|
The report,"Moving Agreements on from Paper," drafted by more than 40 NGO's (non-governmental organizations) that work for young people, highlights the reality of young people who are in jail in Brazil and demonstrates the inefficiency of government policies to combat juvenile delinquency.
The document provides data from the Brazilian National Penitentiary Department, which shows the social inequality among this segment of the population. Around 30% of the country's prison population is in the 18-24 age bracket, and 40% of them didn't have jobs before they were put in jail, and 51% were out of school.
For Renata Florentino, representative of the Integrar Group, one of the organizations that prepared the report, the State has to pay more attention to this question. She says that there are two fragile items when it comes to putting kids in jail: the guaranty of the rights of those who are incarcerated and cut off from outside contacts.
"The quality of the policies that guarantee the rights of the prison population is bunk, that's when it's respected. Access to education in prison is nearly non-existent. And the relationship with the outside world is practically non-existent.
"When you get someone out, to try to make things better, so that he can become a good member of society, you can't imagine that the dude will prepare himself to become a total member of society."
Florentino also points to the need to revise the Statute of Children and Adolescents, when it comes to punishing young violators of the law.
"The Statute has never been applied firmly. The condition of the Febem and the Cajes (institutions for delinquent kids) need to be cared for better to improve things," he suggests.
In the report, the non-governmental organizations accuse the institutions that care for delinquent kids of practicing torture. They cite the case of São Paulo, where 1,750 employees of the São Paulo Febem were fired after corrupt practices were discovered in the institution.
The report says that less than 10% of the crimes committed in the country are committed by adolescents. "That is, the universe of youngsters who commit crimes is small, and, among their numbers, those who practice crimes against life or terrible crimes are small in number," according to the report on Juvenile Delinquency.
One of the items considered delicate in the document is the defense by some groups of lowering the penal age from 18 to 16. The report reproduces a study last year by the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), showing that 89% of the population is in favor of reducing the age. 1,700 people in 16 capitals of the country were interviewed, from the social classes A, B, C, and D.
The "Moving Agreement from Paper" report was sent to the United Nations in April, and to the Brazilian government on Friday, August 12, International Youth Day.
On October 4, the UN will release an international report on the situation of young people around the world. The document is being drafted on the basis of the reports sent by governments and non-governmental organizations from around the world.
Agência Brasil
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.