Contributing to Major Legal Win in Fight for Justice for Slain Brazilian Human Rights Defender

Gabriela Guimarães Weldon and Marina Wilbraham

April 2023

Thanks to the University Network of Human Rights, we had the opportunity to contribute to an important Brazilian legal victory in the murder investigation of Marielle Franco, a case of immense national and international consequence.

As a part of Professor Jim Cavallaro’s class on the Inter-American System of Human Rights at Yale Law School, we were connected with the University Network of Human Rights and the human rights organization Justiça Global in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Justiça Global is one of the human rights organizations that makes up the the Justice for Marielle and Anderson Committee, which, as its name implies, has been working to get justice for Rio de Janeiro councilor and human rights activist Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes, who were shot and killed while driving back from a debate in 2018. 

Marielle Franco was a Black, bisexual, favela resident and outspoken critic of Brazil’s human rights violations, particularly police abuses and extrajudicial killings. She was also known for her work in defense of women, especially poor Black women. Franco also fought for reproductive rights and the rights of favela residents. 

In March 2019, two former police officers were arrested and charged with the Franco and Gomes murders; however, Brazilian authorities have yet to find and charge those responsible for ordering the assassination. The investigation, which has already passed through the offices of five police precinct heads and eleven public prosecutors, has faced significant national and international criticism for lack of transparency and allegations of external interference. After Rio de Janeiro authorities denied the families of Marielle Franco and Anderson Gomes access to the investigation, the families, together with the Justice for Marielle and Anderson Committee, appealed to the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice (STJ).

To support their case, we drafted a technical opinion on behalf of international law experts to submit to the STJ, which called for Brazilian authorities to provide the victims’ family members with access to all relevant (and non-privileged) aspects of the investigation and legal standing, as required by international law. The opinion focused on the right of family members to access police investigations in cases of potentially unlawful deprivations of life, providing an overview of the state duty to investigate and explaining the specific duties owed to the family members in this case.

Four former commissioners from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, two former presidents of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, two former and current United Nations mandate holders, and international legal experts and professors from Brazil, the United States, Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Portugal, South Korea, France, England, and Canada signed onto the submission. 

On April 18, 2023, the STJ decided unanimously to authorize access to the police investigation. In making its decision, the STJ affirmed the need to comply with international law, referencing the international legal standards we cited in our technical opinion, including decisions by the Inter-American Court. 

Working closely with the University Network for Human Rights and Justiça Global to draft, translate, and get sign-ons from international legal experts for the opinion was one of the most formative experiences we have had in law school. We are thrilled that we have been able to contribute to such an important case.