Strategic litigation and advocacy:
Prison and educational systems
 

Conectas’ strategic litigation project aims to destabilize the institutional practice of systematic human rights abuses, especially in juvenile and adult prison systems. 

Since 2003, the organization has worked to defend and guarantee the rights of adolescents held in the juvenile system´s facilities of Fundação Casa (formerly known as Febem) in the state of Sao Paulo, in partnership with other human rights organizations. 

Over the past 7 years, Conectas has filed 65 compensation lawsuits and administrative proceedings in cases involving torture or death in the facilities of Fundação Casa/Febem. It has managed to raise compensation levels for death from 30 to 300 times the minimum monthly wage and it also succeeded in obtaining the first pension for a mother of one of the victims. 

In 2007, Conectas also began working with the adult prison system, where systematic human rights violations occur.

Conectas is responsible for more than 15 other legal cases involving police violence and the prison system – some of them using the UN and regional human rights systems.

In 2009 and 2010, in partnership with other organizations, Conectas mobilized to combat the abuses occurring in the prison system in the state of Espírito Santo. (Click here to read the report in Portuguese). Civil society reported the situation to Brazilian authorities, to the UN and to Inter-American Human Rights System. After holding a side event to the session of the UN Human Rights Council, these serious violations were given national and international exposure, bringing it to the attention of public opinion. The government was compelled to recognize the problem and to present some solutions, namely to halt the use of ‘metal cells/containers’, stop imprisoning people in police stations and reduce overcrowding. Nevertheless, the system still presents serious problems that need to be resolved by the public authorities engaging in dialogue and working together with Brazilian civil society. 

Conectas is currently focusing its efforts on combating the abusive use of pre-trial detention. It is part of a network of nine Brazilian organizations that are working on the issue. In 2011, Conectas, in partnership with the Instituto Sou da Paz and Pastoral Carcerária, established a permanent representation in the Brazilian capital, Brasília, to monitor the initiatives of the Executive and Legislative branches of government on criminal justice.