Gender, race and state violence in the past-present

strategies of struggle since Denise Crispim vs. Brazil case

Abstract

This article seeks to present the legal strategies articulated in the advocacy process on the Denise Crispim Vs. Brazil case, highlighting the role of strategic litigation in promoting citizenship and the fi ght for human rights. As members of the collective coordination of Study and Research on the Inter-American Human Rights System at PUC-Rio, we were involved in drafting the memorials sent to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the case. In this paper, we propose to elaborate on some of the issues articulated in this effort, considering the continuities and reconfi gurations of state violence perpetrated against mothers and pregnant women deprived of their liberty in Brazil. To do this, we mobilised theoretical references that articulate gender and race and systematised data taken from official reports and those produced by civil society on the issue. The effort is based on the understanding that placing the violations denounced in this case in the broader panorama of violence historically perpetrated against mothers and pregnant women, from the criminal justice apparatus, is important because it allows us to: (i) highlight the gender and racial dimensions of the violations perpetrated by the state; (ii) highlight the continuities and reconfi gurations of state violence perpetrated against mothers and pregnant women deprived of their liberty in Brazil; (iii) shed light on the formulation of measures that address the structural dimensions of this violence in the present.