Poverty decreased but persisted for more than a quarter of the population. The child mortality rate decreased; maternal deaths disproportionately affected Black women. Deaths from dengue fever and tuberculosis increased. Unemployment decreased; forced evictions and homelessness remained concerning. The education budget was cut. Alarming police violence continued under the banner of the “war on drugs”. Children continued to be at risk of violent death, particularly Black youths. Impunity persisted for human rights violations committed by state agents. Brazil remained one of the most dangerous countries for land rights defenders, especially Indigenous and Quilombola defenders. Trials for the killings of various human rights defenders were ongoing. Deforestation and wildfires continued unabated in the face of the government’s inadequate response. Flooding in Rio Grande do Sul particularly affected vulnerable groups. Attacks against Indigenous and Quilombola communities remained frequent, mostly due to inefficient land demarcation policies. Gender-based violence increased against women and LGBTI people, including femicides and gender-based political violence. Proposed legislation threatened access to abortion.
Background
In June, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) decriminalized the possession of marijuana for personal use up to a limited amount. This was an important but limited step towards the decriminalization of drugs and the mitigation of the disproportionate impact of the drugs trade on vulnerable groups.
The 2024 Violence Atlas report documented 46,328 violent deaths in 2023, mostly by firearms. From 2012 to 2023, a Black person was killed every 12 minutes.
According to a 2024 report by the National Human Rights Council, there had been a staggering 270% rise in the number of neo-Nazi groups in the country between 2019 and 2021.
After being dismantled by the previous administration, memory and truth policies were partially resumed, including the Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances.
The 2024 national budget showed limited investment in certain social policies, especially those of the Ministry of Racial Equality which are aimed at addressing racial inequalities.
Economic, social and cultural rights
The Getúlio Vargas Foundation released data in June showing that poverty had decreased, but 28% of the population were still experiencing poverty in 2023. The latest data from the National Observatory of Inequalities revealed that in 2022 Black people, especially women, earned substantially less than white people.
Right to health
Official data published in 2024 showed that in 2023 3,280 women suffered obstetric maternal deaths, of whom 66% were Black. Infant mortality in 2023 had dropped to the lowest rate in 28 years, with 32,006 deaths, the majority of which were Black children.
In 2024, dengue fever cases surged to 6.6 million, leaving 6,041 people dead, compared with 1.6 million cases and 1,179 deaths in 2023, according to the Ministry of Health. The same ministry reported that in 2023 the death rate from tuberculosis had increased for the second consecutive year.
Recent studies showed that the number of suicides increased by 43% between 2011 and 2022 despite a 36% reduction in suicides worldwide. The highest suicide rate by race/ethnicity was among Indigenous People at around 16.6 per 100,000.
Rights to housing and work
The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics reported a decrease in unemployment, to 7 million unemployed and 3.1 million “discouraged workers” (unemployed workers who have lost hope of finding a job), by the third quarter of 2024. The Institute of Research on Applied Economics reported that employment included 48.3 million informal jobs.
The Zero Eviction (“Despejo Zero”) civil society coalition claimed there were 1.5 million forced evictions between October 2022 and June 2024. No public data on this was available.
The latest data from the unified register database from federal government gave the number of 309,023 rough sleepers in 2024. The Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship only had disaggregated data available from 2023 about race – 68% of homeless people were Black people – and violence against this population, having 6,268 incidents, mostly physical violence.
Right to education
The country faced significant educational challenges. In September, the Ministry of Education’s budget was cut by BRL 1.3 billion (approximately USD 230 million) for the remainder of the year.
Police operations had a significant impact on education. Redes da Maré, an organization based in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, reported that by August 38 police operations had taken place in the Maré area, disrupting 34 days out of 200 in the school year in that area.
After a spike in school violence with 16 episodes in 2023 and seven attacks by October 2024, the government announced new security measures and launched the School Violence Monitoring and Prevention System in April.
Freedom of expression, association and assembly
Data released in 2024 by the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism reported 330 attacks on journalists in 2023, including stigmatization, physical assault, and civil and criminal lawsuits. The majority of the aggressors were state actors, accounting for 55.7% of cases.
Excessive use of force
Alarming police violence persisted under the banner of the “war on drugs”. According to information released in 2024 by the Brazilian Public Security Forum, from 2013 to 2023 there was a 188.9% increase in homicides committed by police, with 6,393 deaths in 2023. Most of the victims were Black and young people, accounting for 82.7% and 71.7% of cases, respectively. Racism was also present in violence against the police, with Black police officers accounting for 69.7% of police deaths by lethal violence.
This level of violence affected police officers’ mental health. The Brazilian Public Security Forum reported that the suicide rate among police officers increased by 26.2% from 2022 to 2023, with a total of 118 cases.
The army was still deployed in Rio de Janeiro state, as it had been since 2010. The Ministry of Justice and Public Security outlined programmes to strengthen external control and oversight of the police.
Children’s rights
Congress discussed proposals to reduce the minimum age of criminal responsibility and extend sentencing periods for children.
Recently released data from UNICEF revealed that between 2021 and 2023 at least 15,101 children were victims of violent deaths. Of these, 82.9% were Black children and adolescents. The mortality risk for Black young people was 4.4 times higher than that of white young people over the same period. In 2023, 900 children and adolescents were killed by police.
In Rio de Janeiro state, the freedom of movement of Black young people was further restricted by Operation Summer, which started in September and was planned to continue until March 2025, despite being suspended by a court ruling. The operation allowed police officers to conduct searches on children and adolescents in certain areas without clearly defined criteria and to refer them to social services.
In April, an important step was taken towards increasing the protection of the rights of children and adolescents. A resolution issued by the National Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents prohibited the confinement of this group in “therapeutic communities” (organizations sheltering people with drug dependence). These institutions are known for several human rights violations.
Impunity
Accountability for human rights violations committed by state agents remained poor. A decade after 19-year-old Johnatha de Oliveira was shot during a police operation in the Manguinhos favela of Rio de Janeiro, the police officer suspected of criminal responsibility for his death was brought to trial before a jury. The jury decided that he had not intended to kill Johnatha, and the case was downgraded to be reviewed by a military court.1 The jury was nullified on appeal. It was agreed that a new trial would take place.
A court acquitted three police officers for the murder of João Pedro Matos, an 11-year-old boy killed inside his home during a police operation in the Complexo do Salgueiro favela in Rio de Janeiro in May 2020.2
In the case of Davi Fiuza, who was forcibly disappeared in São Cristóvão, a neighbourhood in the city of Salvador in Bahia state in 2014, five military police officers were charged with abduction and false imprisonment, out of 17 who were indicted. In October, the Superior Court of Justice maintained the jury’s jurisdiction despite the defendants’ request to be brought to trial before a military court. The case was still awaiting trial.
Human rights defenders
Global Witness highlighted Brazil as the second most dangerous country for land and territorial rights defenders in 2023, particularly Indigenous Peoples. Despite a legal mandate from 2007, a national plan for human rights defenders was still not ready.
From 2020 to May 2024, the National Human Rights Ombudsman received 2,332 complaints regarding violations against human rights defenders. The Protection Programme for Human Rights Defenders operated in fewer than half (10) of the country’s states. In 2024, 1,134 cases were under monitoring, with over half involving Indigenous and Quilombola individuals (traditional people who are descendants of Africans who escaped slavery). Most threats came from landowners, companies and public security agents.
In October, two men were convicted for the killing of councillor and human rights defender Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes in March 2018. The STF accepted the indictment of the individuals accused of ordering the crime, including a congressman and the former head of Rio de Janeiro’s Civil Police, who were arrested. The Ethics Committee of the House of Representatives voted to revoke the mandate of the accused congressman. According to the media, in June the STF opened an investigation into the obstruction of justice targeting a former head of Rio de Janeiro’s state civil police, a former homicide police station chief and a police commissioner in charge of conducting investigations into the crime.
An indictment against the alleged perpetrators of the 2022 murder of environmental activists Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips was pending appeal. An investigation into those who had ordered their killing was ongoing.
Justice progressed for the killings of Quilombola leaders Flávio Gabriel Pacífico dos Santo (“Binho do Quilombo”) in 2017 and his mother Mãe Bernardete Pacífico in 2023. Binho’s alleged killers were arrested and an indictment for Mãe Bernardete Pacífico’s homicide was filed in court.
Right to a healthy environment
According to the National Institute for Space Research, Brazil accounted for 54.5% of South America’s wildfires in 2024, and deforestation in the Cerrado and Amazon zones reached 8,237.9km², primarily on rural lands. Mining activities affected 66.2km², encroaching on protected areas and Indigenous lands. The Ministry for the Environment was unable to provide Amnesty International with a list of mining companies responsible for environmental damage.
The government’s response to wildfires and deforestation during the year was delayed, with major initiatives only starting in June and intensifying in September.
During the year, 58% of Brazil faced the worst drought in 75 years, with a third of the population experiencing severe conditions.
Flooding in Rio Grande do Sul state affected 2.3 million people and displaced 600,000, leading to a state of emergency in 27 cities. Official data reported 806 injuries, 183 deaths and 28 missing resulting from the flood. Vulnerable groups were especially affected, including 16,691 Indigenous People. By August, the state’s health department had reported 788 confirmed cases of leptospirosis and 2,844 cases under investigation, resulting in 26 deaths, alongside 10 outbreaks of acute diarrhoeal disease.
Indigenous Peoples’ rights
Data released in July by the Missionary Indigenous Council revealed that, in 2023, at least 208 Indigenous People were murdered. Additionally, 1,040 Indigenous children up to the age of four died from mostly preventable causes, and 180 suicides were reported.
The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples reported that 652 cases of land conflict were under review by the second half of 2024. In August, violent attacks increased against the Guarani Kaiowá community in Mato Grosso do Sul state and the Ava-Guarani in Paraná state. In September, Neri Guarani Kaiowá, a 23-year-old Indigenous man, was killed by police officers during an operation in Nhanderu Marangatu Indigenous land in Barra Farm, in the city of Antonio João, Mato Grosso do Sul state.
These conflicts largely stemmed from the lack of land demarcation, the demarcation process having been completed for 601 Indigenous lands and 731 still pending in 2024. Law 14.701 – approved at the end of 2023 – declared that only those lands occupied when the federal constitution of 1988 was promulgated could be demarcated, which undermined Indigenous rights. Despite previous court rulings deeming this unconstitutional, a conciliation mechanism between farmers, state agencies, and Indigenous groups was established by the STF. Indigenous People abandoned these meetings claiming they were not allowed meaningful participation.
According to the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, 537,941 Indigenous People faced food insecurity in 2024, one of the adverse effects of non-Indigenous exploitation of natural resources.
Quilombolas
Quilombolas continued to suffer violence and lacked state protection. According to a recent report from the National Coordination of the Articulation of Black Rural Quilombola Communities and the NGO Terra de Direitos, between 2018 and 2022 at least 32 Quilombola people were killed in 11 states, the main causes being land conflict and gender-based violence. According to the Ministry of Racial Equality, 126 Quilombola communities experienced conflicts during January and February. The Palmares Cultural Foundation reported that the land of 3,051 Quilombola communities had been certified, with 262 still being processed in 2024. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, only 12.6% of the total Quilombola population were living in officially demarcated territories (a recognition stage prior to titling) and 4.3% living in titled territories.
Racism was prevalent, evidenced by the Ministry of Human Rights’ reporting an 80% increase in human rights violations against Afro-Brazilian religious communities. In the first half of 2024, 342 violations were documented by the Ministry of Racial Equality.
Sexual and gender-based violence
Data from Brazil’s Public Security Annuary highlighted an increase in violence against women. A report published in July stated that in 2023, Brazil recorded 1,467 femicides, an increase of 0.8% on the previous year, 63% affecting Black women and 64% occurring at home. There were 258,941 reports of physical assaults, a rise of 9.8%. There were 894,511 cases of psychological violence, threats and stalking, all of which had increased. A total of 540,255 emergency protective measures were granted, 26.7% more than the previous year. Sexual violence had also increased, with 83,988 rapes, a 6.5% increase, of which 88% were against women and girls, 52% against Black people, and 76% against children under 13 years old. Despite these numbers, National Gender Violence Map found that 61% of incidents go unreported.
LGBTI people faced severe threats, with 7,673 human rights violations reported to the human rights hotline last year. In a report published in 2024, the human rights group Grupo Gay da Bahia reported 257 violent deaths in 2023, mainly affecting young Black transgender people. At least 5,537 LGBTI people had been violently killed between 2000 and 2023. Transgender Europe confirmed in a report published in 2024 that Brazil had the highest number of transgender murders globally between October 2022 and September 2023.
In a year in which mayors and city councillors were elected across the country, gender-based political violence remained a concern, with official data showing 455 reported violations. The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office was actively monitoring 91 cases of gender-based political violence in 2023 and 2024.
Sexual and reproductive rights
Bill 1904/24 threatened the rights of people accessing abortion by proposing that abortions after 22 weeks of pregnancy would be considered murder and increasing penalties to 20 years’ imprisonment for anyone involved, even for pregnancies resulting from rape. This bill and other similar propositions were still under discussion in parliament. The Ministry of Women reported that the prohibition of abortion disproportionately affected women living in poverty.
