Brazil is a constitutional federal republic with a population of approximately million. While civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces, members of the security forces committed numerous, serious human rights abuses, primarily at the state level. The federal government generally respected the human rights of its citizens; however, there continued to be numerous serious abuses, and the record of several state governments was poor.
The following human rights problems were reported: beatings, abuse, and torture of detainees and inmates by police and prison security forces; inability to protect witnesses involved in criminal cases; poor prison conditions; prolonged pretrial detention and inordinate delays of trials; attacks on the media by local authorities and organized crime; violence and discrimination against women; violence against children, including sexual abuse; trafficking in persons; discrimination against indigenous people and minorities; significant obstacles to persons with disabilities; failure to either apply or enforce labor laws; and child labor in the informal sector.
In most cases human rights violators enjoyed impunity for crimes committed. The government or its agents did not commit politically motivated killings, but unlawful killings by state police military and civil were widespread. There continued to be a high rate of police killings. Police retaliation for Sao Paulo prison riots exemplified the continued pattern of impunity. Government officials including the president acknowledged the continued severity of the problem of unlawful killings by law enforcement officials.
The Sao Paulo State Secretariat for Public Security SPS reported that Sao Paulo police civil and military killed civilians in the first six months of the year, compared with during the same period of ; off-duty policemen were responsible for 31 of the killings. Incidents of police shootings in Sao Paulo that resulted in deaths were concentrated in poor neighborhoods at the periphery of the greater metropolitan area. The sharp increase in police attacks occurred between May and August in response to gang violence and prison riots that overtook the city.
The prison-based organized crime group, the First Capital Command or Primeiro Comando da Capital PCC , organized a series of armed attacks against law enforcement officials, police stations, buses, and bank agencies and organized riots that broke out simultaneously in 71 state prisons.
