RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Needed – National Policies on Missing Persons

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 1 1999 (IPS) - Although an estimated 204,000 people went missing from their homes and communities last year, Brazil has no national public policies to address the problem, according to a report by the National Human Rights Movement (NHRM).

The problem is a global one, which affects industrialised nations as well.

In Canada, for example, which heads the world in terms of human development according to the United Nations Development Programme, the number of people that go missing is similar to the Brazilian rate in relative terms, said Romeu Olmar Klich, president of the NHRM, a network of over 300 non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The difference is that Brazil has basically no public policies for searching for missing persons and prevention, the Presbyterian pastor pointed out.

Brazil “has a national register of stolen vehicles, but none of missing people” – an indication of a cultural distortion by which more value is put on material property than on human beings, according to Klich.

But the state’s failure to act is beginning to be redressed. The Ministry of Justice has set up a commission to discuss the measures to be taken. The governmental National Secretariat of Human Rights, parliamentarians, public safety authorities and the NHRM will all take part in the commission.

The attempt at diagnosing the problem, which began with the NHRM study, is not yet complete. The movement, a nationwide network of NGOs, is currently preparing a second report outlining the causes of the problem, a profile of those who go missing, and the ratio of how many reappear.

The first study was based on the collection of data from police, juvenile courts and other institutions where reports of missing people are registered. It covered the first half of 1998, and came up with a total of 102,297 missing people.

Klich explained that the estimated annual total for last year was obtained by doubling that figure.

The study found that over half of those who went missing were between the ages of 12 and 25.

Among the middle-class, the most common reason youngsters went missing was that they ran away from home due to family conflicts or on a search for adventure and freedom, in response to a rebellious urge, according to Klich.

Among the poor, most went missing in a context of crime, either as criminal offenders fleeing justice, or as the victims of unsolved murders. Other common causes were mental problems like memory loss, abduction of infants for illegal adoption, and child prostitution.

Rates vary widely in Brazil. In Tocantins, a state in full- fledged process of construction which thus attracts a large number if immigrants, 139.3 per 100,000 inhabitants go missing, compared to just 20.1 in Rio de Janeiro.

Most missing persons are male. But in two impoverished northeastern states, females account for a majority: 63.16 percent in Paraíba and 52.05 pecent in Sergipe.

The exceptions may be largely a consequence of child prostitution, said Klich, who cited the recent example of a 16- year-old girl who was sexually exploited for three years in Paraguay. With the help of a TV station, Klich was able to reunite her with her family in northern Brazil.

“Disappearance is a problem of the state and of human rights,” he said, lamenting that Brazilian laws failed to address the problem, that police acted only when there were signs of criminal activity, and that there was no information-sharing among the various entities that could collaborate in searches.

Nationwide there are only three police stations specialising in missing persons: in Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre and Sao Paulo, all large state capitals.

In recommendations presented to the government, the NHRM suggested that specialised offices be set up in all of Brazil’s 27 states, where reports of missing persons could be registered in modern, centralised databases and information shared.

The network also recommended that police receive special training to deal with the problem of missing persons, and that the media be involved in searches.

Local initiatives are attempting to fill the gap until a national system is set up. In Rio de Janeiro, the Foundation for Childhood and Adolescence, with the support from the state government, implemented the “SOS Missing Children” project three years ago.

The results have been encouraging. Of 1,007 cases, 671 – or two- thirds – have been solved, said Zildenia Gomes, head of the programme.

The project’s success, she said, could largely be chalked up to the use of a computer system entailing a register containing photos and detailed information, as well as to cooperation by the media.

“Soon we’ll be able to ‘update’ the photos of the missing person” to have an idea of how they would look at their current age, thanks to computer techniques widely used in industrialised nations, she added.

The project, however, only takes on cases of people who go missing before their 19th birthday, with a cut-off age of 21 for the disabled.

Street posters with photos of missing persons, special phone lines to receive denunciations and information, and speakers who visit schools and local communities are other methods used by SOS Missing Children.

The phenomenon shot into the public spotlight a few years ago when a hugely popular soap opera addressed the issue, and even aired photos of missing persons, which helped many to be found. But the initiative was not continued after the TV show ended.