Friday, January 30, 2015

Unicef: Barely 1 in 10 Homicides in Brazil Are Investigated

1/30/2015

RIO DE JANEIRO – Nine out of every 10 homicides in Brazil are not even investigated, Gary Stahl, the Unicef representative in the South American country, told Efe.

Given a statistic like that, “it is very difficult to implement good public policies to solve the problem,” he said.

“At the countrywide level only an average of 6-7 percent of homicides are investigated,” Stahl said. “We won’t be able to implement good public policies until Brazil begins to clarify the causes.”

One of Unicef’s main tasks in Brazil is gathering data on killings of minors and working directly “with all government actors to find the best solutions,” he said.

Stahl called for both legislative and “cultural” changes to implement the policies needed to reduce violence.

Brazil has “a culture of impunity” that can be attributed in good measure to the government itself, Stahl said after presenting the 5th Study of Violence in Adolescents, a detailed report produced by the Brazilian president’s Office of Human Rights and Unicef, among other entities.

“Any public agency collects the data the government requests, but if the government does not ask for such data, nobody will produce it,” he said. “This increase in the number of teenagers killed must end.”

Violence cannot be attributed only to criminals, since police also bear a great deal of responsibility, Stahl said, adding that current legislation prevents the investigation of killings by cops if the officer claims to have fired in self-defense.

“I am not accusing the police,” Stahl said. “I am simply saying that if a police officer says he acted in self-defense, an investigation cannot proceed. That law must be changed.”


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