AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2016/17

children – were deported, many without
access to due process of law.
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS
In May the interim federal government
dissolved the Ministry of Women’s Affairs,
Racial Equality and Human Rights and
reduced it to a department within the Ministry
of Justice, causing a significant reduction of
resources and programmes dedicated to
safeguarding women’s and girls’ rights.
A number of studies during the year
showed that lethal violence against
women had increased by 24% over the
previous decade and confirmed that Brazil
was one of the worst Latin American
countries in which to be a girl – especially
due to extremely high levels of gender-based
violence and teenage pregnancy, and low
completion rates of secondary education.
The gang rapes of a girl on 21 May and a
woman on 17 October in Rio de
Janeiro state, drew nationwide attention,
further confirming the state’s failure to
respect, protect and fulfil women’s and girls’
human rights. Between January and
November, there were 4,298 cases of rape
reported in the state of Rio de Janeiro, 1,389
of those in the capital.
The year also marked one decade since
legislation against domestic violence came
into force. The government failed to
rigorously implement the law, however, with
domestic violence and impunity for it
remaining widespread.
CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
In August, one adolescent died and another
six were seriously wounded in a fire in a
juvenile detention centre in the city of Rio de
Janeiro. In September, one adolescent who
had been hospitalized after the incident died
as a result of injuries. The number of
detainees in juvenile detention centres in Rio
de Janeiro increased by 48% during the year,
aggravating an already critical situation of
overcrowding, poor living conditions, as well
as torture and other ill-treatment.
A proposed constitutional amendment to
reduce the age at which children can be tried
as adults from 18 to 16 was still under
consideration in the Senate, despite being
approved by the House of Representatives
in 2015.
1. Brazil: Violence has no place in these games! Risk of human rights
violations at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (AMR 19/4088/2016)
2. Brazil: A legacy of violence: Killings by police and repression of
protest at the Rio 2016 Olympics (AMR 19/4780/2016)
BRUNEI
DARUSSALAM
Brunei Darussalam
Head of state and government: Sultan Hassanal
Bolkiah
Lack of transparency made independent
monitoring of the human rights situation
difficult. The phased implementation of the
amended Penal Code continued. The Code,
which seeks to impose Shari’a law, provides
for the death penalty as well as corporal
punishment that amount to torture and
other ill-treatment for a range of offences. It
also contains provisions which discriminate
against women. The Shari’a legislation
completed its first phase of
implementation. Offences that are
punishable with whipping or death sentence
such as false claims (Article 206), deriding
verses of the Qur’an or Hadith by non-
Muslims (Article 111), and abetting or
attempt to abet, had not been enforced. In
February, the UN Committee on the Rights
of the Child urged the government to repeal
Penal Code amendments which would
impose the death penalty and corporal
punishment on children; and to raise the
minimum age for marriage.
DEATH PENALTY
Although abolitionist in practice, death by
hanging was maintained as punishment for a
number of offences including murder,
terrorism and drug-related crimes. The
amended Penal Code provided for
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