Brazilian judicial rulings on racial injury

Legal proceedings regarding racial injury in Brazil have seen both specific criminal convictions and significant shifts in judicial precedent.

In Curitibanos, Santa Catarina, a court convicted a woman of racial injury following a February 2025 incident at a hospital. The defendant, who used racial and skin-color-related expressions to humiliate a victim during a dispute, was sentenced to two years of imprisonment. Due to her status as a first-time offender, the sentence was converted into community service and pecuniary payments, including a minimum of R$ 2,000 in moral damages.

On a broader judicial level, the Superior Tribunal de Justiça (STJ) established a precedent ruling that racial injury constitutes presumed moral damage, or ‘in re ipsa’. This ruling means that compensation for offenses based on race, color, ethnicity, or origin does not require specific proof of psychological suffering. The STJ determined that using racial characteristics to assert inferiority inherently damages a victim’s honor and dignity, making the requirement to prove emotional distress an ‘incompatible burden’ for the victim.