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The Right to a “Custody Hearing” under International Law

by Maria Laura Canineu
February 3,2014

A person who is arrested has a right to be brought promptly before a judge. This is a longstanding and fundamental principle of international law, crucial for ensuring that the person’s arrest, treatment, and any ongoing detention are lawful.
Yet, until now, Brazil has not respected this right. Detainees often go months before seeing a judge. For instance, in São Paulo state, which houses 37 percent of Brazil’s total prison population, most detainees are not brought before a judge for at least three months. The risk of ill-treatment is often highest during the initial stages of detention, when police are questioning a suspect. The delay makes detainees more vulnerable to torture and other serious forms of mistreatment by abusive police officers.
In 2012, the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment reported that it had received “repeated and consistent accounts of torture and ill-treatment” in São Paulo and other Brazilian states, “committed by, in particular, the military and civil police.” The torture had allegedly occurred in police custody or at the moment of arrest, on the street, inside private homes, or in hidden outdoor areas, and was described as “gratuitous violence, as a form of punishment, to extract confessions, and as a means of extortion.”
In addition to violating the rights of detainees, these abusive practices make it more difficult for the police to establish the kind of public trust that is often crucial for effective crime control. These practices undermine legitimate efforts to promote public security and curb violent crime, and thus have a negative impact on Brazilian society as a whole.
The right to be brought before a judge without unnecessary delay is enshrined in treaties long ago ratified by Brazil, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the American Convention on Human Rights. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, which is responsible for interpreting the ICCPR, has determined that the delay between the arrest of an accused and the time before he is brought before a judicial authority “should not exceed a few days, ” even during states of emergency.
Other countries in Latin America have incorporated this right into their domestic law. For instance, in Argentina, the federal Criminal Procedure Code requires that in cases of arrest without a judicial order, the detainee must be brought to a competent judicial authority within six hours.
In contrast, Brazil’s criminal procedure code requires that when an adult is arrested in flagrante and held in police custody, only the police files of the case need to be presented to the judge within 24 hours, not the actual detainee. Judges evaluate the legality of the arrest and make the decision about whether to order continued detention or other precautionary measures based solely on the written documents provided by the police.
The code establishes a maximum of 60 days for the first judicial hearing with the detainee, but does not explicitly say when this period begins. In practice, this often means that police in Brazil can keep people detained, with formal judicial authorization, for several months, without giving the detainee a chance to actually see a judge.
According to the code, the only circumstance in which police need to bring a person before the judge immediately applies to cases of crimes not subject to bail in which arresting officer was not able to exhibit the arrest order to the person arrested at the time of arrest. Otherwise, the detainee may also not see a judge for several months.

(www.hrw.org. Editado e adaptado)

TEXT I

Beware the power of the blog

Companies may not like blogs, but if they ignore them
they may be inviting some PR disasters

    The number of blogs on the internet is doubling every five months, according to blog-tracking site Technorati. The total is now around 20 million, with around 1.3 million posts made each day. Most are no more interesting than overhearing another person's telephone call, but there are exceptions that can have a remarkable impact.

(from http://www.computing.co.uk/itweek/comment/ 2145491/beware-power-blog, retrieved on September 24th, 2008)

How to determine your income tax bracket
by Elizabeth Rosen, Contributor
January 31, 2013

In order to properly file your federal income tax return and pay any tax that you owe, it is necessary to understand your income tax bracket, your filing status, and which income tax rate(s) apply to you. There are currently six marginal income tax brackets and five federal filing statuses. The amount of tax you owe will depend on your filing status and how much taxable income you earn.
Marginal Income Tax Brackets
Your marginal income tax bracket basically represents the highest tax rate that you MODAL pay on your income. There are currently six marginal income tax brackets for each federal filing status: 10, 15, 25, 28, 33, and 35 percent.
The marginal tax bracket system is a gradual tax schedule, which essentially means the more you earn, the more tax you pay. The amount of taxable income that you earn determines which tax bracket(s) you fall into. It is important to realize that only the money you earn within a certain tax bracket is taxed at that rate. In other words, if you earned more in 2012 than you did in 2011 and thus moved into a higher tax bracket, only the money that falls within that higher tax bracket is taxed at the higher rate.
So, for example, if you move from the 25 percent tax bracket to the 28 percent tax bracket, you may make the mistake of believing that all of your income is now taxed at that higher rate. However, only the money that you earn within the 28 percent bracket is taxed at that rate.
The structure of federal income tax brackets was first implemented by the IRS in the early 1900s in an attempt to create a progressive tax system that would demand less from lower-income individuals. This system, plus a series of tax credits and tax deductions, have allowed nearly half of Americans to avoid owing federal income tax altogether [Source: The Tax Foundation].
Federal Filing Statuses
Your filing status determines your filing requirements (whether or not you are required to file a tax return and which return to file), your standard deduction amount, your eligibility for certain tax credits and tax deductions, and your income tax. There are five federal filing statuses based on marital status and other conditions: single, married filing separately, married filing jointly, head of household, and qualifying widow(er) with dependent child.
When you fill out your federal income tax return, you must specify what your filing status is on the tax form. Review each filing status carefully and choose the one that best fits your situation. If you qualify for more than one filing status, you are allowed to choose the one
that offers you the ADJECTIVE tax.

(Adapted from http://www.irs.com/articles/how-determine-your-income-tax-bracket)