A/HRC/59/62/Add.1 perpetrated against Roma persons by law enforcement officers in Bahia, including the killing of eight individuals and a brutal attack against a teenage boy. 44. Publicly available data reinforces reports that the Special Rapporteur received about the shocking prevalence of police brutality. According to the 2024 yearbook of the Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública, 6,393 people died because of civil and military police interventions in 2023, with the States of Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Pará having the highest number of lives lost; according to the same data, 82.7 per cent of victims were Black, 41.5 per cent were aged between 18 and 24 years and 99.3 per cent were male. 16 Such horrifying violence seems to continue with impunity due to many factors, such as legal provisions and practices hindering accountability among law enforcement officials and a degree of societal normalization of these atrocities. 45. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the measures being taken to try to address police brutality, including a ministerial decree of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security on the use of force and the “Black Youth Alive” plan. However, a more significant paradigm shift is urgently needed to ensure greater focus on addressing the root causes of systemic police brutality within law enforcement. Such a shift is necessary to reduce the militarization of civilian policing and to ensure that the use of force is deployed in strict accordance with the principles of proportionality, necessity and legality and with international human rights standards relating to racial equality. 46. While the use of body cameras by law enforcement officials is not sufficient to achieve this paradigm shift, it is a step that can reduce police violence, according to civil society organizations. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the efforts made by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security to ensure the use of body cameras, including through national guidance on their use, as well as reports that the federal highway police started deploying body cameras in 2024. The Special Rapporteur is, however, alarmed at reports that, in many of the states she visited, such equipment is not always used effectively. She urges the consistent and effective use of body cameras by all law enforcement agencies as an important interim step that should be implemented alongside other measures to ensure justice and accountability for victims of police brutality, as well as more transformative approaches to dismantle systemic racism within law enforcement. 47. The Special Rapporteur received information about the use of facial recognition systems, which rely on artificial intelligence, in law enforcement activities, representing a new manifestation of racial profiling. Justice sector actors in Bahia and Rio de Janeiro explained that those States are investing significantly in facial recognition systems, without public consultation or consideration of algorithmic bias or the inaccuracies of facial recognition systems when detecting faces of persons of African descent. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the information provided by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security about an interministerial group on racial bias in facial recognition and its intention to develop a policy on this issue. She is nevertheless alarmed by the reported speed of investment in artificial intelligence without proportionate consultation and regulation. Deploying unregulated facial recognition technologies in a law enforcement and criminal justice system that has an enduring history of racial discrimination presents serious human rights risks. It is therefore concerning that bill No. 2.338/2023 on the use of artificial intelligence reportedly fails to include human rights-based protections against racial profiling by facial recognition systems. 48. The Special Rapporteur is concerned at the mass incarceration of people of African descent in the criminal justice system, including increasing numbers of women of African descent, and at reports of the disproportionate incarceration of persons from other marginalized racial and ethnic groups. Drug policies and systemic racism in the administration of justice seem to be key drivers of the overincarceration of these persons. The Special Rapporteur was concerned by information she received indicating that racial diversity is low in the judiciary and that harsh sentencing, combined with racial insensitivity, is contributing to mass incarceration. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the efforts made to develop pacts aimed at improving diversity in the judiciary and the measures taken by the 16 12 See https://forumseguranca.org.br/publicacoes/anuario-brasileiro-de-seguranca-publica/. GE.25-06011