LAW AND THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE BRAZILIAN LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
Resumo
Abstract
Human rights defenders are the protagonists in bolstering democracy and undertaking human rights change. As they face up the establishment and challenge the dominant groups controlling economic and political power, human rights defenders are more often than otherwise targets of state and non-state violence and, consequently, they need protection. Yet, what does Brazilian law say about the protection of human rights defenders? To whom belongs the obligation to protect human rights defenders in Brazil exactly? While considering the interaction of international law, politics and national law vis-à-vis the protection of human rights defenders fighting for democracy, human rights and social justice, this paper conducts an analysis of the legal framework for the protection of human rights defenders at the level of Brazilian jurisdiction. It does so in order to contend there is a legal obligation for the Brazilian State to protect human rights defenders and that there is a series of rights that are crucial for human rights defenders to be able to conduct their activities. The final section presents a brief conclusion in which this paper’s discussions are recapitulated.
Keywords: Human Rights; Human Rights Defenders; Brazilian Law.
Referências
Bueno, Eduardo, Brasil: Uma História - Cinco Séculos de Um País em Construção (Leya, 2010).
Campos, Raymundo Carlos Bandeira, Estudos de História: moderna e contemporânea (Atual, 1988).
Commentary to the Declaration on the Rights and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (OHCHR, July 2011).
Compilation of International and Regional Instruments for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (International Service for Human Rights, 2004). ISHR accessed 12 May 2016.
Dagnino, Evelina, ‘An Alternative World Order and the Meaning of Democracy’ in Jeremy Brecher, John Brown Childs, and Jill Cutler (eds.), Global Visions: Beyond the New World Order (South End Press, 1993).
Dagnino, Evelina, ‘Cultura, Cidadania e Democracia: a transformação dos discursos e práticas na esquerda latino-americana’, in Sônia E. Alvarez et al (Eds.), Cultura e Política nos Movimentos Sociais Latino-Americanos: novas leituras (UFMG, 2000).
Dagnino, Evelina, ‘Meanings of Citizenship in Latin America’ [2005] IDS Working Paper 258, pp. 1-27.
Dagnino, Evelina; Olvera, Alberto J.; and Panfichi, Aldo (eds.), A Disputa pela Construção Democrática na América Latina (Paz e Terra, 2006).
Dagnino, Evelina, ‘Citizenship: a perverse confluence’ [2007] Development in Practice, Vol. 17, No 4/5, pp. 549-556.
Dagnino, Evelina, ‘Dimensions of Citizenship in Contemporary Brazil’ [2007] Fordham Law Review, Vol 75, Issue 5, pp. 2469-2482.
Dagnino, Evelina, ‘Conceptualizing culture: a perspective from the South’, [2008] Cultural Processes Newsletter of the Research Network Sociology of Culture, European Sociological Association), vol 1 (August), pp. 18-23.
Dagnino, Evelina, ‘Civil society in Latin America: Participatory citizens or service providers?’ in Heidi Moksnes and Mia Melin, Power to the People: (Con-)Tested Civil Society in Search of Democracy (UPPSALA Universitet, 2010).
Dagnino, Evelina, ‘Civil Society in Latin America’, in M. Edwards (ed.), Oxford Handbook on Civil Society (Oxford University Press, 2011).
Dagnino, Evelina, and Teixeira, Ana Claudia Chaves, ‘The Participation of Civil Society in Lula’s Government’ [2014] Journal of Politics in Latin America, 6, 3, pp.39-66.
Dai, Xinyuan ‘The “compliance gap” and the efficacy of international human rights institutions’, in Thomas Risse, Stephen C. Ropp, and Kathryn Sikkink (eds), The Persistent Power of Human Rights: From Commitment to Compliance (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
Davis, Diane E. and Pereira, Anthony W. (eds.), Irregular Armed Forces and their Role in Politics and State Formation (Cambridge University Press, 2003).
Del Priore, Mary and Venâncio, Renato, Uma Breve História do Brasil (Planeta do Brasil, 2010).
Dussel, Enrique. El Encubrimiento del Otro: Hacia el origen del mito de la modernidad. Quito: Abya Ayala, 1994.
Dussel, Enrique. Introducción a una filosofía de la liberación latinoamericana, (II e III) 2000.
Front Line and Centro Justiça Global, Na Linha de Frente: Defensores de Direitos Humanos no Brasil, 1997 – 2001 (Front Line and Centro Justiça Global, 2001).
Gaio, Carlos Eduardo; Aragão, Daniel Maurício; Frigo, Darci; Gorsdorf, Leandro and Carvalho, Sandra (Orgs.), Na linha de frente: defensores de direitos humanos no Brasil: 2002-2005 (Justiça Global and Terra de Direitos, 2006).
GASPARI, Elio, Ditadura Derrotada, A – vol. 3 (Companhia das Letras, 2003).
Gonçalves, Claudia Maria da Costa, Direitos Fundamentais Sociais: uma releitura de uma constituição dirigente (Juruá, 2006).
“Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights”, available at OHCHR <http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf> accessed 10 January 2016.
Human Rights Committee, Concluding Observations on Uzbekistan, 26 April 2005, § 19, CCPR/CO/83/UZB.
Human Rights Committee, Concluding Observations on Morocco, 1 December 2004, § 18, CCPR/CO/82/MAR.
ICCPR General Comment No. 31: The Nature of the General Legal Obligation imposed on States Parties to the Covenant, CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add. 13, 26 May 2006, para. 6.
Keck, Margaret E. and Sikkink, Kathryn Activists beyond Borders: advocacy networks in international politics (Cornell University Press, 1998).
Keck, Margaret E. and Sikkink, Kathryn ‘Transnational advocacy networks in international and regional politics’ [1999] International Social Science Journal, Volume 51, Issue 159, pp. 89-101.
Keck, Margaret E., ‘Social Equity and Environmental Politics in Brazil: Lessons from the Rubber Tappers of Acre’ [1995] Comparative Politics 27, pp. 409-24.
Landman, Todd, ‘Holding the Line: Human Rights Defenders in the Age of Terror’ [2006] BJPIR Vol 8, pp. 123-147.
Landman, Todd (ed.), Human Rights Volumes 1 and II (SAGE, 2010).
Landman, Todd, ‘Review Article: The Political Science of Human Rights’ [2005] British Journal of Political Science 35, pp. 549-572.
Landman, Todd, ‘Holding the Line: Human Rights Defenders in the Age of Terror’ [2006] BJPIR Vol 8, pp. 123-147.
Landman, Todd and Larizza, Marco, ‘Inequality and Human Rights: Who Controls What, When, and How’ [2009] International Studies Quarterly (2009) 53, pp. 715-736.
Luna, Francisco Vidal and Klein, Herbert S., Brazil since 1980 (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Martins Filho, Ives Gandra, História do Brasil: Resumo Esquemático (LTR Editora, 2011).
McCann, Bryan, The Throes of Democracy: Brazil since 1989 (Zed Books, 2008).
Meade, Teresa A., A Brief History of Brazil (Facts on File, 2010).
Mendes, Gilmar Ferreira, Coelho, Inocêncio Mártires, and Branco, Paulo Gustavo Gonet, Curso de Direito Constitucional (Saraiva, 2008).
Mendes, Gilmar Ferreira; Coelho, Inocêncio Mártires; Branco, Paulo Gustavo Gonet, Hermenêutica constitucional e direitos fundamentais (Instituto Brasileiro de Direito Público – IDP, 2002).
Mello, Celso Antônio Bandeira de, Curso de Direito Administrativo (Malheiros, 2004).
Nowak, Manfred, UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, CCPR Commentary (N.P. Engel, 2005).
OEA/Ser.L/V/II.124 h GENERAL SECRETARIAT. WASHINGTON, D.C. 2006, Doc. 5, rev. 1. 7 March 2006, available at OAS accessed 25 January 2016,
Pereira, Anthony W., Political (In)Justice: Authoritarianism and the Rule of Law in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina (University of Pettsburgh Press, 2005).
Pereira, Anthony W., ‘The Dialectics of the Brazilian Military Regime’s Political Trials’ [2005] Luso-Brazilian Review Vol. 41, No 02, pp. 162-183, page 164.
Pereira, Anthony W., ‘Explaining Judicial Reform Outcomes in New Democracies: The Importance of Authoritarian Legalism in Argentina, Brazil and Chile’ [2003] Human Rights Review, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 3-16.
Pereira, Anthony W., ‘Political Justice under Authoritarian Regimes in Argentina, Brazil and Chile’ [2003] Human Rights Review, Vol 4, No. 2, pp. 27-47.
Pereira, Anthony W., ‘Virtual Legality: Authoritarian Legacies and the Reform of Military Justice in Brazil, the Southern Cone, and Mexico ’ [2001] Comparative Political Studies, 34, pp. 555-574.
Pereira, Anthony W., ‘"Persecution and Farce": The Origins and Transformation of Brazil's Political Trials, 1964-1979’ [1998] Latin American Research Review, Vol. 33, No. 1 (1998), pp. 43-66.
Principles Concerning Permissible Limitations or Restrictions to the Right to Freedom of Expression by the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion, available at UN accessed 25 January 2015.
Quintana, María Martín and Fernandéz, Enrique Eguren, Protection of human rights defenders: Best practices and lessons learnet (Protection International, 2010), available at Protection International <http://protectioninternational.org/> accessed 23 January 2016.
Quintana, María Martín and Fernandéz, Enrique Eguren, Protection of Human Rights Defenders: Best Practices and Lessons Learnt (Protection International, 2011), page 6, available at Protection International <http://protectioninternational.org/> accessed 10 January 2016.
Risse, Thomas; Ropp, Stephen C.; and Sikkink, Kathryn (eds), The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change (Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Risse, Thomas; Ropp, Stephen C.; and Sikkink, Kathryn (eds), The Persistent Power of Human Rights: From Commitment to Compliance (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
Risse, Thomas and Sikkink, Kathryn, ‘The Socialization of International Human Rights Norms into Domestic Practices: introduction’, in Thomas Risse, Stephen C. Ropp, and Kathryn Sikkink (eds), The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change (Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Sarlet, Ingo Wolfgang, A eficácia dos direitos fundamentais (Livraria do Advogado Editora, 2005).
Sarlet, Ingo Wolfgang, Dignidade da Pessoa Humana e Direitos Fundamentais (Livraria do Advogado Editora, 2004).
Sarlet, Ingo Wolfgang; Furian, Leonardo; and Fensterseifer, Tiago, ‘A reforma (deforma?) do Judiciário e a assim designada “federalização” dos crimes contra os direitos humanos: proteção ou violação de princípios e direitos fundamentais?’, in Ingo Wolfgang Sarlet (ed.), Purificação e Direitos Fundamentais (AJURIS/Livraria do Advogado, 2006), pp. 49-105.
Sikkink, Kathryn, ‘Human Rights, Principled Issue Networks, and Sovereignty in Latin America’, [1993] International Organization 47 (3): 411-441.
Sikkink, Kathryn, Mixed Signals: U.S. Human Rights Policy and Latin America (Cornell University Press, 2004).
Sikkink, Kathryn, The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions are Changing World Politics (W.W. Norton & Company, 2011).
Terto Neto, Ulisses, Protecting Human Rights Defenders in Brazil: A Legal and Socio-Political Analysis of the Brazilian Programme for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (PhD Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2016).
Terto Neto, Ulisses, A política pública de assistência jurídica: a defensoria pública no Maranhão como reivindicação do campo democrático popular (Juruá Editora, 2010).
The Right to Access International Bodies, Human Rights Defenders Briefing Papers (International Service for Human Rights, 2009), available at ISHR accessed 25 January 2016.
The Right to Access Funding, Human Rights Defenders Briefing Papers (International Service for Human Rights, 2009), available at ISHR accessed 10 January 2016.
UN, Implementation of General Assembly Resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006 Entitled “Human Rights Council”, A/HRC/4/37/Add.2 of 19 December 2006, page 7 or paragraph 14. Available in English at: United Nations (UN) <http://www2.ohchr.org/english/> accessed 25 January 2016.
Inter-American Human Rights System Cases (www.corteidh.org.cr):
Heliodoro Portugal versus Panama
I/A Court H.R., Advisory Opinion OC-5/85, Compulsory Membership in an Association Prescribed by Law for the Practice of Journalism. November 13, 1985. Series A, N.° 5, para. 30.
I/A Court H. R., Ivcher Bronstein Case. Judgement of February 6, 2001. Series C, N.° 74, para. 149.
Myrna Mack Chang versus Guatemala
Declaro(amos) ainda que o trabalho é original e que não está sendo considerado para publicação em outra revista, quer seja no formato impresso ou no eletrônico.
Temos ciência de que a revista se reserva o direito de efetuar nos originais alterações de ordem normativa, ortográfica e gramatical com vistas a manter o padrão culto da língua, respeitando, contudo, o estilo dos autores e que os originais não serão devolvidos aos autores.
