The families of boys castrated in Maranhão, in northeastern Brazil, will each receive a monthly compensation of US$ 219.50 (500 reais) from the Brazilian government for fifteen years.

The amicable settlement agreement will be signed today in São Luí­s, the capital of Maranhão state, in the presence of the special presidential secretary of Human Rights (SEDH), Mario Mamede, and the state governor, José Reinaldo Tavares.

Represented by the SEDH, the Ministry of Foreign Relations, and the government of Maranhão, the Brazilian State acknowledged its international responsibility in the case and, besides paying the indemnities, will adopt other measures of a symbolic nature.

These include installing in the capital of Maranhão the Integrated Complex for the Protection of Children and Adolescents, where a plaque will be placed to honor the victims.

The state of Maranhão pledged, for its part, to give continuity to the implementation of the Inter-institutional System of Activities to Combat Drugs; to include various municipalities in the Sentinel Program, which takes care of victims of sexual exploitation and abuse; and to ensure specialized treatment for all victims of these crimes, among other provisions.

The effects of the agreement, which was arranged under the auspices of the Organization of American States’ (OAS) Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH), will not be limited to the victims who filed changes with the OAS but will apply to the families of each of the 28 boys castrated between 1991 and 2003.

The SEDH calculates that, between 1990 and 1995, around 23 boys were victims of kidnapping, torture, and castration in the state of Maranhão. The first cases of emasculation occurred in Brazil around 17 years ago.

It is estimated that more than 40 boys, nearly all of them in the phase of puberty, have been victims of this type of crime in Maranhão, Pará, Goiás, Paraná, Espí­rito Santo, and Tocantins.

ABr