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The Right to a Father's Name: A Historical Perspective on State Efforts to Combat the Stigma of Illegitimate Birth in Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2012

Sueann Caulfield
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Over the past decade, state agencies throughout Brazil have launched initiatives that aim to defend children's rights to their father's name. These initiatives take the form of discrete programs in different states, all of which seek to identify children who lack a paternal last name—an estimated 10–25 percent of all Brazilian children —in hopes of finding their fathers and encouraging or obligating them to legally recognize their paternity and inscribe their names on the children's birth registries. Project staff also sometimes formalize child support arrangements, although this is not the primary objective. Instead, Responsible Paternity projects (as most of them are known) seek to free children from the social stigma of illegitimate birth, thus protecting their constitutional right to equality and human dignity.

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Introduction
Information
Law and History Review , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , February 2012 , pp. 1 - 36
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Copyright © the American Society for Legal History, Inc. 2012

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References

1. There are no official statistics regarding paternal recognition. The estimate of 25 percent was calculated by sociologist Ana Liési Thurler, based on national statistics on children born out of wedlock (57.5 percent of those born between 1984 and 1993; Thurler estimates that the proportion is 66 percent in 2010), and her research at notary offices in Brasília. See Thurler, , Em Nome da Mãe. O não reconhecimento paterno no Brasil (Florianópolis: Editora Mulheres, 2009), 117Google Scholar. The newspaper O Globo reports that the Conselho Nacional de Justiça (CNJ), makes similar estimates. Benevides, Carolina and Tabak, Flávio, “Em busca do nome do pai,” O Globo, January 10, 2010Google Scholarhttp://oglobo.globo.com/pais/mat/2010/01/09/em-busca-do-nome-do-pai-uma-em-cada-quatro-criancas-nao-tem-dados-paternos-na-certidao-915497191.asp The O Globo reporters, however, quote a National Institute of Educational Research (INEP) official who told them that 9.2 percent of school-age children were registered without information about their fathers in the 2009 Educational Census. The Associação dos Registradores de Pessoas Naturais de São Paulo (Association of Registrars of Persons—Arpen SP) provided a similar estimate, without indicating how the data was generated: 5–7 percent of school-aged children in São Paulo and 10–12 percent in Brazil were not recognized by their fathers. See “Projeto Pai Legal,” June 28, 2006, http://www.arpensp.org.br/principal/index.cfm?tipo_layout=BC1&pagina_id=213 a

aAll websites cited in this article were accessed on June 22, 2010 unless otherwise indicated.

2. Brazil, Constituição da República dos Estados Unidos do Brasil (de 16 de julho de 1934), Diário Oficial da União, July 16, 1934 (Art. 144); Constituição dos Estados Unidos do Brasil (de 10 de novembro de 1937), Diário Oficial da União, November 10, 1937 (Art. 124); Constituição dos Estados Unidos do Brasil (18 de setembro de 1946), Diário Oficial da União, September 19, 1946 (Art. 163); Constituição do Brasil (24 de janeiro de 1967), Diário Oficial da União October 20, 1967 (Art. 167). There is slight variation in wording among the four documents. The full text of most federal legislation passed since the nineteenth century, and much earlier legislation, including all constitutions and civil codes, is available through online databases on the Brazilian Senate and Presidential websites: http://www6.senado.gov.br/sicon/; http://www4.planalto.gov.br/legislacao

3. Women were classified as “inactive citizens,” not permitted to vote or hold public office (until 1932). Married women were not permitted to manage their property, represent themselves or their children (for example, in court), or work outside the home without their husband's permission. See Arts. 6, 233, 242, 380, and 393 in Clóvis Bevilaqua, Código Civil dos Estados Unidos do Brasil comentado por Clóvis Bevilaqua, 9th ed. (Rio de Janeiro: Livraria Francisco Alves, 1951), 1: 196; 2: 110–11, 127–28, 358–59, 378. Many of the restrictions on married women's civil rights were lifted by Lei 4.121 de 27 de agôsto de 1962, Diário Oficial da União, September 3, 1962, 009125. The first major family benefits legislation is Decreto-lei n. 3,200 de 19 de abril de 1941, Coleção de Leis do Brasil, December 12, 1941, 55; revised by Decreto-lei 3284 de 19 de maio de 1941, Coleção de Leis do Brasil, December 31, 1941, 133.

4. In Brazil, as in other countries with a civil law tradition, “jurisprudence” is used to refer to interpretations developed over time through trial verdicts, much as “case law” is used in common law countries.

5. Brazil, Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil, Diário Oficial da União—Anexo, October 5, 1988 (hereafter 1988 Constitution) (Art. 1, para. 3).

6. Ibid., Arts. 226 and 227.

7. See Wertheimer, Laura, “Children of Disorder: Clerical Parentage, Illegitimacy, and Reform in the Middle Ages,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 15 (2006): 382–407, esp. 385–90CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Brundage, James A., “Concubinage and Marriage in Medieval Canon Law,” in Sexual Practices and the Medieval Church, ed. Bullough, Vern L. and Brundage, James A. (Buffalo, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1982), 118–28Google Scholar.

8. For a discussion of Church attempts to implement Tridentine reforms in colonial Brazil, particularly those related to sacramental marriage and sexual morality, see Vainfas, Ronaldo, Trópico dos pecados: moral, sexualidade e inquisição no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Campus, 1989)Google Scholar.

9. Other factors included “migration, slavery, poverty, and even small community size—implying an imbalance in prospective partners due to sex or age ratios.” Lewin, Linda, Surprise Heirs I: Illegitimacy, Patrimonial Rights, and Legal Nationalism in Luso-Brazilian Inheritance, 1750–1821 (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2003), 43, 40Google Scholar.

10. Almeida, Candido Mendes de, Código Philippino ou Ordenações e Leis do Reino de Portugal (Rio de Janeiro: Typ. do Instituto Philomathico, 1879), Book 4, Titles 92–93, 939–47Google Scholar.

11. Ibid., Book 4, Title 92, 939–41; Lewin, Surprise Heirs I, 44–47.

12. Lewin, Surprise Heirs I, 47–51.

13. Muriel Nazzari makes this point regarding honor in Brazil in “An Urgent Need to Conceal,” in The Faces of Honor: Sex, Shame, and Violence in Colonial Latin America, ed. Johnson, Lyman and Lipsett-Rivera, Sonia (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998), 103–26Google Scholar. This social mechanism for ascribing honor was common to Latin America as a whole. See the other chapters in Johnson and Lipsett-Rivera, The Faces of Honor; and Twinam, Ann, Public Lives, Private Secrets: Gender, Honor, Sexuality, and Illegitimacy in Colonial Spanish America (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999)Google Scholar.

14. Almeida, Código Philipino, Book 4, Titles 92, para. 1, 93, 942–47.

15. Lewin, Surprise Heirs I. Lewin summarizes the rules regarding legitimization on pp. 57–67.

16. Two good, although outdated, reviews of this substantial literature are de Castro Faria, Sheila, “História da família e demografia histórica,” in Domínios da história, ed. Cardoso, Ciro Flamarian and Vainfas, Ronaldo, (Rio de Janeiro: Campus, 1997), 241–58Google Scholar; and Kuznesof, Elizabeth Ann, “Sexuality, Gender and the Family in Colonial Brazil,” Luso-Brazilian Review 30 (1993): 119–32Google Scholar. For a more recent work on colonial social and religious values, see Schwartz, Stuart, All Can Be Saved: Religious Tolerance in the Iberian Atlantic World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), chap. 7Google Scholar.

17. Lewin, Surprise Heirs I, 72–74.

18. Ibid. For discussion of similar liberal goals in other parts of Latin America, see Caulfield, Sueann, Chambers, Sarah, and Putnam, Lara, Introduction to Honor, Status, and Law in Modern Latin American History, ed. Caulfield, Sueann, Chambers, Sarah, and Putnam, Lara (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005), 1–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19. Lewin, Linda, Surprise Heirs II: Illegitimacy, Inheritance Rights, and Public Power in the Formation of Imperial Brazil, 1822–1889 (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2003), 136–37Google Scholar.

20. Ibid., chaps. 8–9.

21. Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia (APEB), seção judiciário, núcleo Justiça de Relação, 55/1958/02, Carta de legitimação, Jesus, Hermelinda Perminia de, 1889. The woman's inheritance claims were appealed first by her grandfather, and later by a man he named “universal heir” in his will. This man was the grandfather's former slave, which, according to the granddaughter, made her loss especially hurtful.

22. A study of norms regarding priestly celibacy in another Brazilian city (Mariana, Minas Gerais) between 1770 and 1829 shows that many priests used wills to legitimize and endow sacrilegious offspring. Lewcowicz, Ida, “A fragilidade do celibato,” in Mulheres, adultérios e padres, ed. Lana Lage da Gama e Lima, (Rio de Janeiro: Raymundo Paula de Arruda, 1987), 53–68, esp. 63–65Google Scholar.

23. In his commentaries on the 1916 Civil Code, which he authored, the jurist Clóvis Bevilaqua reiterates an expression common to nineteenth-century jurisprudence: “os filhos ilegítimos são estranhos à família,” literally, illegitimate children are strangers to [do not belong in] the family. Bevilaqua, Código Civil 2: 330.

24. Decreto N. 181 de 24 de janeiro de 1890, Coleção de Leis do Brasil, December 31, 1890, 168. Article 144 of the 1934 Constitution reinstated the civil effects of religious marriages, regulated by lei n. 379 de 16 de janeiro de 1937, Diário Oficial da União (January 20, 1937): 1578.

25. Bevilaqua, Código Civil, 1:181. Bevilaqua condemns congress for denying family rights to illegitimate children in Código Civil, 1:28 and 2: 329–30.

26. Art. 2, in Bevilaqua, Código Civil, 1: 179.

27. Bevilaqua, Código Civil, 2: 329. See also Bevilaqua, Código Civil, 1: 26–28.

28. Arts. 58 and 59, Decreto 9886 de 7 de março de 1888, Coleção de Leis do Brasil, December 31, 1888 and Arts. 74 and 68, Decreto n. 18.542 de 24 de dezembro de, 1928, Coleção de Leis do Brasil (December 31, 1928): 630Google Scholar.

29. Spurious children could receive child support if their father “confessed” his crime, confirming the children's “spurious filiation,” or if this were proven in court. Arts. 379 and 405 in Bevilaqua, Código Civil 2: 356, 394.

30. Art. 364, Bevilaqua, Código Civil, 2: 335.

31. Decreto-lei n. 4.737 de 24 de setembro de 1942, Diário Oficial da União, September 26, 1942, 014435 1, replaced by Lei 883 de 21 de outubro de 1949, Diário Oficial da União, October 26, 1949, 015186 1; the latter law specified that such children had the right to half of the inheritance due legitimate children.

32. “Natural” still referred to out-of-wedlock children in popular speech, but the code created a new legal definition for “natural” filiation, which now referred to blood ties or adoption, as opposed to legitimacy. Art. 332, Bevilaqua, Código Civil 2.

33. Arts. 355, 364, Bevilaqua, Código Civil, 2: 327, 341.

34. Art. 363, Bevilaqua, Código Civil 2: 334–35.

35. This usage was controversial because “possession of status” appears in the civil code only indirectly as admissible evidence of filiation, and only in the section that outlines how to prove legitimacy in the absence of a birth certificate: “when there are strong presumptions that result from known facts.” Art. 349, para. 2, in Bevilaqua, Código Civil 2.

36. APEB, Auto civel 2, série investigação de paternidade, 20/693/4, 1973; APEB, Auto civel 2, série investigação de paternidade, 87/3112/2, 1967. Names are pseudonymous.

37. This paragraph is based on my reading of the verdicts of 150 paternity suits dating from 1900 to 1973 from the APEB and Arquivo Nacional in Rio de Janeiro.

38. Francisco Pereira de Bulhões Carvalho, “Direito de indenização da concubina,” Revista dos Tribunais 216 (1953): 13–31Google Scholar; and de Araújo Mendes, Eugenia Carla, “A situação da companheira na previdência social,” Revista Ciência Política 28 (1985): 51–60Google Scholar.

39. Supremo Tribunal Federal, Súmula 380, March 4, 1964, Diário da Justiça, August 5, 1964, 1237. http://www.stf.jus.br/portal/jurisprudencia/listarJurisprudencia.asp?s1=380.NUME.%20NAO%20S.FLSV.&base=baseSumulas

40. “For the effects of State protection, the stable union between a man and a woman is recognized as a family entity, [and] the law should facilitate its conversion into marriage.” Art. 226 para, 3, 1988 Constitution.

41. Ibid, para. 4.

42. Art. 227, para. 6, 1988 Constitution.

43. \Arts. 20 and 27, Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente—ECA, Lei 8069 de 13 de julho de 1990, Diário Oficial da União (July 16, 1990): 13563.

44. Lei 8.560 de 29 de Dezembro de 1992, Diário Oficial da União (December 30, 1992): 18417. As of 1975, birth status appeared on birth certificates only “by request of the interested party or judicial determination.” Lei 6.216 de 30 de junho de 1975, Diário Oficial da União (July 1, 1975): 78972.

45. Art. 3 para. 3, 1988 Constitution.

46. Art. 6, United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, December 10, 1948, http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/; Arts. 7, items 1–2 and Art. 8, items 1–2, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, November 20, 1989, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm For discussion of the relationship of these conventions to Brazilian laws, see Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), “Análise dos resultados,” Estatísticas do Registro Civil, v.33, 2006, http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/registrocivil/2006/comentarios.pdf

47. Lei 10.317 de 6 de dezembro de 2001, Diário Oficial da União (December 7, 2001): 10.

48. Marianna Chaves and Enrique Varsi Rospigliosi, “Paternidad socioafectiva: del imperio del biologismo a la consagración del afecto,” Revista Jus Navigandi—Doutrina e Peças, January 2010, http://jus.uol.com.br/revista/texto/18916/paternidad-socioafectiva; Lobo, Paulo Luiz Netto, “Direito ao estado de filiação e direito à origem genética: uma distinção necessária,” Revista Centro de Estudos Judiciários do Conselho da Justiça Federal, Brasília 8 (2004): 47–56Google Scholar and “Princípio jurídico da afetividade na filiação,” March 2000,—Revista Jus Navigandi—Doutrina e Peças. http://jus.uol.com.br/revista/texto/527/principio-juridico-da-afetividade-na-filiacao

49. Art. 226 para. 3 and Art. 227 para. 6, 1988 Constitution; Lei 9278 de 10 de maio de 1996—Lei da União Estavel, Diário Oficial da União May 13, 1996, 008149.

50. Art. 5, Lei 11340 of August 7, 2006, Diário Oficial da União (August 8, 2006): 1.

51. Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), Ação Direta de Inconstitucionalidade (Med. Liminar) 4277–7, October 14, 2009 http://stf.jus.br/portal/peticaoInicial/verPeticaoInicial.asp?base=ADIN&s1=4277&processo=4277. This case was initiated in 2009 by the Federal District Public Ministry, which asked the Court to declare the stable union law unconstitutional because it discriminated against same-sex couples. This petition was attached to a suit filed in 2008 by the Governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, who argued that legal discrimination against gay couples constituted “Noncompliance with a Fundamental Precept.” All of the documents reviewed by the Court are available online: STF, Argüição de Descumprimento de Preceito Fundamental ADPF/132, Febuary 25, 2008 [hereafter STF ADPF/132]. http://redir.stf.jus.br/estfvisualizadorpub/jsp/consultarprocessoeletronico/ConsultarProcessoEletronico.jsf?seqobjetoincidente=2598238.

52. Green, James Naylor, “(Homo)sexuality, Human Rights, and Revolution in Latin America,” in Human Rights and Revolutions, ed. Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N., Grandin, Greg, Hunt, Lynn, and Young, Marilyn B. (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007), 139–54Google Scholar.

53. Art. 226, para. 3, 1988 Constitution; Lei 9278 de 10 de março de 1996, Diário Oficial da União, May 13, 1996, 2: 8149; Art. 1723, Código Civil de 2002 (Lei NO 10.406, de 10 de janeiro de 2002), Diário Oficial da União (January 11, 2002).

54. Some of the relevant bills are included in Dias, Maria Berenice, União homossexual: O preconceito e a justiça (Porto Alegre, Brazil: Livraria do Advogado, 2006), 163–76Google Scholar. Explicit recognition of same-sex couples' rights to adopt was included in a congressional bill to reform adoption regulations, but the bill passed only after its author caved in to demands by conservative representatives to strike this recognition. See “Lula sanciona Lei Nacional da Adoção,” Globo online August 4, 2009, http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Politica/0,MUL1252714-5601,00-LULA+SANCIONA+NOVA+LEI+DA+ADOCAO+NO+PAIS.html

55. See Gerivaldo Alves Neiva, “A união homoafetiva na jurisprudência,” Revista Jus Navigandi, February 2009. http://jus.uol.com.br/revista/texto/12409/a-uniao-homoafetiva-na-jurisprudencia; Des. Arminio José Abreu Lima da Rosa, President, Tribunal da Justiça, Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, Ofício 124/2008 SECPRES, Processo 139-08/000144-2, April 4, 2008, annexed to STF ADPF/132, 25 Feb. 2008. For the history of the Rio Grande do Sul jurisprudence, see Dias, Maria Berenice, Homoafetividade: o que diz a justiça! As pioneiras decisões do Tribunal de Justiça do Rio Grande do Sul que reconhecem direitos às uniões homossexuais (Porto Alegre: Livraria do Advogado Editora, 2003)Google Scholar.

56. Judges followed Article 126 of the 1973 Code of Civil Procedure: “Judges may not refrain from ruling by citing a legal void or uncertainty. Judge must apply legal norms; in their absence, s/he should turn to analogy, customs, and the general principles of law.” Lei 5.869 de 11 de janeiro de 1973, http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/LEIS/L5869.htm

57. The right to federal social security benefits was secured through a court-ordered federal regulation in 2000: Ação civil pública nº 2000.71.00.009347; Instrução Normativa 25/2000, Instituto Nacional de Seguridade Social (INSS). See the information regarding beneficiaries on the INSS website: http://www.inss.gov.br/conteudoDinamico.php?id=87.

58. STF ADPF/132. The website of the Rio de Janeiro State Justice Tribunal (Tribunal de Justiça) has a searchable database of appeals decisions from 1974 to the present: http://www.tjrj.jus.br. I found sixteen cases involving the question of whether the family court has jurisdiction regarding same-sex unions. The answer was yes only in the penultimate case: TJRJ Processo n. 0009734-24.2010.8.19 (April 28, 2010) http://www.tjrj.jus.br/scripts/weblink.mgw?MGWLPN=JURIS&LAB=CONxWEB&PORTAL=1&PORTAL=1&PGM=WEBPCNU88&N=201000800102&Consulta=&CNJ=0009734-24.2010.8.19.000. This issue has reached the courts with increasing frequency, suggesting that since 2007, more and more family courts in Rio de Janeiro were accepting cases involving same-sex couples. This hypothesis was supported by Rio de Janeiro family court judge Marise Cunha de Souza (Juíza de Direito da 2a Vara de Família Regional da Ilha do Governador), in an interview with me on July 26, 2010.

59. Marcelo Alves Henrique Pinto Moreira and Amanda Franco Machado, “Adoção conjunta por casais homoafetivos,” Revista Jus Navigandi, May 2009, http://jus.uol.com.br/revista/texto/12958/adocao-conjunta-por-casais-homoafetivos; Apelação Civil 70013801592, 7a. Câmera Cível TJRS, Diário da Justiça April 12, 2006.

60. In April 2010, the highest Federal Court of Appeals, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, upheld the joint adoption of two children by a lesbian couple in Rio Grande do Sul. This decision set a powerful jurisprudential precedent, but unlike the 2011 Supreme Court decision, it was not binding. Decisão: STJ mantém adoção de crianças por casal homossexual (versão atualizada),” April 27, 2010, http://www.stj.jus.br/portal_stj/publicacao/engine.wsp?tmp.area=398&tmp.texto=96931.

61. For discussion of various traditional forms of informal adoption in Brazil, including “Brazilian-style adoption,” see Marlusse Pestana Daher, “Adoção nuncupativa,” Jus Navigandi, Teresina, 6, n. 52, November 2001. http://jus2.uol.com.br/doutrina/texto.asp?id=2371 See also Kopper, Max Guerra, “Adoção à brasileira—existência, efeitos e desconstituição,” Revista da FESMPDFT Brasília 7 (1999): 119–33Google Scholar. “Brazilian-style adoption” also permitted prospective parents to evade regulations that restricted adoptive children's inheritance and other family rights. Although such restrictions were eliminated by the 1988 Constitution, bureaucracy remained cumbersome and the “Brazilian-style” evasion of the law remains common.

62. Fonseca, Claudia, “A certeza que pariu a dúvida: paternidade e DNA,” Estudos Feministas 12 (2004): 13–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

63. Fonseca, “A certeza que pariu a dúvida.” See also Luciana Garbin, “Um teste de DNA  - e, de repente, pai. Com resultado, a decepção: filho registrado não era seu,” O Estado de São Paulo, Metrópole, August 14, 2005, C8.

64. Senator Valmir Amaral, Projeto de Lei do Senado 116 de 22 de junho de 2001, Diário do Senado Federal, Suplemento 228-B, December 22, 2006, 43.http://www.senado.gov.br/atividade/materia/detalhes.asp?p_cod_mate=47600.

65. Superior Tribunal de Justiça (STJ), REsp 833712/RS 2006/0070609-4 (ACÓRDÃO), Diaro da Justiça, June 4, 2007, 347 https://ww2.stj.jus.br/revistaeletronica/Abre_Documento.asp?sLink=ATC&sSeq=3047854&sReg=200600706094&sData=20070604&sTipo=5&formato=PDF. The STJ permitted a father who claimed he had been deceived into declaring paternity to annul the child's registry in REsp 878954/RS 2006/0182349-0, Diário da Justiça, 101 section 1 (May 28, 2007): 339, https://ww2.stj.jus.br/revistaeletronica/ita.asp?registro=200601823490&dt_publicacao=28/05/2007. In contrast, in a 2009 case, the STJ held that nullification of paternity in cases of “Brazilian adoption” was permissible only in the absence of an affective relationship. Superior Tribunal de Justiça, Recurso Especial Nº 1.088.157 - PB (2008/0199564-3), Revista Eletrônica da Jurisprudência, August 4, 2009 http://www.stj.gov.br/webstj/processo/justica/detalhe.asp?numreg=200801995643. For legal scholarship on the issue, see Kopper, “Adoção à brasileira”; Paulo Luiz Netto Lobo, , “Direito ao estado de filiação e direito à origem genética,” Revista CEJ, Brasília 8 (2004): 47–56Google Scholar; Paulo Luiz Netto Lobo, “Paternidade socioafetiva e o retrocesso da Súmula no 301 do STJ,” Revista Jus Navigandi, October 2005, http://jus.uol.com.br/revista/texto/8333/paternidade-socioafetiva-e-o-retrocesso-da-sumula-no-301-do-stj.

66. The most recent phase of the campaign, “Mobilização Nacional do Plano Social Registro Civil de Nascimento e Documentação Básica,” was instituted in 2004 by the Special Secretariat of Human Rights and supported by Decree 6289 of December 6, 2007. A continuation of a campaign initiated in 1999, the new phase involves 19 federal agencies, the public ministries in each state, and other governmental and nongovernmental organizations. These data are published on the campaign's website: http://certidaodenascimento.gov.br/wordpress/?pageid=2. The benefits of civil documents first became significant with the expansion of state bureaucracies and services in the 1930s, when the undocumented population ranged from 36 percent in São Paulo to 99 percent in the northeastern region. Fischer, Brodwyn, A Poverty of Rights: Citizenship and Inequality in Twentieth-Century Rio de Janeiro (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008), 120–21Google Scholar.

67. The conceptual link between citizens who lack civil documents and children not recognized by their fathers helps to explain why, as anthropologist Claudia Fonseca has noted, these two social issues are often conflated. Claudia Fonseca, “When Technology, Law and Family Converge: Filiation, Gender Relations and DNA paternity tests in Brazil,” paper presented at the American Historical Association Meeting, San Diego, January 8, 2010, cited with permission.

68. See Ana Liési Thurler's article on the history of the program on the Federal District Public Ministry's website: “Socióloga publica artigo sobre atuação da PROFIDE em comemoração aos 15 anos da Lei da Paternidade,” Ministério Público do Distrito Federal http://www.mpdft.gov.br/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=145&Itemid=342. Thurler describes this and similar programs in various Brazilian states in Thurler Em nome da mãe.

69. “Corregedoria do CNJ Vai Lançar Campanha Nacional pela Paternidade Responsável,” http://www.cnj.jus.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8355&Itemid=675

70. Ministério Público do Estado da Bahia [hereafter MPEB], “Relatório de Atividades 2008,” Salvador, 2009, 45. For a sketch of the program's history, see MPEB, “Relatório de Atividades 2009,” Salvador, 2010, 61–62. Annual reports from 2005 to 2010 are available online at http://www.mp.ba.gov.br/pga/publicacoes.asp

71. Art. 226, para. 7 and Art. 279, para. 1, 1988 Constitution. The same language appears in the Bahian State Constitution: Constituição do Estado da Bahia Promulgada em 05 de outubro de 1989 http://www.mp.ba.gov.br/institucional/legislacao/constituicao_bahia.pdf

72. Author's interview with José Ferreira de Souza Filho, Director, Centro de Apoio Operacional às Promotorias de Justiça Cíveis e Fundações (CAOCIF), MPEB, Salvador, Bahia, August 23, 2006.

73. This pamphlet also includes information on the program's legal basis and rationale. MPEB, Núcleu de Promoção da Paternidade Responsável—NUPAR, “Cartilha Informativa,” Salvador, 2009[?].http://www.mp.ba.gov.br/atuacao/caocif/paternidade/cartilha_NUPAR.pdf.

74. Public presentation by a CAOCIF “Responsible Paternity Project” social worker at a public elementary school in Salvador, Bahia, August 25, 2006.

75. Ibid.

76. MPEB, “Relatório de Atividades 2006,” Salvador, 2007, 59. See also “Relatório de Atividades 2007,” 65; “Relatório de Atividades 2008,” 61. Although the data presented for 2006 show the highest proportional numbers of “spontaneous recognition of paternity,” the numbers seem to remain high over the next few years. In 2008, 68 percent of the “alleged fathers” who received notification recognized their children (comparable data are not available for 2007 or 2009). Of the initial contacts with mothers in Salvador, 54 percent resulted in paternal recognition in 2006, 63 percent in 2007, and 47 percent in 2008 (comparable data are not available for 2009).

77. These names are pseudonymous. The prosecutor explained to the couple that they could choose to add or subtract surnames, as long as they kept at least one paternal surname, and that they could not change the child's first name. This exchange took place during the prosecutor's interviews with parents at CAOCIF, MPEB, Salvador, Bahia, August 23, 2006.

78. Responsible Paternity Project prosecutor during interviews with parents at CAOCIF, MPEB, Salvador, Bahia, August 23, 2006.

79. “PJ cria núcleo para fomentar paternidade responsável” http://www.mp.ba.gov.br/noticias/2008/jan_09_paternidade.asp.

80. In addition to bringing the Responsible Paternity program to remote areas, this mobile ministry provides other services such as assistance with obtaining civil documents or access to benefits programs. See MPEB, “Relatório de Atividades 2008,” 54–59 and “Relatório de Atividades 2009,” 66–69. For information on the original “MP Vai às Ruas” program, created in 1997, see Maria Alcina Pipolo, “Alagados será o primeiro bairro a receber ônibus itinerante do MP em 2010,” http://www.mp.ba.gov.br/atuacao/caocif/visualizar.asp?cont=2110, posted February 24, 2010.

81. “PGJ apresenta resultados da atuação do MP em 2009,” December 22, 2009, http://www.mp.ba.gov.br/visualizar.asp?cont=2019.

82. MPEB, “Relatório de Atividades 2006,” 57, 58; “Relatório de Atividades 2009,” 63; “Planejamento Estratégico, Caderno de Metas,” Salvador, março de 2007, 34. “Relatório de Atividades 2008,” 45.

83. Pipolo, “Alagados será o primeiro bairro.”

84. MPEB, “Relatório de Atividades 2009,” 68.

85. Lei 10.317 de 6 de dezembro de 2001, Diário Oficial da União, December 7, 2001, 10. The Bahian Paternidade Responsável project has attempted to find ways to fund DNA testing, but as of 2010, had managed only to negotiate a reduced price with providers. See MPEB, “Relatório de atividades 2009,” 65. The same was true in many other states, with Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina being exceptions. See Fonseca, “A certeza que pariu a dúvida.”

86. MPEB, “Relatório de atividades 2007,” 66; “Relatório de atividades 2009,” 74.

87. Luciene Correia, “Crianças ficam sem o nome do pai na certidão de nascimento pelos desencontros entre homens e mulheres que as geraram,” Portal Setor 3, October 8, 2007, http://www.setor3.com.br/senac2/calandra.nsf/0/F58A8A76F620467B832573330047C18B?OpenDocument&pub=T&proj=Setor3&sec=REPORTER+S3.

88. Luciene Correia, “A criança precisa conhecer seu pai, não só por uma questão legal, mas principalmente pela necessidade emocional,” Setor3 Senac São Paulo, August 10, 2007, http://www.setor3.com.br/jsp/default.jsp?tab=00002&newsID=a4260.htm&subTab=00000&uf=&local=&testeira=33&l=&template=58.dwt&unit=&sectid=185.

89. Personal communication with Responsible Paternity attorneys, Salvador, Bahia, August 28, 2006.

90. Personal communication with Responsible Paternity social worker, Salvador, Bahia, August 25, 2006.

91. Art. 2, para. 1, Lei 8.560, de 29 de dezembro de 1992.

92. Projeto de Lei do Senado No. 101 de 2007, Diário do Senado Federal, March 14, 2007, 4936–53.

93. Lei 12.004 de 31 de julho de 2009, Diário Oficial da União, July 31, 2009, secção 1 p. 3. The presumption of paternity had already been established in jurisprudence by a non-binding Superior Tribunal directive: Súmula 301 do STJ, Diário da Justiça, November 22, 2004, 425. The 2009 law establishes that this presumption is not “absolute” or automatic, but must be supported by other evidence. A bill currently before the senate would remove this qualification, making presumption of paternity automatic if the father refuses the examination. Under this bill, paternity would also be presumed in the father's absence if his relatives refuse the DNA examination. Projeto de Lei do Senado 413 de 2009, Diário do Senado Federal, September 18 2009.

94. The thesis cited is Ana Liési Thurler, “Paternidade e Deserção – Crianças sem Reconhecimento, Maternidades Penalizadas pelo Sexismo” (PhD diss., Sociology Department, Universidade de Brasília, 2004). The Constitution guarantees the right to privacy in Art. 5, para. 1.

95. Correia, “Crianças ficam sem o nome do pai.”

96. See Fischer, A Poverty of Rights.