Jurisdiction of military courts at issue in Brazil

Sebastian Abad Jara and Daniel Pereira Campos have written this informative and timely post for EJIL: Talk!, the blog of the European Journal of International Law. In Military Courts and Human Rights Violations in Brazil from the Perspective of the Inter-American Human Rights System, the authors summarize the pertinent decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Excerpt:

The Supreme Federal Court of Brazil will soon rule (under a constitutional review case called Ação Direta de Inconstitucionalidade no. 5032, commonly referred to as ADI 5032) whether members of the armed forces that commit crimes against civilians during peacetime should be tried before civilian or military courts. This judgment is critical for Brazil, a country with a long (and recent) period of authoritarian military rule (1964-1985) but without comprehensive transitional justice mechanisms and State accountability for human rights violations.