Human Rights and Remains: A Policy Proposal to Prevent Human Rights Violations in Brazil

This chapter results from empirical research that investigated judicial responses to allegations of human rights violations committed by the police in contemporary Brazil. Allegations of torture do not result in investigations owing to the structural features of Brazil’s criminal justice system, which lacks adequate means of investigation. This research diagnosed an asymmetry of information—caused by long delays between killings and their official communication to judicial authorities, or by imprisonment and judicial testimony in which torture was finally alleged—as one of the structural factors preventing proper investigations of human rights violations. An inadequate regime of incentives to judicial cooperation—a lack of rewards for confession (plea bargaining) and sanctions for perjury—induces criminal defendants to lie, and most testimonies are discredited in the courtroom. Finally, the lack of an investigative structure at the attorney general’s office discourages initiatives from legal professionals, so allegations of police violence made by criminal defendants are almost never investigated. This chapter concludes with a policy proposal addressing each structural factor to prevent human rights violations in Brazil.