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The situation of 400 adolescents housed in the Federal District's Specialized Juvenile Care Center (CAJE) troubles the Organization of American States (OAS).
This month, based on a report submitted by the Center for the Defense of the Rights of Children and Adolescents in the Federal District (CEDECA), the OAS determined six measures for the federal government to take to protect the lives of the adolescents. Through its Inter-American Human Rights Commission, the OAS demands the elimination of overcrowding in the CAJE; the application of at least minimal standards of socio-educational correction, such as the decentralization of detention facilities; and the implementation of medical care and educational activities. The organization also demands measures to ensure the protection and security of the inmates, including separation according to the seriousness of their crimes, sex, and age. Another step calls for the adolescents to be placed in detention centers close to where their parents live. According to CEDECA lawyer, Climene Quirido, there were seven deaths in Federal District detention units between 2004 and 2005. "They are treated like animals, not human beings in the phase of development, with a minimal right to a decent development," Quirido remarks. The lack of specialized medical care, overcrowding, the lack of adequate conditions of hygiene, and the lack of vocational activities are among the main problems identified by the CEDECA in its report to the Inter-American Commission. CEDECA coordinator, Perla Ribeiro, underscores the lack of psychiatric treatment for the detained adolescents. The federal government will have 30 days to respond to the international body. The time frame for the measures to be adopted is six months, with the right to a six-month extension. In the coming days the government is expected to press the Federal District to comply with the measures. If nothing is done, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission can rule in favor of imposing moral sanctions or even economic penalties on Brazil, according to the CEDECA lawyer. Agência Brasil
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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.
I believe, MENTORING IS a critical intervention statergy to help save children who are increasingly becoming casualties of the breakdown of modern families.
Serious attention must be paid to children, and young people as violence is a long development process that starts in early childhood.
This does not only mean that Brazil has a problem with violence, it means Brazil also has a, 'Family Problem'.
In order to help to curb the rise of criminality amoung the youth, especially the boys, I think the Ministry of Education should seriously consider introducing a, 'Prevent &'Dropout Programme' which should be aimed at targetting volatile communities so it can identify at-risk boys.
This double-pronged intervention is currently needed in Brazil, but first ministers have to find a way to disarm the current population of young criminals, and second, ministers must cauterise this problem by stemming the production of any new crime recruits. This is where the Prevent & Dropout Programme could be introduced to assist in these areas.
This Government could, if it wishes, also introduce a 'Ministry of Family Affairs' to look into the reconstruction of family life. Fix familes and you fix Brazil.
However, there are no quick fix solutions to this situation. But, it can be done, if this Government is commited, as experts now realise that everything starts from within the HOME.....