The United Nations rapporteur (UN) to promote truth, justice, repair and guarantees of non-repetition, Bernard Duhaime, ended, on Monday (7), a week visit around Brazil. The UN special envoy will prepare a report on how the Brazilian State is dealing with the crimes committed during the civil-military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, which will be presented in September to the organization’s Human Rights Council.
In a press interview, today in Rio de Janeiro, Duhaime highlighted some points that generate concern, such as the application of the Amnesty Law (Law 6.638/79). The rapporteur pointed out that the decision of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) in 2010 to consider that human rights violations, committed by state agents, were amnesty, “opened the doors for impunity.”
“There are several problems regarding the compatibility of the amnesty law with international human rights legislation. So I think in 2025 it would be important to revisit this to ensure that the law is in accordance with international human rights law,” he said.
According to him, although it is positive, for example, the restitution of political rights to people who were arrested and revoked by the dictatorship, “the 2010 Supreme Court decision to include forgiveness to human rights violations of state agents” allowed them not to be punished.
“The absence of legal consequences for past abuse has reinforced a culture of impunity and established conditions for repetition, allowing authoritarian rhetoric and practice to resurface in political discourse as evidence in January 2023 of alleged coup attempt,” said Duhaime.
He also said that he will continue to closely follow the consequences related to the judgment of people accused and prosecuted for attempted coup d’état in Brazil in 2022 and early 2023.
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Violations
The rapporteur highlighted the continuity of human rights violations today, even 40 years after the end of the dictatorship, such as police abuse and extrajudicial executions by the police.
“During my visit, I heard testimonies from various social sectors about the persistence of state violence, in the hands of the police and the Armed Forces. Summary executions, torture and arbitrary arrests continue to permeate Brazilian society in alarming rates, particularly affecting indigenous peoples, peasants and people of African descent.
Liability for such crimes is rarely done, which encourages and further perpetuates these practices. ”According to him, violations committed by state agents against people are not prevented or brought to court.
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“The reform of institutions involved in human rights violations during the dictatorship is a crucial principle of judicial transition, which aims to prevent the recurrence of violence. However, such processes were not the focus of Brazil’s transition process,” said the UN rapporteur.
Duhaime was also concerned about the lack of initiatives to preserve the memory of some places related to human rights violations during the dictatorship, such as the DOI-Codi buildings in São Paulo, dops, in Rio de Janeiro, and the House of Death in Petrópolis.
“I totally endorse the demands of civil society so that these facilities are preserved and established as places of memory, under the jurisdiction of civil authorities,” said the rapporteur, adding that they also generate concerns “the act of negationism of past violations and the glorification of dictatorship” by some sectors of society.
