Abusive body searches will be forbidden in prisons of Rio

Geneva, 14 march 2015. The World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) andJustiça Global (JG) welcome the approval of the draft bill 77/2015 thatabolishes notoriously abusive body searches to the visitors of the criminaljustice prisons in the state of Rio.

The bill co-authored by the members of the local parliament Marcelo Freixo (from theleft wing PSOL party) and Jorge Picciani (from the right wing PMDB party) wasapproved this Tuesday, March 10, and changes the way to conduct body searchesfor visitors of the penitentiary system in the State of Rio de Janeiro. According to thenew law, the searches will be conducted through electronic security equipment, suchas metal detectors and corporal scanners, abolishing the manual body search.

Several human rights bodies have condemned intimate body searches, known fortheir abusive, humiliating and degrading nature. In Rio they consist in obligingprisoner relatives, including children and elderly people, in days of visitation, toremove their clothes, squat down several times in front of a mirror and enduremanual cavity searches of their genitals.

The OMCT and JG, with the presence of an invited member of the United NationsSubcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, Emilio Gines, held a meeting last week,during OMCT’s mission to the country, with the president of the Rio Parliament Mr.Picciani, requesting his draft bill to be voted by the Parliament. OMCT and JusticiaGlobal had highlighted that the way the humiliating and arbitrary nature of thesearches carried out victimize the family of prisoners, and creates obstacles for themto visit children deprived of liberty, violating their right to family life.

“What characterizes abusive body searches is the violation of the human dignity andthe extension of human rights violations present in the prison system and juvenilejustice system to the relatives of the detainees. In several cases, the adult detaineeand the child deprived of liberty ask for the end of the family visits so their relativeswon’t have to go through this humiliating and degrading process. The abusive bodysearch manifest itself as a complex violation that reaches different people in severalrights such as privacy, family life, among others, being a State mechanism for theproduction of trauma, abandonment and violence.” Said Natália Damazio, fromJustiça Global, member of the SOS torture network.

“The approval of this draft bill is an important step that should pave the way forsimilar laws in all states of Brazil, and including juvenile detention units.These searches have a record of abuse and have been considered by the United Nationsand the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights as inhuman and degradingtreatment, that may amount to torture, depending on the circumstances.” SaysCarolina Bárbara, coordinator of child rights activities at OMCT.

The OMCT and JG calls upon the government of the state of Rio de Janeiro tosanction the new law that abolishes abusive body searches in the prison system andto the Parliament of the state of Rio de Janeiro (Assembléia Legislativa) to approvethe PL 76/15 that extends the measure to the juvenile justice system.

Contact Information:

In Switzerland- OMCT, Carolina Barbara, Tel. +41 (0) 22 809 49 39, E-mail: cb@omct.org

In Rio de Janeiro- Justiça Global, Isabel Lima, Tel. +552125442320, E-mail:

isabel.lima@global.org.br