Popular Legal Assistance of the Cerrado

The project is a continuation of the initiative, “When pain becomes resistance and resistance becomes justice: Coordination and strengthening of the Goiás Committee for an End to Police Violence”, supported by the Brazil Human Rights Fund as part of its 2013 Selection. The intent is to make it possible to continue the activities of the Goiás Committee for an End to Police Violence, who accompanies legal battles against police investigations, criminal actions and harmful actions stemming from varied demands connected to cases of police violence.

• Accompaniment of judicial demands of human rights violations due to police violence and/or death squads connected to the police;
• Continuation of the mapping of new cases through archiving of news clippings and daily accompaniment of the leading newspapers in the state;
• Public activities and discussion groups among the relatives of people disappeared and/or killed following police apprehension.

The state of Goiás is once again notable in the national news due to cases of human rights violations related to the extermination of homeless people: there have been 51 cases in all. According to investigations by the state Civil Police, the murders are connected, in many cases, to fighting among the homeless persons themselves. Nonetheless, investigations point to the responsibility of death squads including the participation of state military police offers. This situation demands the attention of the Goiás Committee for an End to Police Violence, who since 2006 has been active in a solidarity network and in seeking justice, considering the increasing rate of police-authored homicide, the low rate of punishment and the high rate of case archival, both internally within the police force and in the justice system.

The Popular Legal Assistance of the Cerrado looks to assist so-called “vulnerable groups” mentioned in the National Human Rights Plans, among them, the relatives and victims of police violence, entities who work for the defense and promotion of human rights, rural workers, families affected by the construction of dams, family farmers, indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant groups and quilombo residents, among others, in their demands related to human rights violations and the guarantee of constitutionally based rights.

Popular Legal Assistance of the Cerrado is affiliated with the National Network of Lawyers and Popular Lawyers (RENAP national); Institute of Research, Rights and Social Movements (IPDMS); People's Court (Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo); Network for the Combat Against Violence and Mothers of May (São Paulo); Citizens' Defense Commission (Goiás); Goiano Committee to End Police Violence (Goiás); Public Security Commission of the Order of Attorneys of Brazil (Goiás division of the OAB-GO).