This Thursday, the Permanent People’s Court (TPP) will announce Jair Bolsonaro’s sentence on charges related to crimes committed during the covid-19 pandemic. In the preliminary version of the sentence, the report found that the verdict pointed to conviction, even referring to possible crimes against humanity. But the text would still go through a review by the body’s other judges.
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.
Attorney Eloísa Machado, professor of Constitutional Law at FGV Direito-São Paulo and supporting member of the Arns Commission, points out that the conviction will be “extremely important”.
According to him, what could be done about the pandemic at the national level was the CPI of covid-19. “It was a very frank report, but it did not find any repercussions in the country’s official investigative bodies,” he said.
“The TPP is therefore the arena that will clear this situation and encourage the investigation of these bad decisions that have led to thousands of deaths,” he said. “This will be an example of recording the truth and also a kind of compensation. Even if it is symbolic and moral. It is a compensation for all the sufferers,” the lawyer said.
It regrets the lack of a national body dealing with such crimes and highlights the role of foreign bodies. “During the Bolsonaro government, international organizations were the main arena for accountability and redress,” the lawyer said, citing resolutions from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and other UN bodies.
Draft sentence shows conviction
After a hearing and exchange of information over the past few months, the court set the reading of its decision for Thursday, September 1.
Three different court sources in Europe confirmed that the first draft of the decision has already been prepared. But the process involved a meeting on Wednesday for all judges to 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 discussion was about how that would happen.
by UOL The draft, which was presented to other judges, pointed to “serious human rights violations” and, in some cases, acts that could 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.
Complaint
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 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 denounces 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 pioneer court, 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 the Italian politician’s respected intellectuals. LelioBasso by writer Simone de Beauvoir, by American activist Ralph Shoenmane 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).
source: Noticias
