Abstract
This chapter develops a perspective on the impact of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) that examines the ways in which the IACHR’s decisions affect the balance of power between pro-and anti-human rights coalitions in Brazil. The main argument advanced in the chapter is that litigation before the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS) has the potential to produce a decision that can be mobilised by Brazilian human rights groups, allowing them to continue the dispute, be it in public spaces, in newspapers, on television or even in domestic courts. In short, these groups mobilise the IAHRS in order to deploy naming and shaming strategies to exert pressure on the state.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Departamento Estadual de Ordem Política e Social (DEOPS) was a subnational branch of the civil police responsible for the investigation and the repression of political crimes and social upheavals between 1924 and 1983.
- 2.
See, for example, Cambiaghi and Vannuchi (2013): ‘With regards to Brazil [...], it is worth noting that the work of the IACHR was almost irrelevant in the face of torture and systematic violations of human rights of citizens, especially young people, engaged in political resistance – with armed actions or not – to the dictatorship installed in 1964’. Similarly, Boti’s work (2015) illustrates negative perspectives of relatives of individuals killed and disappeared during the Brazilian dictatorship. One prominent relative, Criméa Telles, refers to the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS) as a product of a ‘negligent and conservative’ state system.
- 3.
The aim here is not to examine the case selection criteria used by the IACHR, nor the quality of their decisions. Moreover, the focus is not on the trajectory of cases concerning Brazil that have been referred to the Inter-American Court, whose decisions create other types of obligations for states.
- 4.
IACHR merits reports database compiled by the author.
- 5.
In the first report, dated 7 April 1998 (11.287), which refers to the murder of João Canuto de Oliveira, the identities of petitioners are not revealed.
- 6.
Brasileiro de Inovações em Saúde Social (IBISS) is an organisation running social projects for poor children and adolescents at risk. In 1995, IBISS also had a legal arm, responsible for the complaint, which was separated from the organisation in 1999.
- 7.
- 8.
It should be noted, however, that in cases where IACHR petitions ended in friendly settlements between the petitioners and the Brazilian state, the government somehow managed to find a way to pay reparations to victims.
- 9.
It is important to note that ‘in order to put into effect the compensation for material and moral damages to José Pereira, the Brazilian government sent a bill to Congress. Law No.10,706 (30 July 2003) was adopted on an emergency basis’. IACHR Report 95/03, 11.289. Available at: http://cidh.oas.org/annualrep/2003port/Brasil.11289.htm
- 10.
On the Brazilian judiciary’s behaviour in relation to social movements struggling for land rights, see the 2012 Observatory report on the performance of the judiciary in land conflicts arising from land occupations by the social movements in the states of Pará, Mato Grosso, Goiás and Paraná (2003–2011).
References
Alves, José Augusto Lindgren. 2003. Os direitos humanos como tema global. São Paulo: Perspectiva.
Alves, Lucélia de Sena, and Renata M. Lima. 2013. A efetividade do ativismo jurídico transnacional no sistema interamericano de direitos humanos: uma análise a partir do caso do Brasil. Brazilian Journal of International Law 10: 2.
Boti Bernardi, Bruno. 2015. O sistema interamericano de direitos humanos e a Justiça de transição: efeitos no Brasil, Colômbia, México e Peru. Ph.D. Thesis, University of São Paulo.
Cambiaghi, Cristina, and Paulo Vannuchi. 2013. Sistema Interamericano de Direitos Humanos: reformar para fortalecer. Lua Nova 90: 133–163.
Codato, Adriano, and Luiz Domingos Costa. 2006. O que é o presidencialismo de coalisão? Folha de Londrina, December 27.
Maciel, Débora Alves. 2011. Ação coletiva, mobilisação do direito e instituições políticas: o caso da campanha da Lei Maria da Penha. Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais. 26 (77): 97.
Reis, Rossana Rocha. 2012. O direito à terra como um direito humano: a luta pela reforma agrária e o movimento de direitos humanos no Brasil. Lua Nova 86: 89–122.
Ribeiro, L.M.L., et al. 2015. O tempo do processo de homicídio doloso em cinco capitais. Estudo resultante da Carta Acordo SRJ-PNUD-FUNDEP 30543. Retrieved from http://pt.slideshare.net/justicagovbr/pesquisa-srjtempoprocessso
Santos, Cecília MacDowell. 2007. Transnational Legal Activism and the State: Reflections on Cases Against Brazil in the Commission on Human Rights. Sur-International Journal on Human Rights 7: 25–59.
———. 2010a. Memória na Justiça: A mobilisação dos direitos humanos e a construção da memória da ditadura no Brasil. Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais 88: 127.
———. 2010b. Da Delegacia da Mulher à Lei Maria da Penha: Absorção/Tradução de Demandas Feministas pelo Estado. Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais 89: 153–170.
Ventura, Deisy, and Raíza Ortiz Cetra. 2012. O Brasil e o sistema interamericano de direitos humanos: de Maria da Penha à Belo Monte. Unpublished paper on file with author.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Reis, R.R. (2019). Transnational Activism and Coalitions of Domestic Interest Groups: Reflections on the Case of Brazil. In: Engstrom, P. (eds) The Inter-American Human Rights System. Studies of the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89459-1_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89459-1_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-89458-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-89459-1
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)