CAT/OP/BRA/2
I.
Preliminary remarks
1.
Visits by National Preventive Mechanisms (NPM) and the Subcommittee on
Prevention of Torture ( SPT), and cooperation between the State Authorities and these
bodies are fundamental under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture
(OPCAT) for the prevention of torture and ill-treatment to be effective.
2.
Under OPCAT, Article 12(d), States Parties are obliged to enter into dialogue with
the Subcommittee on the implementation of its recommendations. In order that dialogue
be meaningful, States must respond to SPT recommendations and requests for
information in a timely, considered and comprehensive manner. States must consider
the SPT’s recommendations in good faith, with a view to implementing them, if necessary,
in a phased manner and in accordance with an action plan that includes clear timelines for
addressing each issue.
3.
The SPT asks the authorities of the Federative Republic of Brazil to recall this
obligation as it continues its dialogue with the SPT.
II. Cooperation
4.
Brazil’s Reply to the SPT’s Report was slightly delayed, by just over two months. In
its Reply, Brazil provides further detailed information that relates to the treatment and
detention conditions of detainees. The SPT recognises the efforts that Brazil has taken to
produce this detailed Reply, which helps build a fuller picture of the situation in Brazil.
5.
The SPT is cognisant of Brazil’s willingness to support the SPT in its future visits
to the State, which the Federal Government expressed in its Reply to the SPT’s Preliminary
Observations. Welcoming this, but to avoid any future confusion, the SPT would like to
clarify that it is not part of United Nations Special Procedures (See Reply Para. 2) but is
mandated directly by the OPCAT. Accordingly, the SPT’s access to a State, its circulation
within it, and its access to all its places of detention are provided by the Convention and the
SPT requires no further invitation from the State. The SPT is nevertheless pleased by, and
commends the government of Brazil for this important expression of cooperation in the
spirit of the OPCAT.
6.
The SPT further welcomes Brazil’s willingness to publish the SPT’s visit Report.
Publication increases transparency and is a further protection against torture and other illtreatment. This important step will not only help to prevent torture and ill-treatment in
Brazil but also sets a helpful example for others to follow. Accordingly, and as a
continuation of the cooperation that Brazil has already displayed, the SPT encourages the
Brazilian authorities to authorise the publication of the Government’s Reply, and this
Response, as provided for under Article 16(2) OPCAT.
7.
Although Brazil has taken these abovementioned formal steps to satisfy its OPCAT
obligation to cooperate with the SPT, the SPT is nevertheless concerned that a large number
of recommendations in the visit Report have either not been acknowledged, or have not
been engaged with fully by the State. In the majority of cases, information that is relevant
to the recommendations has been supplied. Nevertheless, the SPT finds that in many cases,
rather than indicate concrete measures to ensure the translation of policy into practice, or
details of specific and direct relevance to the recommendations, much of the Reply to
specific recommendations remains broad-brush and confined to the policy level.
8.
The SPT finds it especially concerning that Brazil’s Reply includes barely a mention
of the systematic use of torture and ill-treatment suffered by many inmates, and which are
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