Human Rights in Prisons

From the World section, the Toronto Star, Friday, November 23, 2007, page AA3, an article about a terrible story of human rights abuse in Brazil in a prison involving a teenage girl and rape:

GIRL RAPED AFTER BEING PUT IN CELL FULL OF MEN
Assaulted repeatedly in month-long ordeal

Brasilia - A 15-year-old girl thrown in a jail cell with more than 20 men for a month was raped relentlessly and forced to have sex for food, human rights groups representing the just-released girl said yesterday.

"She was raped from day one," at the jail in Para state, a Children and Adolescent Defence Centre spokesperson said, adding that the number of men in the cell varied from 20 to 34 while the girl, a robbery suspect, was there.

"She was raped innumerable times and forced to exchange sexual relations for food," said Miere Cohen, president of the Order of Brazilian Lawyers Human Rights Commission.

The case has sparked outrage across Brazil, especially since it closely followed an incident involving a 23-year-old woman, also jailed in Para state for on month, who was put in with 70 men.

The teen, whose identity was not disclosed, was arrested in the state capital Abaetetuba Oct. 21 and held at a police station jail until an anonymous caller tipped off the media.

"Nobody really knows what she was charged with. She was a suspect in a robbery but police were unable to tell us which robbery. There was no formal charge," Cohen said.

The girl's lawyers said police at one point said they believed the suspect was not a minor.

"Whether she was 15, 20, 50, 80 or 100 doesn't matter. A woman should not have been kept in a jail cell with men," Para Governor Ana Julia Carepa told reporters, adding she would mete out "exemplary punishment" in the case.
Agence France-Presse