MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil joins Strasbourg Convention regarding convicted people

The legal mechanism gives foreigners who have committed crimes in other jurisdictions the possibility of serving their sentence in their countries of origin

Brazil has joined the Strasbourg Convention on the Transfer of Convicted Persons applying to any requests involving countries that have ratified the treaty. The agreement seeks to facilitate the social reintegration of the convicted person, giving foreigners who have committed crimes in other jurisdictions the possibility of serving their sentence in their countries of origin, Brazil's Justice Ministry explained.

The initiative has also been devised to overcome linguistic barriers and avoid physical distancing from these people's families and milieu.

The agreement was signed in Strasbourg (France) on March 21, 1983, and enforced since July 1, 1985. Although the transfer of convicted people was already provided for in Brazilian legislation by the Migration Law, the new instrument represents a step forward in the defense of human rights at a global level.

Henceforth, the Convention can be applied to requests for the transfer of sentenced persons between Brazil and any of the countries that have acceded to the treaty. The Justice Ministry will act through the Department of Asset Recovery and International Legal Cooperation of the National Secretariat of Justice (DRCI/Senajus), it was explained.

The Convention has so far been ratified by 69 countries, including all the European ones except Monaco, plus 21 states elsewhere such as Australia, Canada, India, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, the United States, and now Brazil.