The Association of Registrars of Natural Persons of Brazil (Arpen) ordered all Brazilian registry offices to comply with Resolution no. 601/2024 of the National Council of Justice, which deals with updating the death certificates of 434 dead and missing people during the military dictatorship in Brazil.
This Thursday (23/1), the death certificate of former federal deputy Rubens Paiva was one of the first to be corrected. Now, the document contains updated information and shows that the cause of death was “violent death caused by the Brazilian State”.
All Brazilian registry offices must update death certificates of 434 dead and missing people during the country's dictatorship
The issuance of new death certificates is free and can be requested by the victims' relatives or anyone else. The delivery of the new documents should take place in February, when the registry offices have already forwarded the updated documents to the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship (MDHC).
Change
In January of this year, the CNJ formalized to the National Civil Registry Operator of Natural Persons (ONRCPN) the measure that authorizes the modification of the cause of death contained in the death certificate of these people.
The document must inform that the death did not result from a natural cause, but rather violently, caused by the State, in the context of the systematic persecution of the population identified as political dissidents, during the dictatorial regime established in 1964.
According to a survey carried out in December 2024 by ONRCPN, there are 202 cases of rectification of death certificates and 232 new death records being produced.
Family members or those interested in the certificates of these 432 people will not need to go to the registry offices to be entitled to the new document. In the communication sent by Arpen to the registry offices, it was specifically pointed out which certificates should be rectified.
-With the formalization with the ONRCPN, the registry entity must directly contact the registry offices responsible for producing the new records within 30 days, according to the deadline stipulated in the CNJ resolution.
After this phase, the documents go to the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, when these certificates must be formally delivered to relatives and interested parties.
It will be up to the general inspectorates of the state courts where the registrations or rectifications were made to reimburse the cost to the civil registry offices.
Resolution
The approval of the resolution that textually attributes responsibility for the disappearance and death of politically persecuted people during the military dictatorship to the State occurred on December 10th, when the 76th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was celebrated.
During the 16th Ordinary Session of 2024 of the CNJ, Normative Act 0005496-97.2024.2.00.0000 was reported by the president of the CNJ, minister Luís Roberto Barroso, and unanimously approved by the other CNJ counselors.
The rectification of death certificates by registry offices was one of the guidelines that the National Truth Commission made in its report, published in 2014, in line with the determinations of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in relation to political prisoners, disappeared and dead .
Until the CNJ decision, the cause of death of the victims only had a reference to Law 9,140/1995. The norm recognized as dead people who disappeared due to participation, or accusation of participation, in political activities, in the period from September 2, 1961 to August 15, 1979. With information from the CNJ communications department.
