The draft Permanent People’s Court resolution points to the fact that Jair Bolsonaro will be convicted of serious human rights violations and in some cases could be considered crimes against humanity.
The decision could increase international pressure against Bolsonaro as we deal with the issue of the Covid-19 pandemic. The international body created in the 1970s does not have the weight of the International Criminal Court or the capacity to prosecute a state or head of government. But an eventual conviction is seen by civil society groups, former ministers and lawyers as an important seal to pressure Planalto Palace and expose Bolsonaro to the world.
After a hearing and exchange of information over the past few months, the court set the reading of its decision for Thursday, September 1. A meeting between the judges is scheduled for the day before, Wednesday, so that the gavel can be sentenced.
Three different court sources in Europe confirmed that the first draft of the decision has already been prepared. But the process includes a meeting on Wednesday so all judges can present their arguments and vote.
Faced with an unprecedented administration, the judges had to decide what to do with Bolsonaro. There is no doubt that he will be convicted in court. But the debate is about how that will happen.
by UOL The draft, which will be submitted to other judges, points to “serious human rights violations” and, in some cases, acts that may constitute crimes against humanity.
At least for now, there is no indication that Bolsonaro’s crimes should be considered genocide. Although the option was left out of the draft, the concept can still be discussed. Some of the members of the court are in a favorable position to consider this classification of crimes as well.
The complaint against Bolsonaro was filed by the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns, Public Services International, the Articulation of Brazilian Indigenous Peoples, and the Black Coalition for Rights.
The groups accused Bolsonaro of “using his qualifications, in the perspective of an authoritarian escalation that seeks to suppress and erode rights, of deliberately spreading the Covid-19 epidemic in Brazil, causing the preventable death and illness of thousands of people”. emphasizing vulnerabilities and inequalities in democracy, access to public services, and assurance of human rights, particularly of indigenous peoples, black populations and healthcare workers”.
The prosecution was led by lawyers Eloísa Machado de Almeida, Sheila de Carvalho and Maurício Terena.
The complaint mainly focused on demonstrating that there was a practice of inciting genocide against indigenous peoples and the black movement.
what is a court
Headquartered in Rome, Italy and defined as an international review court, the TPP is dedicated to determining where, when and how the fundamental rights of peoples and individuals have been violated. In its references, it establishes processes that examine the causal links of violations and condemns the perpetrators of crimes internationally.
Although it is a court of conviction whose sentences are not necessarily enforced by official state justice systems, the TPP’s decisions are relevant. They indicate recognition of crimes and duties of reparation and justice that would otherwise not be taken into account by official legal systems.
Another of its functions is to support criminal proceedings by acting as a subsidy for the drafting of laws and international treaties to prevent recidivism.
An example of its relevance cites the session in Argentina in the 1980s, when the first list of political casualties under the military regime in the country was presented.
The pioneering tribunal, established in November 1966 and held in two sessions in Sweden and Denmark, was organized by the British philosopher Bertand Russell, with the mediation of the French writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, and with the participation of Italian intellectuals. politician Lelio Basso, writer Simone de Beauvoir, North American activist Ralph Shoenman and Argentine writer Julio Cortázar. The court then investigated the crimes committed in the US military intervention in Vietnam.
In the following years, similar courts were established under the same model, and human rights violations in the dictatorships of Argentina and Brazil (Rome, 1973), the military coup in Chile (Rome, 1974-1976), human rights in psychiatry (Berlin, 2001) and Iraq (Brussels, 2001). 2004), the wars in eastern Ukraine (Venice, 2014) in Palestine (Barcelona, 2009-2012).
This is not the first case the court will consider Brazil in the democratic era.
In 1989 he held a hearing dedicated to impunity for crimes against humanity in Latin America. He stressed at that moment that those responsible for the violations committed during the Brazilian military dictatorship were not punished and that the right to collective memory was denied as a condition of avoiding new forms of authoritarianism.
The situation of children and adolescents in Brazilian society and the prison problem in the country were topics discussed in 1991. The session at Amazon the following year showed the tragic distance between reality in government and the rights defended by the 1988 Convention. in the guarantees of autonomy of their lands and local peoples.
And last year, in its 49th session, the court received complaints about environmental destruction and violations of the rights of Brazilian cerrado peoples. However, the penalty has not yet been announced.
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source: Noticias
