Terror and counter-terrorism: a debate about the criminalization of popular movements in Brazil

• Grant number: 18/20749-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): December 01, 2018
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Law
• Principal Investigator: Ana Elisa Liberatore Silva Bechara
• Grantee: Leonardo Hidalgo Racy
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Direito (FD). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Promulgated in 2016, the Brazilian Counter-terrorism Act came through after great pressure from the international community due to the lack of special legislation for a specialized treatment of terrorism in Brazil. In this sense, the Counter-Terrorism Act followed considerably the understanding of international conventions, ratified by Brazil, on the subject and was also influenced by the enforcement given by European and American criminal laws in the fight against terror. Thus, in a deeper analysis of international and foreign legislations (European, North American or Latin American), one sees the conception of diverse concepts of what is in fact considered acts of terror and the same is identified in the unique process building of the enemy on each society. This process being a fundamental element of the very structuring of the societies cohesion (all the more in democratic or republican regimes, as in autocratic ones, for instance). Therefore, the investigation of the object analyzed in this research goes through four basic stages: a transdisciplinary study of the concepts of terror, terrorism, radicalism and extremism; a critical analysis of foreign and transnational legal and penal instruments, on counter terror legal instruments and the conceptualization of terror acts; a examination of the Brazilian Counter-Terrorism Act legislative process, its main criminal aspects and the conceptions addressed in its text; and, in conclusion, to analyze the historical, political and 'persecutory' criminal process of Brazilian popular political movements, basing all the stages of this research on the foundations of the Social Democratic Rule of Law.