario that is so polarized and full of problems created by the previous government. But failure to confront this situation produced January 8th and puts us hostage to threats of institutional disruption. You need courage and understand that giving an answer is important for democracy.”

The NGO representative says he believes that not all military personnel condoned abuses committed during the regime and that the agents’ conduct cannot be generalized either. “There is no revanchism whatsoever”, says he, who was national secretary of Human Rights in the government (PT).

The political turmoil that followed the , with her and later Bolsonaro’s election, contributed to the slowness of the actions, assesses Sottili.

Lula stated in February this year that . In his government, , March 31, but also .

“As a society, we need to understand that looking at the past is not looking at the past, it is looking at the present and the future”, says Rafael Schincariol, one of the coordinators of the institute’s survey.

For Sottili, the Lula administration promoted “small changes, but still far from desirable.” “I still don’t feel the government has a central focus on complying with all the recommendations.”

In the current composition of the MDH, the General Coordination of Memory and Truth Policies has among its responsibilities to monitor the legacy of the truth commissions. The ministry, in a note, says that the CNV’s recommendations require “permanent dialogue” and that several initiatives have fulfilled the requests.

A notable point is the regulation of the issuance of death certificates for victims of the dictatorship identified by the CNV, which recognized 434 dead and missing. On the 10th, which was proposed by MDH and can now be applied by notary offices.

The ministry assesses that, with this, recommendation no. 7 was met, which provides for the “rectification of the notation of the cause of death in the death certificate of people who died as a result of serious human rights violations”. Vladimir Herzog maintains the classification as partially fulfilled, as he understands that there will only be a conclusion when all records are effectively rectified.

“There have been advances in the creation of mechanisms to prevent and combat torture, in the strengthening of public defender offices, as well as in the creation and improvement of bodies for the defense of human rights and in actions to promote democratic values ​​and human rights in education”, he says the ministry.

Vladimir Herzog demands that the government create a permanent body with the participation of civil society to monitor developments. The MDH website has a tab for recommendations, but it is empty. The folder committed to “correcting and updating” the space as soon as possible.

According to the professor and lawyer, “the most important objective was achieved” with the publication of the final report, which became a “safe source of information”. The recommendations, he says, are important to “avoid a repeat of what happened.”

CNV recommendations continue to be disregarded

29
was the total number of recommendations made by the CNV (National Truth Commission) in its final report of December 2014, with the aim of punishing perpetrators of crimes during the military regime and implementing measures to prevent the repetition of authoritarian adventures and abolish remaining practices of the time

2
recommendations (7%) were carried out by December 2024, according to monitoring by the Vladimir Herzog Institute in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Brasil Foundation

17
recommendations (59%) are classified by researchers as not carried out

10
recommendations (34%) are considered partially carried out by the survey

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