Above: 2008 JusticeMaker Fellow Aziz Saliba. (Photo by Michelle Ferng.)

July 7th marked the first day Dr. Aziz Saliba, a 2008 JusticeMaker Fellow with International Bridges to Justice, began filming his video project on the right to habeas corpus. When asked ‘why habeas corpus?,’ Dr. Aziz Saliba responded, “This is a low cost project. It can reach many communities inside and outside of prison. It has an immediate impact to get people out of prison. It also sustains long term change to prevent illegal detainment in the future.”

Dr. Saliba noted anyone can write a petition for habeas corpus to help avoid illegal detainment. He noted, “One inmate wrote a petition for habeas corpus using his own blood on cigarette paper. Another spent years in prison that could’ve been avoided if he or his family had exercised this right.”

Eron, the President of Divifoco, the company producing Dr. Saliba’s DVD, said the project should be finished within weeks and distribution can begin by the end of the month.

Aziz hopes to make a difference by making it easier for people to both learn about their right to habeas corpus and for communities to exercise this right more often. This first video is meant to reach as many people as possible and is directed toward a lay audience with no experience in law or legal training. However, Dr. Saliba is working on a second video that is meant more for district attourneys, prosecutors and judges regarding the Inter-American Court. Ms. Cecilia Neves Silveira is Dr. Saliba’s assistant on this project and has been instrumental in coordinating both the IBJ journalists schedules and putting together the necessary programming and contacts for Dr. Saliba’s video on the Inter-American Court.

Ms. Neves Silveira explained to us why the Inter American Court is important for Brazilian citizens by highlighting the particular case of Maria da Penha. Penha was a woman whose husband twice attempted to kill her. Her case took so long that the man went un-punished. Her case was taken to the Inter American Commission of Human Rights, established a new law improving the rights of women, and helped reform Brazil’s national criminal code. In this way, the Inter American Court works with individual citizens to improve the defense of their basic human rights.

Dr. Saliba’s second DVD will be produced within the next two months and will be distributed to lawyers throughout the country.

(Photo by Michelle Ferng.)

Above: Eron(top left), owner of the production company, and his assistant preparing the set for the filming. (Photo by Michelle Ferng.)

Faiçal, director of Universidade de Itaúna, narrating the script for the habeas corpus DVD. (Photo by Michelle Ferng.)

Last week, IBJ documentary journalist Danny Thiemann and I had the chance to visit two prisons in Divinopolis, Brazil, where IBJ Fellow Aziz Saliba is working on a legal justice awareness campaign. The first, Presídio Floramar, is an adult prison designed for 250 inmates, though it currently holds approximately 500. The second, Centro Socio-educativo, is a youth reeducation center that accommodates less than 50 people. Both are considered to be among the better prisons currently operating in the country.

Dr. Saliba is hoping to send his educational DVDs on the right to habeas corpus to the same prisons and the communities from where the inmates come from.

Captions written by Danny Thiemann and Michelle Ferng

Guards are posted outside a workroom at Presídio Floramar where prisoners sew uniforms for inmates across Brazil. Half the wages they earn are pocketed and the other half go towards maintaining the prison.

On the other side of the bars, prisoners work together in a common room.

A defense lawyer meets with her client. Many of inmates in Brazil are unlawfully detained yet unaware of their rights to habeas corpus, a legal action deterring the illegal imprisonment of themselves or another person.

Upon arrival at Presídio Floramar in Divinópolis Brazil prisoners are given a standard set of clothes and personal items. Individuality is far from encouraged in the adult prison, in contrast to the prison system for adolescents, where inmates between 12-18 are allowed to wear their own clothes.

A small team of professionals designs educational courses for math, reading and writing at Floramar Prison. As the picture shows classes have spotty attendance and most educational materials are re-used donated materials.

Prisoners are given time during the day to sunbathe in a courtyard at Floramar Prison in Divinópolis, Brasil. After being counted, they are allowed to move freely about the courtyard. Some chant, sing to themselves or talk with the guards, but they are on the whole much quieter than the inmates at the adolescent jail next door.

A man guards the Director of Security as he gives the IBJ team a tour of Floramar Prison in Divinópolis Brazil.

Prisoners are allowed an conjugal visit from a legally registered wife or husband every fifteen days.

From left to right: Director of Security Cabo Eduardo, Prosecutor Alessandro Garcia Silva, Prosecutor Carlos José e Silva Fortes, and Ms. Vanda, a lawyer who was meeting with clients at Floramar. The team gave IBJ journalists a tour of Floramar Prison.

A woman stands guard at Floramar Prison in Divinópolis, Brazil that holds both male and female inmates and employs both male and female guards throughout the prison.

Prisoners hang their laundry at Presídio Floramar in Divinópolis.

A woman at Floramar Prison in Divinópolis, Brazil receives some time alone in the same courtyard pictured above.

A woman looks out of her cell in Floramar Prison located in Divinópolis, Brazil. 27 female inmates are included amongst 373 male prisoners in a facility that is twice over capacity.

An inmate washes dishes in the kitchen at Floramar Prison. Administrative staff, guards, and prisoners all eat the same meal, which is prepared daily.

Racial stereotypes and racial profiling have long been issues challenging the penal systems in Brazil. In this photo a handcuffed inmate consults with his lawyer beside Floramar’s open courtyard — a rare exception, noted Dr. Saliba’s assistant, Cecilia Neves Silveira, to the race relations observed in most prisons.

General Director (right) and the Director of Security (left) at Floramar Prison, accompanied by a guard, consult in the main courtyard.


Meanwhile, across the street at the adolescent prison, a woman watches the cameras in the facility. Here, the staff is keen to reduce the presence of guards and relies more on recorded video for supervision.

A basketball court also serves as a soccer field for inmates. Administrative staff note that every time a soccer ball is shot over the prison walls, the inmates immediately go to work repairing it once the ball is retrieved because the state does not have enough resources to send new recreational materials.

An art room at Centro Socio-educativo displays inmates’ artwork, showing a range of subjects and inspirations.

A security guard tours the cells. Guards at this youth detention center do not use guns and are restricted in their ability to use physical force when enforcing compliance.

Prosecutor Carlos José e Silva Fortes extends his hand to reassure a young client at Centro Socio-educativo.

Imprisonment does not dampen the youthful spirits of inmates, as one young man reaches out spontaneously to pose for the camera.

Above: Female prisoners work with donated library resources at the at Floramar Prison. (Photo by Michelle Ferng)

Paul Aussaresses was born in Saint-Paul-Cap-de-Joux of Tarn. In the prison libraries of Floramar, Brazilian prisoners may read his biography beginning with the Free French Forces, his role as the main executioner for Jaques Massu in the Battle of Algiers, and end with his legacy of death squads in Brazil that suspended the right to Habeus Corpus, also known as “The Great Writ.”

Aussaresses’ legacy continues to influence what Prosecutor Alessandro Garcia Silva calls a Brazilian culture that “perceives prisoners as enemies of the State.” Encouraging this culture was integral to Aussaresses’ program that normalized the suspension of rights such as Habeus Corpus in Brazil.  Habeus Corpus is a legal action that allows a person to seek relief from unlawful detention of themselves or another person. Habeus Corpus was suspended under the military dictatorships, especially under Aussaresses, and was not re-instated until 1978 under General Geisal.

Captain Eduardo, Director of Security at Presidio Floramar, a prison for adult offenders, said that prisoners in their libraries read Ausseresses’ biography which continues to influence their circumstances with the cynicism that because of him they have little influence over their own history. And so prisoners enlist in art class, they tell stories, they write fictions that narrate their own circumstances.

Prosecutor Alessandro Garcia Silva noted there is a lack of political will to improve conditions in the prisons. The art classes continue.

Prisoners tell the same fictions as before with the same re-used material until in Bairro Niteroi, or in Rio, a man so influenced by Aussaresses has begun an autobiography as if he was Aussaresses. According to General Manuel Contreras, Aussaresses maintains close links with the Brazilian military though he has been stripped of his Légion d´honneur and lost much credibility and respect in the international community. Aussaresses’ story is not too disimillar from that of the lost characters in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel, Autumn of the Patriarch, a story described in the author´s words as “a poem on the solitude of power.” For those in prison who read Ausseresses they might understand solitude, though they know no poetry, only the deficits of power.

Informing the public about their rights to Habeus Corpus is especially important as Brazil is just beginning to officially recognize human rights violations. Republic Presidency Special Commission of Human Rights released in 2007 a groundbreaking work entitled ‘The Right to Truth and Memory.’ As one of International Bridges to Justice’s 2008 JusticeMakers Fellows, Dr. Aziz Saliba will soon begin production of a DVD that educates Brazilians about their right to Habeus Corpus. Michelle and I have only spent two days in Brazil but have already seen so much and are excited to begin working with Aziz on his project.

Aziz Saliba, our JusticeMakers fellow from Brazil, has been awarded an Arthur Helton Fellowship from the American Society of International Law. Helton Fellowships provide financial assistance in the form of “micro-grants” for law students and young professionals to pursue field work and research on significant issues involving international law, human rights, humanitarian affairs, and related areas. The Fellowship ensures the support of the ASIL in other areas as well; they have offered to send Aziz photos and other relevant materials to assist in the production of his educational courses, which will be available on DVDs and on the internet. In addition, the Fellowship gives Aziz the opportunity to visit the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.