Friday 11 May 2012

Brazil names truth commission members

After some foot-dragging, Brazil has named the members of its upcoming truth commission (Comissão da Verdade).

They are: Rosa Maria Cardoso da Cunha, who was Dilma Rousseff's lawyer during the dictatorship; José Carlos Dias, a specialist in criminal law and former justice minister; pyschoanalyst and writer Maria Rita Kehl; former attorney general Cláudio Fontelles; José Paulo Cavalcanti Filho, lawyer and writer; Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, professor of political science and former secretary of state for human rights; and Gilson Dipp, minister of the supreme court.

The commission will be tasked with examining the serious human rights violations which took place between 1946 and 1988 and will have two years to prepare its report recommending measures and policies to prevent human rights abuses. That is a seriously long period to cover in that timeframe, I would suggest. 

Dilma Rousseff sanciona lei e cria a Comissão da Verdade (Bom dia Brasil)
Rousseff benennt Mitglieder der Wahrheitskommission (Blickpunkt)

One of the new commissioners, José Paulo Cavalcanti Filho, commented,
"I feel a little scared, but very aware that it is an honour to write a piece of history of the country."


'País tem direito de conhecer a verdade', diz Cavalcanti Filho (G1)

The choice of commissioners has been praised by the human rights organisation Tortura Nunca Mais and by Vera Paiva, whose father Rubens Paiva was disappeared during the dictatorship.

Filha de desaparecido elogia escolha de integrantes (Folha)

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