The Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law is thrilled to announce a significant decision by Brazil’s highest court, the Federal Tribunal Superior de Justica (TSJ), regarding the conditions under which a confession in a criminal case must be excluded from evidence and the circumstances under which it can be admitted if it adheres to constitutional and legal procedures.
This landmark decision references Prof. Juan Méndez, a distinguished member of our Faculty Director’s Board, and cited his influential book, Principles on Effective Interviewing for Investigations and Information Gathering (May 2021). In a statement, Judge (Minister) Ribeiro Dantas emphasized the necessity of adopting effective interview techniques in preliminary investigations, which focus not merely on obtaining confessions or biased recognitions but on collecting reliable information. He highlighted that these methods are encapsulated in the Méndez Principles, named in honor of Juan Méndez. Méndez, as the Special Rapporteur on Torture at the United Nations, identified that interrogation methods aimed at extracting confessions are often associated with torture across various justice systems
Minister Schietti agreed with Judge Dantas and, in his vote, emphasized the relevance of the Méndez Principles. He stressed the need to move away from an obsessive concentration on extracting confessions towards a commitment to gathering as much reliable information as possible without emphasizing the confession itself, which can lead to false confessions. He described the six principles that should guide such investigations.
This decision represents a significant step forward in the legal landscape and is expected to be written into law upon further voting. Once enacted, it has the potential to help many people by promoting more ethical and reliable interrogation practices.