Mothers of Acari

‘Gravity of Tenderness’ by The Fabler.

This post examines the case of the Mothers of Acari and argues that it represents a pioneer maternal activism experience before the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS). It situates the maternal struggle of the group in the fight against enforced disappearances, briefly recounts the case study before regional institutions, and further discusses the legal transformation that women searching for the disappeared have propelled in the hemisphere.

Mothers searching for disappeared persons, often referred to in the literature as motherhood in social activism or maternal activism, have led the fight against impunity in cases of enforced disappearance in Latin America. They have taken their activism from the national sphere to the framework of the IAHRS.

The origin of these collectives is linked to patterns of state violence carried out through oppressive security policies, especially those targeting young people from marginalized communities. The case of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, the CoMadres, the Mothers of Ayotzinapa, the Mothers of the False Positives of Soacha and Bogotá, and the here studied-Mothers of Acari are just some of the most emblematic examples. The cases mentioned above illustrate how women leading the search for the disappeared have been at the forefront of advancing human rights in the region, challenging structural injustices both in public spaces and within judicial systems.

The Struggle of the Mothers of Acari

The case of interest arose within the context of Brazil’s transition to democracy following the end of the military regime that ruled between 1964 and 1985. The years following democratization were marked by the exponential growth of police groups categorized as “extermination squads”, a phenomenon that generated significant social concern and raised questions regarding public security practices during that period.

In 1990, eleven young people from the Acari favela in Rio de Janeiro traveled to the city of Magé for a short vacation. That night, armed men identifying themselves as police officers abducted them from a house where they were staying. The victims were taken away in two vehicles and were never seen again. Later, the cars were found burned and stained with blood. Locals signaled to death squads, allegedly including military police officers as the main suspects. However, after decades of investigations by Brazilian authorities, no one was held accountable, and the victims’ remains were never located.

The case became known as the “Acari massacre”. Following this tragic event, obstacles in the investigation and omissions in the search for the remains of the victims of the “Cavalos Corredores” militia spurred the emergence of the “Mothers of Acari” group. The movement was championed by Edmea da Silva Euzebio, mother of Luiz Henrique da Silva Euzebio and aunt of Edson de Souza Costa (two of the eleven direct victims of the disappearances). This group organized search efforts and publicly demanded that the authorities clarify the facts and punish those responsible. They also denounced the abuses committed by state agents and death squads in Rio de Janeiro.

Although evidence linked members of Rio de Janeiro’s military police to the 1990 massacre, the initial investigation was closed in 2010 without producing results. It had revealed that police officers threatened the Acari youths prior to their disappearance, yet no accountability followed. This persistent impunity became the backdrop against which the mothers’ struggle took shape.

Over time, and despite continuous setbacks, their mobilization developed into sustained judicial activism that ultimately brought the case before the IAHRS, transforming their local demands into a transnational claim for truth and justice.

As in other maternal activism experiences across the region, this path was marked by persecution and violence. Several mothers faced threats and attacks, and some died without ever learning what had happened to their relatives. Ms. Edmea was brutally murdered in January 1993, reportedly after obtaining information about the crime and testifying in court about police involvement. The men accused of her murder were acquitted in 2024.

The Mothers of Acari struggle, therefore, reflect a deep intersectional component i) the location of the victims and their families as inhabitants of the favelas, ii) the young age of the disappeared victims, iii) the discourse situated in their personal experiences and fight against structural racism, and iv) the tireless struggle for memory, truth and justice despite the obstacles experienced by women’s collectives.

The Acari Case before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR)

The case was first examined before the IACHR which addressed the enforced disappearance of several young people, some of whom were victims of sexual violence. It also concerned the lack of due diligence in investigating and punishing those responsible for the murders of two members of the Mothers of Acari, Ms. Edmea da Silva and Ms. Sheila da Conceição.

On April 22, 2022, the IACHR subsequently appeared before the IACtHR in the case of Cristiane Leite de Souza et al., formally submitting the matter for judicial determination. The Commission considered sufficiently proven that the victims suffered enforced disappearance, as it occurred at the hands of state agents and the State failed to fulfill its obligation to investigate, prosecute, and punish the disappearances within a reasonable time and with due diligence.

The Commission highlighted that the domestic investigation, lasted almost 20 years, suffered serious delays in the procedures, the techniques used and the evaluation of evidence, and was closed without identifying the whereabouts of the victims or their perpetrators, and without investigating the sexual violence allegations.

The IACHR admissibility and merits decision (paragraph 117) concluded that, the State violated the victims’ right to equality before the law (Art. II), right to a fair trial (Art. XVIII) and right to property (Art. XXIII) of the American Declaration; it also identified violations of the right to a juridical personality (Art. 3), right to life (Art. 4), right to humane treatment (Art. 5), right to a fair trial (Art. 8), freedom of thought and expression (Art. 13), freedom of association (Art. 16), rights of the child (Art. 19), right to equal protection (Art. 24), and right to judicial protection (Art. 25) of the American Convention with respect to Articles 1.1 and 2 of the same instrument. The Commission lastly found violations of Articles I.a, b, and d, and III of the IACFDP and of Articles 7.b) and 7.f) of the Belém do Pará Convention. In its reasoning, the IACHR also found a link between the subsequent murders and disappearances of the activists with their work within the movement and ordered the creation of a law on enforced disappearance.

Upon reaching the IACtHR, the ideal opportunity arose for the court to analyze the risks associated with activism, which in this case culminated in the highest level of violence with the death of two activist mothers, one of whom was a leader of the movement in Brazil. This case represents a landmark in the jurisprudence of the IACtHR, as it examines in an integrated manner both the violations suffered by the direct victims of disappearances and killings, and the violence faced by mothers searching for their missing children through activism. While the Court had previously recognized the duty to protect women involved in searches for disappeared persons (as seen in Movilla Galarcio and Others Vs. Colombia, Tabares Toro and Others Vs. Colombia, and Guzmán Medina and Others Vs. Colombia), this ruling explicitly reinforces and develops that dimension in relation to their security and rights.

The judgement places special emphasis on the fact that the victims belonged to groups in particularly vulnerable situations, which accentuated the State’s duties of respect and guarantee, especially considering their status as women searching for disappeared persons (paragraph 177). This is presented as a reinforced duty of protection (paragraph 160) linked to the intersectional nature of the group (paragraph 226).

The IACtHR found that the mothers were victims of racism and discrimination because of their efforts to search for their disappeared relatives. It emphasized that discrimination in Brazil constitutes a structural and recurring problem, closely connected to the victims’ socioeconomic status.

Specifically, the IACtHR determined that the disappearances of July 26, 1990, took place within a context of violence targeting Afro-descendant populations living in favelas, who were stigmatized as undesirable, marginal, and associated with criminality by state agents. It further concluded that the negligence in the investigation and prosecution of the facts occurred within a broader context of structural racism. The Court also emphasized that the State must ensure that a gender perspective and an intersectional approach are observed in criminal proceedings, all in accordance with the Inter-American standards developed in this area.

Another significant aspect of this judgment is the Court’s affirmation that mothers searching for disappeared persons are entitled to reinforced protection. Considering the vital work carried out by these women – particularly of Ms. Edmea – the Court underscored the importance of ensuring that the circumstances surrounding her killing are thoroughly investigated, prosecuted, and duly sanctioned. This obligation forms part of the broader duty of States Parties to the American Convention to recognize and safeguard the work of mothers. Accordingly, States must adopt effective measures to ensure that they can carry out their search activities without obstacles, intimidation, or threats, and must create adequate conditions to fully guarantee their rights, especially in connection with the protection of the right to life (paragraphs 192-193).

The foregoing shows that collectives of searching mothers carrying out sustained and demanding work in the pursuit of truth and justice, deserve recognition and support from both States and international institutions.

Final Reflections

The work of mothers’ movements cannot be separated from an intersectional approach. In the Acari case, we are referring to women who belong to communities historically discriminated from the Brazilian society, not only based on gender, but also due to their socio-economic status and race origin that intersect and compound the structural inequalities they face. Their activism needs to be studied alongside these overlapping systems of marginalization.

At the regional level, the experience of these mothers aligns with a broader criminal pattern that has marked numerous countries in the Americas: enforced disappearance. Across national contexts, mothers have organized collectively to demand truth and justice for crimes committed against their relatives. Their struggle has been defined not only by the disappearance itself, but also by the convergence of gender discrimination, racial hierarchies, class-based exclusion, and the stigmatization of peripheral and impoverished territories, all of which deepen the violence they endure. An intersectional analysis, consistent with the jurisprudence of the IACtHR, is thereby indispensable.

The Acari judgment thus reflects a broader evolution within the IAHRS. By acknowledging the specific risks and structural conditions faced by mothers who conduct searches, it contributes to the consolidation of regional standards concerning their protection. Nevertheless, judicial recognition alone is insufficient. Recognizing this intersectional dimension allows the IAHRS to move beyond a merely formal conception of equality and toward a substantive understanding of discrimination and vulnerability.

National legal frameworks must evolve to provide explicit and effective guarantees to women’s collectives, ensuring that their work is not carried out at the cost of further violence or exclusion. These demands are already being articulated by the collectives themselves, as occurred with the Acari Mothers and their request for the creation of a national law (see also for example the Colombian “Ley de Buscadoras”).

Given the regional scale of enforced disappearance and the transnational dialogue among maternal movements, the trajectory of the continent suggests the need to consider stronger regional or international guarantees. Whether through binding national legislation, coordinated regional mechanisms, or the future adoption of a specific protocol or convention dedicated to protecting families searching for their missing loved ones, an emerging regulatory horizon is taking shape, driven by this mother’s work.

The struggles of countless mothers in the region show that human rights progress in cases of disappearance is shaped by women who confront structural injustice from the streets to the courtrooms.