EXECUTIONS

101ANational HumanRights Movement(Movimento Nacionalde Direitos Humanos)Database on ReportedHomicidesIntroductionSince 1992, the National Human Rights Movement (MovimentoNacional de Direitos Humanos MNDH) has maintained a database onhomicides in Brazil. The project began with case documentation in theNortheastern States of Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, andPernambuco and began expanding in 1994 to include, gradually, alltwenty-seven units of the Brazilian Federation (twenty-six states and thefederal district).Successful public security policies will only be formulated whenaccompanied and supported by concrete data that clearly reveal the natureof the violence that plagues Brazil. This realization prompted the MNDHto structure and implement a database on violence that focused specificallyon homicides. The absence of quality data on violence not only interfereswith the potential to develop effective policies but also undermines theability to evaluate the effectiveness of current public security policies.The database provides the MNDH and other relatedorganizations with systematic knowledge on violence/homicides in Braziland thus contributes to the formulation and improvement of publicsecurity policies at the state, regional and national levels. Together withcivil society and the State, the MNDH established this database as areference on violence/homicides in Brazil and a study of their evolution.ContentThe specific focus on reported homicides is motivated, by the factthat this crime constitutes a violation of the most fundamental human