SOCIETY-BRAZIL: Problems with Paperwork

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

James Allen Paranayba and Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 21 1999 (IPS) - At least five million people, alive and living in Brazil, do not exist as far as authorities are concerned because they have no birth certificates.

These luckless citizens from very poor communities therefore have been excluded from all social benefits in Brazil – a situation which the National Programme of Human Rights (PNDH) is attempting to overcome by providing legal assistance to those people lacking personal documents.

All told, about 50 million Brazilians face problems with authorities over their lack of papers – be it birth certificates or documents confirming their identity, employment, tax status and deaths in the family.

Patricia Audi, the coordinator for PNDH, gives an example the state of Amapa, in the far north of the country, where 63 percent of the population lacks basic documentation.

Besides those people lacking birth certificates, many deaths are not legally formalised- either through simple omission or the inability to pay the cost of the death certificate.

A 1977 law requires that the certificates be given free of charge, but it is often violated since there is no provision for punishment, Audi says. The Chamber of Deputies has approved another law which will impose penalties but it still must be passed by the Senate.

The National Secretary of Human Rights meantime is mpushing for practical solutions, through so-called “legal clinics,” offices that help people get personal documentation and provide free legal assistance to poor populations, Audi explains.

The project has the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and is being carried out through agreements with a wide variety of both state and civilian institutions.

In the northeastern state of Pernambuco, the Justice Secretary has been in charge of setting up the legal clinics, which have already helped some 45,000 people. In Parana, in the south, the state government has also taken on this task and has provided about 13,000 citizens with documentation.

In other states, the judiciary has been charged with carrying out the project, while in the southern state of Rio Grande del Sur, its coordinator is a local university, which mobilised its law students to conduct polls, and provide legal assistance and training to community leaders.

The project has even penetrated the deep interior of the Amazon, with the help of a non-governmental environmental organisation, the Amazon Working Group, which has already given documentation to 2,000 residents, Audi emphasised.

A legal clinic was installed in a heavily wooded environmental preservation area, making it necessary to offer food and shelter to clients who had come from far away to obtain identity papers.

In total, 70,000 people were given identity documents last year through the project, of which Audi, as one of the coordinators of PNDH, is in charge.

In Rio de Janeiro, there are 14 legal clinics operated by the non-governmental organisation Viva Rio, the majority of which are located in “favelas,” densely populated marginal neighbourhoods in the city.

The clinics began to operate in 1997, initially serving the demand for documents but eventually expanding to provide legal assistance and small claims resolution, with an eye towards reconciliation, says local coordinator of the project, Pedro Strozemberg, a lawyer for 26 years.

The clinic now sees about 6,000 people a year.

Issues regarding family, work, retirement and disputes with neighbours are the most frequent complaints. Nine lawyers coordinate with 18 paid clerks and 26 volunteers, all law students or graduates, to familiarise and assist people in filling out the proper legal forms.

But they also try to resolve internal conflicts in the community.

Strozemberg recalled an adultery case in which a cheating husband agreed to leave the home to his wife and children, but demanded something in return to “soothe his wounded pride.” They reached an agreement in which the wife was not allowed to bring a lover into the house for the first six months.

“That had nothing to do with the law, but dealt with the emotional aspect,” avoiding potential violence, Strozemberg says.

The goal is to combine the law with the idiosyncracies of the population, “to integrate legal language into local culture, to balance formal justice with its application in the community,” explained the expert.

For this reason, the Rio de Janeiro project has hired five community relations agents, chosen from among area residents, and has the voluntary assistance of 50 community leaders. Classes, training and workshops are part of the entire staff’s activities.

The aim is to offer free services, but also to promote greater understanding of citizens’ rights and duties, said Adrian Botafogo, the head of the legal clinic in Pereirao, a small favela of 300 families.

Some of the difficulties faced by the project are the scarcity of funds to build new offices and the occasional interference of drug traffickers. “We already had to close one unit in a ‘favela’ (shanty town) due to pressure from drug dealers, notes Strozemberg.

The project in Rio de Janeiro has already “graduated” to self- sustainability and no longer needs aid from the UNDP, which still supports programmes in Rio Grande Del Sur, for example.

Officials overseeing the project say training and consultancy are the main focus of cooperation. UNDP broadly supports PNDH, and the National Secretary of Human Rights is responsible for proposing specific projects that merit funding, such as witness protection programmes.