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Brazil
Urgent appeals
161. On 30 January 2004, the Special Rapporteur sent a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, regarding a number of adolescents held at the Tatuapé Centre, São Paulo State. According to the allegations received, they have complained of having been tortured by monitores (warders) in Units 5 and 12 after their transfer from the Franco da Rocha Fundação do Bem-Estar do Menor (FEBEM, Foundation for the Well-Being of Minors), which was closed down in December 2003. During his visit to Brazil in August 2000, the Special Rapporteur on torture visited the FEBEM centre (E/CN.4/2001/66/Add.2, paras. 44 to 53). Upon the arrival of the juvenile inmates at the Tatuapé Centre, they were beaten with sticks and bars and were forced to sit all day in their cells facing the walls, and beaten if they talked. They were forbidden to leave their cells to go to the bathroom and beaten if they soiled their clothes. Monitores are said to have continuously threatened and taunted the adolescents recently transferred from Franco da Rocha and monitored visits from relatives, so that detainees were unable to speak freely of the abuses they had suffered. Two adolescents in Unit 12 were told they would be beaten to death if they reported the abuses. During his visit to Brazil in November 2003, the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography expressed his concerns on allegations of ill-treatment of adolescents detained in juvenile detention centres (E/CN.4/2004/9/Add.2, para. 112).
162. On 15 July 2004, the Special Rapporteur sent a joint urgent appeal with the Chairperson of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, regarding Mr. Ridelmar Guedes de Sá, age 29, District of Caetano II, Floresta, Pernambuco State, Mr. Carlos Sideval Guedes de Sá, age 36, Mr. Paulo de Sá, age 23, and Mr. Valerio Gomes de Sá, age 25, all living in District of Cohab. They are all landworkers, and members of the same family. According to the allegations received, on 31 May 2004, they went together in direction of Ibimirim town, near Floresta, had dinner in Ibirimin, and left the town between 8 and 9 p.m. to return home, but never arrived. On 2 June 2004, some relatives tried unsuccessfully to contact them on their mobile phones. On 4 June, relatives were told by a witness that the men had been seen handcuffed and being put into the back of three cars belonging to military police near Ibimirim on 31 May 2004. Their whereabouts are reportedly unknown since then. Their car has also disappeared. On 7 June 2004, their relatives went to the place where they had last been seen in order to collect more information and evidence. They found some plastic bags with teeth marks and batteries. The relatives also went to Floresta and Ibimirim Police Stations to report the disappearances. The Floresta Regional Police Chief undertook to conduct an investigation. A formal complaint was also filed with the Internal Disciplinary Office of the Social Defence Secretariat, and a letter sent to the State Prosecutor Office, informing them of the facts and requesting the close monitoring of the police inquiry, and protection measures for the victims’ families. The reported disappearance of these four men may be related to the previous detention of Ridelmar Guedes de Sá, who was detained for 20 days in April 2002 in the town of Serra Ttalhada in connection with the death of a military policeman. During his detention, he was beaten and subjected to torture and ill-treatment, under the orders of a military policeman. Since his release, Rindelmar Guedes de Sá had been receiving death threats from policemen.
Observations
163. The Special Rapporteur on torture considers it appropriate to draw attention to the
concerns expressed by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC/C/15/Add.241, para.
40) about the gap between the 1997 Law on Torture, the Penal Code, and the Statute of
Children and Adolescent (ECA) and its implementation, particularly in light of the significant
number of reported cases of torture and ill-treatment of children.
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Bolivia
Burkina Faso
This report has been published by Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights on July 12, 2005.