AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2016/17

de Janeiro, namely the Pan American Games
in 2007 and the FIFA World Cup in 2014.
Tens of thousands of military and security
officers were deployed around Rio de
Janeiro. The number of people killed by the
police in the city of Rio de Janeiro in the
immediate run-up to the games between
April and June increased by 103% compared
to the same period in 2015.
During the Olympic Games (5-21 August),
police operations intensified in specific areas
of Rio de Janeiro, including the favelas of
Acari, Cidade de Deus, Borel, Manguinhos,
Alemão, Maré, Del Castilho and Cantagalo.
Residents reported hours of intensive
shootings and human rights abuses including
unlawful searches of homes, threats and
physical assaults. The police admitted to
killing at least 12 people during the Games in
the city of Rio de Janeiro and to engaging in
217 shootings during police operations in the
state of Rio de Janeiro. 2
During the Olympic torch relay throughout
the country, peaceful protests in Angra dos
Reis and Duque de Caxias – both in Rio de
Janeiro state – were met with unnecessary
and excessive use of force by the police.
Rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas
were used indiscriminately against peaceful
protesters and passers-by, including children.
On 10 May, the so-called “General Law of
the Olympics” (13.284/2016) was signed by
President Rousseff, amid concerns that it
might impose undue restrictions to freedoms
of expression and peaceful assembly,
contrary to international human rights
standards. Under the provisions of the new
law, dozens of people were expelled from
sports facilities for wearing T-shirts with
slogans, carrying flags, or other signs of
protest during the first days of the Games. On
8 August, a federal court ruled against the
prohibition of peaceful protests inside the
Olympic facilities.
On 5 August, the day of the opening
ceremony, a peaceful protest over the
negative impacts of the Games took place
near Maracanã stadium, Rio de Janeiro, and
was repressed with unnecessary force by the
police, who used tear gas to disperse
protesters in a square where children were
playing. Most police officers policing the
protest were not properly identified as such.
On 12 August, also near Maracanã
stadium, a protest led mainly by students was
severely repressed by the military police, who
used unnecessary and excessive force.
Around 50 protesters, mostly under the age
of 18, were detained and one was injured. At
the end of the year some of the detainees
were being investigated under the Fan
Defence Statute, which makes it a crime to
disturb order or provoke violence within a
5km radius of a sports facility.
UNLAWFUL KILLINGS
Killings by the police remained high and
increased in some states. In the state of Rio
de Janeiro, 811 people were killed by the
police between January and November.
There were reports of several police
operations which resulted in killings, most of
them in favelas. A few measures were
adopted to curb police violence in Rio de
Janeiro but had yet to produce an impact.
Following a resolution from the National
Council of Public Prosecution, on 5 January
the Public Prosecution Office of Rio de
Janeiro state created a working group to
oversee police activities and the investigation
of killings committed by the police. The Civil
Police announced that the investigations of
all cases of killings by the police would be
progressively transferred to the specialized
homicide division.
Most cases of killings by the police
remained unpunished. Twenty years after the
unlawful killing of a two-year-old during a
military police operation in 1996 in the favela
of Acari, Rio de Janeiro city, no one had been
held to account. On 15 April the statute of
limitations for the crime expired. In October
the first public hearing with regard to the
killings of 26 people during police operations
in the favela Nova Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro
city, in October 1994 and May 1995 was held
before the Inter-American Court of Human
Rights. The killings had yet to be investigated
and nobody had been brought to justice.
92 Amnesty International Report 2016/17