Set 15 2023 | Nº. 84

Editorial

This week marked Brazil’s official ascension to the rotating leadership of the G20 at the annual summit held in India. A mix of the world's largest advanced and emerging economies, the G20 represents about two-thirds of the world’s population, 85% of global gross domestic product, and over 75% of international trade. Its presidency changes annually, ensuring that no single country has undue influence over the group's agenda and that various regional perspectives are taken into account. As journalist Jamil Chade previously reported, Brazil’s priorities at the head of G20 include combatting climate change, reducing global inequality, and reforming mechanisms of international governance, including a possible expansion of the UN Security Council. In this role, Brazil will host the 2024 G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro (and the COP30 climate summit the following year in Belém).

 “Fifteen years ago,” Lula stated in his speech in India, “this group established itself as one of the world’s main global governance bodies in the wake of a crisis that shook the global economy. Our joint action allowed us to face the most critical moments, but it was insufficient to correct the structural flaws of neoliberalism.” Calling for a concerted effort from the world’s major economies, Lula insisted on peace and cooperation. It was with that spirit in mind that he told an Indian reporter that Russian president Vladimir Putin would be welcome to attend the summit next year in Brazil without fear of arrest. The problem, as the reporter pointed out to the president, is that hosting Putin would fly in the face of the International Criminal Court (ICC), to which Brazil is a party according to the Rome Statute it ratified in 2002. 

Lula’s comments were immediately criticized in Brazil and abroad. The next day he backtracked, insisting that he was unaware of the ICC. His statement that Putin would be safe in Brazil, in short, was not meant as a repudiation of Brazil's treaty obligations. He said instead that it would be up to Brazilian courts to decide how to proceed were Putin to attend the 2024 G20 summit in Brazil. Later, Justice Minister Flávio Dino criticized the asymmetries of the Rome Statute, pointing out that several powerful countries are not signatories and thus are held to a different standard. He suggested that Brazil might consider withdrawing from the ICC before walking back from that implication shortly thereafter. Minister of Human Rights Silvio Almeida was clearest on the issue, asserting that the ICC is a crucial international body that Brazil has no intention of abandoning. Taken together, this imbroglio overshadowed the positive development of Brazil assuming its role in G20 leadership. Despite the rocky few days, Brazil still has a clear new opportunity to exert a considerable degree of global influence.

Highlights

• CONVICTION. A majority of the members of the Supreme Court voted on Thursday, September 14 to convict the first defendant involved in the frustrated coup d'état attempt on January 8th. Aécio Lúcio Costa Pereira, aged 51, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the crimes of criminal association, attempted coup d'état, attack on the democratic rule of law, the destruction the Union's assets, and damage to property. The 17-year sentence was proposed by the case's rapporteur, Justice Alexandre de Moraes. He was supported by Edson Fachin, Gilmar Mendes, Luiz Fux, Dias Toffoli and Cármen Lúcia. Justice Luís Roberto Barroso proposed a 10-year sentence and Cristiano Zanin, 15 years. Kassio Nunes Marques suggested a sentence of just over two years, while André Mendonça recommended just over 7 years in prison – the latter two were nominated to the Supreme Court by Jair Bolsonaro.

• JANUARY 8 ATTACK. Pereira's conviction is just the first trial of those accused of participating in the failed coup d'état attempt on January 8. The Supreme Court divided those responsible for the coup among protagonists, financiers, and creators of the actions that culminated in the occupation and destruction of the seats of power of the executive, legislative and judiciary branches of government. The coup plotters are far-right militants who Bolsonaro encouraged to act. Several ongoing investigations are attempting to associate Bolsonaro with the failed coup attempt, but the former president is not a defendant in the current cases.

• INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in an interview with journalists in India during the G20 meeting that he did not know about the International Criminal Court, of which Brazil is a member. The Brazilian president also questioned the fact that the major powers, such as the United States, are not signatories of the Rome Statute, which created the Court, and are not subject to its jurisdiction. Lula's speech was motivated by a question about whether Brazil would arrest and hand over Russian President Vladimir Putin to this body, as he has been charged with a war crime. Afterwards, Minister of Justice Flávio Dino reiterated his criticism of the asymmetry between countries that accept and those do not accept being subject to the court’s jurisdiction. It was up to the Minister of Human Rights Silvio Almeida to say that Brazil does not plan to withdraw from the treaty, although he criticizes the asymmetries.

• OPERATION CAR WASH.  On Monday, September 11, the National Association of Public Prosecutors appealed the decision of Supreme Court Justice Dias Toffoli to throw out the evidence arising from the leniency agreement with the construction company Odebrecht in Lava Jato (Car Wash) investigations. Toffoli said that the evidence generated by these agreements is useless, which opened the possibility of overturning several convictions not only in Brazil but in other countries, such as the United States, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, in which sentences were given based on information from Odebrecht. The company was accused of having paid US$788 million in bribes in twelve countries.

• NEW HOSPITALIZATION. Bolsonaro was admitted on September 11 to a private hospital in São Paulo to treat digestive disorders and a deviated septum. Medical experts interviewed by the press say that it is unlikely that the surgeries have anything to do with the stab wound that Bolsonaro received when he was on the campaign trail in 2018. Before being hospitalized, the former president said he was not afraid of public revelations by his former aide-de-camp, Army Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, who was arrested for forging vaccination cards, including Bolsonaro's card, and has now entered a plea bargain agreement with the Federal Police.

NEWS FROM SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS AND MOVEMENTS:

DEAD AND MISSING. The need to reestablish the Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances in Brazil was the subject of an article published by the Paulo Abrão, the executive director of the WBO, and three other experts on September 11 in the newspaper Folha de São Paulo. The body was closed down under Jair Bolsonaro's government, and the Lula government is taking a long time to put it back into operation. Signing the article with Abrão were Belisário dos Santos, from the Arns Commission; Pedro Dallari, former coordinator of the National Truth Commission; and Sirlene Assis, President of the Tortura Nunca Mais Group in Bahia.

AGAINST THE COUP. The actions of Brazilian civil society to prevent a coup d'état in Brazil in 2022 were the subject of a debate held on Tuesday, September 12 at the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University. The panelists were Paulo Abrão, executive director of the WBO, and Rogério Sottili, executive director of the Vladimir Herzog Institute.

SOU DA PAZ INSTITUTE. The Sou da Paz Institute has documented that the use of cameras on the uniforms of police officers in the State of São Paulo led to a 44 percent reduction in the number of deaths caused by police actions among young people aged 15 to 24 between 2018 and 2022. The data reinforces the importance of maintaining the use of these cameras, despite statements to the contrary by the São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas.

Feature Article

by Maria Sylvia de Oliveira

Why Lula Should Nominate a Black Woman to the

Supreme Court

Ever since the retirements of Supreme Court Justices Ricardo Lewandowski and Minister Rosa Weber were announced, there has been an expectation that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva would nominate at least one woman, and that she would be Black, to occupy one of these seats.

Expectations are valid. In its 132 years of existence, only three women, and all of them have been white, have sat on the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF), which has eleven members. In these 132 years, no Black woman was even considered as a possibility of taking a seat on Brazil’s highest court.

On the date of his inauguration, President Luiz Inácio da Silva walked up the ramp of the President Palace accompanied by representatives of the country’s discriminated populations, which included a Black woman and a Black child, signaling that his government would pay attention to these people who helped re-elect him to the presidency. In his inauguration speech, Lula said: “It is unacceptable that we continue to live with prejudice, discrimination, and racism.” It is time for President Lula himself to take the first step in confronting racism in Brazil by nominating a Black woman to the Supreme Court. We can no longer live on symbolism alone.

A truly democratic country must mirror the society as a whole in its institutions, and it must be responsive to the population. Therefore, it is extremely important to defend diversity in the highest court in the country and, more than that, defend the appointment of a Black woman to a vacancy on the STF.

The position requires the nominee to have outstanding and widely recognized legal knowledge and an unblemished reputation, adjectives that are common among Black jurists, practitioners of the law, and many of whom are recognized internationally for their work. They do not lack competence.

It is extremely important to change our perspective on the judicial system so that it will truly guarantee justice. Justices on the Supreme Court must see the Federal Constitution as an instrument for transforming society, and their legal interpretations must reflect a commitment to concretely guaranteeing the principle of equality, which includes seeking the emancipation of discriminated groups. True justice, equity, solidarity, and well-being are non-negotiable values.

The recent episode involving Sônia Maria de Jesus, a 49-year-old Black woman, deaf and mute, who since the age of 9 was engaged in domestic work considered to be “analogous” to slavery is a case in point. She labored in the home of Judge Jorge Luiz Borba of the Santa Catarina State Court of Justice, a man who should have complied with the laws. However, Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça ordered that the victim had to return to Borba’s home. This example shows us why there is a pressing need to guarantee racial plurality on the Supreme Court.

The Inter-American Convention Against Racism, Racial Discrimination and Related Forms of Intolerance, which was approved by the Congress as decree No. 10,932 in January 2022 with the status of a constitutional amendment, states in article 9: “The different states must undertake to ensure that their political and legal systems adequately reflect the diversity of the society in order to meet the legitimate needs of all sectors of the population in accordance with the scope of this Convention.” The appointment of a Black woman to the Brazilian Supreme Court, therefore, is supported by an international convention to combat racism.

On the other hand, the National Council of Justice, aware of the need for profound changes in the judicial system, launched the National Judiciary Pact for Racial Equity, which consists of the “adoption of programs, projects, and initiatives to be developed in all areas of the judiciary and in all jurisdiction, with the aim of combating and correcting racial inequalities, through affirmative, compensatory, and reparatory measures to eliminate structural racism within the scope of the judiciary.”

The attacks that are being directed at the campaign and its creators to sensitize society and President Lula in favor of the appointment of a Black woman to the STF are proof that sectors of the so-called democratic and progressive Left are racist and cannot conceive of Black women anywhere other than in complete subalternity. It is urgent and necessary for the Brazilian State, now in the person of President Lula, to take a step towards dismantling systemic and institutional racism.

“States must show stronger political will to accelerate action for racial justice, redress the past and create equality through specific, time-bound commitments to achieve results,” says Michelle Bachelet in the Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Rights Human. This entails the “promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms of African and Afro-descendant people against the excessive use of force and other human rights violations by police officers.”

President Lula has in his hands the opportunity to set an example by appointing a Black woman to the Federal Supreme Court, providing reparatory justice, and making a mark on the country's history.

Maria Sylvia de Oliveira is a lawyer, coordinator of Policies for the Promotion of Gender and Race Equality at Geledès-Instituto da Mulher Negra and a Master’s student in the Postgraduate Program in Humanities, Rights and Other Legitimacies – Diversitas at the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences of the University of São Paulo (FFLCH/USP).

Feature articles express the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or WBO.