With those words, Brazil became one of the few countries to heed the call of the 1993 Vienna World Conference to adopt a national plan for human rights. Few countries are more in need of a plan. Brazil's 160 million people suffer from an ingrained culture and practice of human rights violations and impunity. Police disappearances, killings and torture are commonplace.
Several factors combine to render the problem intractable.
Poverty, inequality and crime are pervasive. Under Brazil's federal system, most police and judicial powers are in the hands of 26 state governors. All this lies in the shadow of 21 years of military rule from 1964 to 1985. If any one President could be given hope of turning around this situation, it may be Mr. Cardoso. A sociology professor and founder of Brazil's Social Democratic Party, he was threatened with imprisonment and exiled for years during the military dictatorship.