Norwegian recommendations in UPR on Brazil 25 May
Norway thanks the Brazilian delegation for presenting its national report.
We commend Brazil’s efforts to protect and promote human rights since its previous UPR. These include reduction of poverty and promoting social equality, enhancing women’s rights, promotion of the rights of the LGBT population, and most recently, the creation of a truth commission and enactment of the Law on Access to Public Information.
We continue to be concerned, however, about the situation of indigenous peoples and their right to free, prior and informed consent.
Norway recommends that Brazil:
- ensures the rights of indigenous peoples, in particular their rights to traditional lands, territories and resources, and their right to be consulted,
- concludes pending demarcation processes, in particular related to the Guarani Kaiowá.
Norway is concerned about the security and protection of human rights defenders (in Brazil), and the degree of impunity for the perpetrators. While the National Programme to Protect Human Rights Defenders was instituted in 2004, necessary legislation to confirm its official status has yet to be passed.
We recommend that Brazil:
- Without undue delay passes legislation to confirm the official status of the National Programme for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, and gives priority to its wide implementation.
Norway’s advance questions for Brazil
- According to a 2011 study on national homicide rates, 39.7% of all youth mortalities were the result of homicides. At the same time, according to media reports, federal budgets for projects under the National Program for Public Security with Citizenship had been severely cut. What concrete measures does Brazil plan on taking to enhance public security?
- Brazil is a party to the Hague Convention on the civil aspects of international child abduction, which seeks to guarantee a prompt return of abducted children to their country of habitual residence. There have been concerns regarding the Brazilian courts treating these cases as custody disputes. In addition, such cases face challenges with the slow judicial process and the multiple appeals allowed. Will Brazil provide more resources, in particular to its judicial system, to assure compliance with the Hague Convention on child abduction?
- 44% of the Brazilian prison population reportedly consists of pre-trial prisoners. As a consequence of the time lapse between an arrest and the introduction of the defendant to the judge, many pre-trial detention centres are overcrowded. How is Brazil planning to accelerate the judicial process and shorten the time between arrests and the introduction of defendants to a judge?