Floating justice

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 July 2022

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The city of Macapá is in the middle of a river archipelago with around 50 villages and 14,000 inhabitants, where the Amazon meets the Atlantic Ocean. Some of these communities are almost impossible to reach, with dense mangroves and fluctuating water levels making the journey dangerous. For a long time, conflicts were resolved by local leaders, from theft, to land disputes, to rape. The machete was often the quickest recourse to justice. Judge Sueli Pini visited Macapá 20 years ago. Seeing the problem, she founded a system that’s unique in the world, the “floating court.”

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	On the podium season 2 is available now.
0:03.5	Like many people in this world I had never seen an Olympic medal before.
0:08.0	Bringing you more remarkable stories of Olympic and Paralympic athletes and their incredible journeys to the podium.
0:15.1	This is my dream and it's came through that day.
0:17.6	Find out more at the end of this podcast.
0:20.4	We're leaving the ship, driving out into the open water.
0:30.4	In the middle of the Amazon there are moments where the river banks disappear.
0:34.4	It feels like driving on the open sea.
0:38.4	The waves are getting higher, the currents are so strong after a while you forget which way the river is flowing.
0:54.4	I'm on a speedboat on the Amazon river.
0:56.4	Sitting next to three policemen, they're looking for a fugitive.
1:00.4	One of them, Commandant Bathal Emile, noticed a small canoe, a man standing inside with a giant paddle in hand.
1:07.4	Bathal Emile draws his gun and waves the man over.
1:15.4	The man's name is Wallace.
1:17.4	Bathal Emile asks him if he knows the fugitive.
1:21.4	A man named Adrien.
1:25.4	Wallace is clearly scared.
1:27.4	He shrugs, gestures like he has no idea and then points towards a small river on.
1:33.4	That'd be his best guess.
1:51.4	This morning at 6am the policemen left the headquarters, located on a steamboat floating on the Amazon river.
1:59.4	We're on board to accompany policemen, youth welfare workers, psychologists.
2:03.4	And a full working court.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.