The National Council of Justice (CNJ) has taken a significant step towards promoting equity and justice by presenting the Protocol for Judgments with a Racial Perspective, which will now be applied on a mandatory basis throughout the Brazilian Judiciary. The initiative aims to tackle structural racism and its intersectionalities, reinforcing the commitment to human dignity and material equality.
Context and goals
The protocol aims to meet the need to combat the reproduction of racism in its multiple dimensions within the judicial system. Inspired by the successful experience of the Protocol for Judgments with a Gender Perspective, the document was drawn up by a working group set up by the Ordinance 73/2024 of the CNJ, made up of magistrates and experts on racial issues.
Among the central objectives of the protocol are: facilitating access to justice by improving care and consideration of the specificities of individuals in situations of racial vulnerability; sensitizing the judiciary to their own social constructions and expanding qualified listening to the parties involved; ensuring equal treatment by guaranteeing that all reports in the process receive the same attention and relevance; optimizing judicial provision by incorporating multidisciplinary teams when necessary, promoting a safer and more equitable environment for the parties. In addition, the protocol will expand the normative parameters of decisions by considering the material and symbolic conditions that influence the facts analyzed, in order to offer a more sensitive and inclusive judgment.
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