UN expert reports alarming rates of murder in Brazil despite efforts to end violence

1 June 2010 – Many Brazilians, especially inhabitants of shanty towns, continue to be subject to murder and other forms of brutal violence by various gangs, militias, death squads and the police, despite efforts by the Government to end the crimes, a United Nations independent human rights expert said today.

“When I visited the country two and a half years ago, I found that the police executed suspected criminals and innocent citizens during poorly planned and counter-productive war-style operations into favelas [shanty towns],” said Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions. “Off-duty police, operating in death squads and militias, also killed civilians, either as ‘vigilantes’ or for profit.

Read more at the UN News Centre