Comments: Miguel Cardina (CES)

Abstract

During the second half of the twentieth century, in particular since the end of dictatorships in Portugal, Spain and Greece in the 1970s, the democratic transition processes in Latin America and Eastern Europe during the 1980s and the end of Apartheid regime in South Africa in 1991, the question of the right to memory and truth - and transitional justice - went on to gain importance in the political agenda and in social sciences. The Brazilian process of struggle for memory, truth and justice regarding the civil-military dictatorship period (1964-1985) has covered a long and tortuous path to the instatement of the National Truth Commission (CNV), in 2012.

The Brazilian experience has brought as novelty the creation of numerous truth commissions at state, local and sectoral level. In December 2014 the NVC’s work was concluded, with the delivery of the Final Report. In December 2015, Rio de Janeiro’s State Commission of Truth concludes its work. What we found paramount in this experiment were the testimonies of the victims, families and characters involved in serious human rights violations occurred during the dictatorship, as well as recommendations for memory to be a central reference towards the  non-repetition of violations human rights.

The history of Brazil is marked by a systematic, continuous and massive violation of human rights, intensified during the military dictatorship. There is, therefore, a link between the past and the present of human rights violations, which even occur under a Democratic Rule of Law. Understanding this historical process with its socio-political and cultural dimensions is the object of this reflection.

Bio note

João Ricardo Dornelles holds a Degree in Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (1979), MA in Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (1984) and Ph.D. in Social Work at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (2001). He is Professor of the PUC-Rio Graduate Programme in Law. General Coordinator of the Centre for Human Rights of the Department of Law of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, founding member and national director of ANDHEP (National Association of Human Rights - Research and Graduate Studies); CNPQ Researcher; Member of the Commission of Truth of Rio de Janeiro; Researcher at PUC-Rio UNESCO Chair "Human Rights and Violence: Government and Governance"; Former Director of the PUC-Rio Department of Law (2002-2005); founding member of the Red Latinoamericana de Derechos Humanos y Seguridad Pública; member of the Editorial Board and referee at Lumen Juris; member of the Editorial Board of the Federação de Órgãos para Assistência Social e Educacional; vice president of the Jurists Association for the Integration of Latin America, a member of the Carioca Institute of Criminology. Has academic experience (research and teaching) in the fields of Public Law, Criminology, Human Rights and Legal Sociology (emphasis in Public Law). 

Activity within the Doctoral Programme "Human Rights in Contemporary Societies"