Brazilian court rulings on human rights reparations

Brazilian courts have issued rulings establishing that compensation claims for certain human rights violations committed by state agents are not subject to a statute of limitations.

In August 2026, the Superior Tribunal de Justiça (STJ) ruled that the statute of limitations does not apply to reparation requests related to the 2006 ‘Crimes de Maio’ in São Paulo. These events involved violent clashes between police and the PCC criminal faction, resulting in hundreds of deaths and allegations of summary executions. The court noted that these incidents constitute “grave violations of human rights,” and allowing the statute of limitations to expire would violate international commitments.

Concurrently, the Court of Justice of São Paulo (TJSP) unanimously ruled that claims for torture committed by state agents are also imprescriptible. This decision, which applied to a survivor of the 1992 Carandiru Massacre, rejected arguments that such principles only applied to political persecution during the military dictatorship. The court maintained that the severity of the rights violations is the central factor, regardless of whether the crimes occurred during an exceptional regime or under a democracy.