UN committee condemns police violence against children in Brazil
Poor children on their way to school 
The United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of the Child released a report criticizing police violence against children and Brazil's structural discrimination targeting blacks, disabled children, indigenous people, and other minorities. According to the UN, the large number of extra-judicial executions by the Military Police, militias, and the Civil Police becomes widespread alongside the amount of perpetrators that go unpunished.
Among the problems mentioned is the close involvement of children in armed conflicts and criminal organizations as a result of poverty, segregation, and school dropout.
Despite the Program for the Protection of Children and Adolescents Threatened with Death, the committee says, Brazil reports one of the world's highest child homicide rates. The amount of children forcibly taken from the streets to juvenile offenders’ institutions without concrete evidence violates the Statute of the Child and Adolescent, and was also the object of criticism.
The report was drawn up by 18 UN independent experts and is based on data provided by the Brazilian government and civil society. The document commends such initiatives as the Mais Médicos, the Bolsa Família, and the Brasil Sem Miséria, but also stressed the need for new measures aimed at enforcing children's rights, especially among black, indigenous and disabled children.
In spite the praise directed at inclusive education policies, the organization also denounces the segregation facing disabled children at school.
The full report, in English, can be found here.
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira
Fonte: UN committee condemns police violence against children in Brazil
