Dilma approves law creating the National System to Combat Torture.
“We must sadly admit that torture was not restricted to the period of the military dictatorship. It continues to occur as a practice within police stations, prisons, and state structures. The system is a new possibility for Brazil to have a real mechanism to reach these institutions and verify, to have experts with the autonomy to say what happens to people's bodies, how they are marked by torture, or the very conditions in which people live,” stated the Minister of the Secretariat of Human Rights, Maria do Rosário.
Luana Lourenço, from Agência Brasil – President Dilma Rousseff today (2) signs into law Complementary Law Project 11/2013, which creates the National System for the Prevention and Combat of Torture, with the aim of confronting the crime in police stations and other places where people are detained under the custody of the Public Power. The system will be formed by community councils, state penitentiary councils, internal affairs offices and police ombudsman offices.
“We must sadly admit that torture was not restricted to the period of the military dictatorship. It continues to occur as a practice within police stations, prisons, and state structures. The system is a new possibility for Brazil to have a real mechanism to reach these institutions and verify, to have experts with the autonomy to say what happens to people's bodies, how they are marked by torture, or the very conditions in which people live,” assessed the Minister of the Secretariat of Human Rights, Maria do Rosário.
In addition to the National System, the law provides for the creation of the National Committee for the Prevention and Combat of Torture, which, according to Maria do Rosário, will be composed of civil society organizations that fight against torture.
Furthermore, a group of federal experts may work in penitentiaries, prisons, long-term care facilities for the elderly, shelters for children and adolescents, among others, to verify any situations of torture. "They will visit these places, identifying situations of torture and seeking to hold those responsible for torture in Brazil accountable," added the minister.