Alessandra Bastos
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília – In 1989, Brazil ratified the UN Convention on Torture and Cruel. Inhuman or Degrading Treatment. In 1996, the country began implementing a National Human Rights Program. And, in 2002, a second Human Rights program began. Now, the government is laying the groundwork for an Integrated Action Plan to Prevent and Control Torture with a pilot project in eight states.

Under the new plan, states will be able to deal with the problem of torture independently. The coordinator of the Permanent Commission on Combating Torture and Instutuional Violence (Comissão Permanente de Combate à Tortura e à Violência Institucional) at the Special Secretariat for Human Rights (SEDH), Pedro Montenegro, in an Agência Brasil.interview declared that each of the eight states in the pilot project, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Espírito Santo, Distrito Federal, Acre, Pará, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul, will begin a round of panel discussions on the issue.

The plan can be consulted by the public on the internet at "http://www.sedh.gov.br" . Suggestions can be made between now and the end of this year.

Translation: Allen Bennett