Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro taught for many years at the University of São Paulo, where he directed the Centre for the Study of Violence. He is chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic.
In Rio de Janeiro in the 1950s, we barely noticed the shacks on the sides of Two Brothers Mountain, which would later become the favela of Rocinha – barely noticed them at least from the beachfront neighbourhood of Leblon where I lived. To reach Rocinha, you had to take a road famous for a dramatic hairpin bend on the Gávea racing-car circuit, then one of the most dangerous...
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