Articulation by black minister in the STF advances with shielding – 03/10/2023 – Power

The growing movement of different sectors of society for the unprecedented appointment of a black minister to the STF (Federal Supreme Court) has caution as a common factor. The concern comes from a history of offensives against women, especially black women, to occupy positions of power in the country.

In recent days, legal entities, ministers in the Lula government and a member of the Supreme Court itself have publicly expressed their support for the nomination. The vacancy will open with the retirement of Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, who will turn 75 in May. Lula, however, recently said that “everyone would understand” if he appointed his lawyer, Cristiano Zanin – a white man.

The mobilization in favor of a black woman in court gained strength this week, amid demonstrations linked to International Women’s Day, celebrated on Wednesday (8).

In an interview published by SheetUSP professor Fabiana Severi, a specialist in law and gender, criticized the left’s maintenance of lists without women and black people.

“Having a list of white men coming from the democratic camp is almost an insult, because we know it’s not a matter of lack of legal knowledge, capacity and names,” he said.

As shown to Sheet, in almost 40 years of redemocratization in Brazil, the summit of the Republic had 66 men and only 4 women. Specifically in the STF, only 3 women —against 26 men— became ministers during this period, none of them black.

On Wednesday, one hundred legal entities and movements launched a manifesto for the appointment of a black minister. On the same day, during a session of the STF, Minister Edson Fachin spoke in the same direction.

The magistrate, when resuming judgment in plenary on structural racism in police approaches, cited a report by Sheet with reports from black judges mentioning the case of a female judge who needed to show her badge to access exclusive spaces for male judges.

Justices Silvio Almeida (Human Rights) and Anielle Franco (Racial Equality) also publicly positioned themselves in favor of a black woman for the STF.

At the time, Almeida said that, although they were discussing a central thesis on the racial issue in Brazil, there was “no black person or black woman discussing the racial issue in that plenary”. Afterwards, he stated that a black minister on the Supreme Court “will be of fundamental, central importance for us to start discussing the democratization of spaces of power in Brazil”.

Anielle Franco, on the other hand, stated, in an interview with GloboNews, that she intends to ask Lula to nominate a black woman to the STF.

Judges who are part of Enajun (National Meeting of Black Judges and Judges), a collective created six years ago to increase the presence of black magistrates at the top of the Judiciary, also work for the appointment of a black career judge, something they say is fundamental.

In addition, the Public Defender’s Office and the Public Prosecutor’s Office are studying names for the court.

The articulation for more representation has been made for years by the feminist and black movements.

The main barriers are the lack of support in power circles dominated by white people and the need to deconstruct an imaginary in which the notorious legal knowledge, a constitutional requirement for nomination, is not seen in a black woman.

“Institutional and symbolic racism causes black women to be seen as women who hold less prestigious positions. This has to do with our recent slavery past, which generates in people the notion that these women should not occupy spaces of power”, she says. Luciana Ramos, professor of constitutional law at FGV Direito São Paulo.

Judges and lawyers heard by the Sheet claim that conversations are being held to assess the best time to expose the names for the dispute to the STF. They claim that there is an offensive against the names of black people both by sectors of law and by members of the Judiciary and politicians.

“We black women are attacked even before being able to put our qualities and expertise on the table. Our fear is that these nominated women will receive unnecessary attacks”, says Maria Sylvia de Oliveira, who signed the manifesto representing Geledés – Instituto da Mulher Negra .

Flávia Biroli, professor of political science at UnB (University of Brasilia), says that social movements have learned to build protection networks to deal with offensives.

“When these people are in the spotlight and call into question the racist character of these institutions of power, they suffer very severe attacks. This happens to women and especially to black women”, she says.

Biroli also claims that it is necessary to establish limits on political violence, as provided for by a law sanctioned in 2021, identifying perpetrators and charging the platforms where these attacks take place so that candidates are not affected.

Luciana Ramos (FGV) adds that institutional racism and machismo also affect the permanence of women in these spaces.

“We have a number of judges that is far from ideal and the prejudice they suffer from lawyers, judges and their peers, particularly in the second instance, is brutal”, he says.

Since 1891, the STF has had only three black ministers in its composition (the last was Joaquim Barbosa, who retired in 2014), and only three women ministers, two in office: Justice Rosa Weber, who chairs the STF and retires in October, and Minister Carmen Lúcia. The first was Ellen Gracie, in the year 2000.

Law professor and lawyer Ecila Moreira de Meneses, member of the national executive of the Brazilian Association of Jurists for Democracy, one of the movements that articulated the manifesto, says that the history of male and white ministers in the court created an imaginary that vacancies are for white men.

“Even if there are two women in the STF, this still does not mean representativeness in relation to the profile of Brazilian society. We had some black ministers, they left and these vacancies were occupied by white people. There was no care in consolidating the vacancy of a black person What we want is to expand the vacancies of female ministers”, she says.

According to Marco Aurélio de Carvalho, from Grupo Prerogativas, the organization is engaged in guiding the debate, but will support any choice made by President Lula.

“Although we are signatories of the manifesto, what we want is for President Lula to consider black jurists in the universe of possible people”, he says.

For Oliveira (Geledés), black women have been making relevant contributions to the creation of a new civilizing pact.

“Us [mulheres negras] We know Brazilian society well. Through our struggles and propositions, we make significant contributions to the promotion of human rights in Brazil, because we are the part of the population that most suffers the impact of these violations”, he says.

She also states that if the country is thinking about moving forward and dismantling racism, in addition to talking, it is necessary for the Brazilian State, represented by the Lula government, to take action. “A very important action is to appoint a black woman to the STF and signal the real interest of the State and the justice system in joining the anti-racist fight.”

Lígia Batista, the new executive director of the Marielle Franco Institute, says that the appointment of a black minister would be a paradigm shift, because the Brazilian justice system is historically racist and exclusionary.

“It is fundamental that in the supreme court, the highest level of the Judiciary, we can have a black jurist, because she understands that, from a symbolic point of view, this representation helps us to think about ways of overcoming racism and machismo”, he says.