72º RELATÓRIO ANUAL

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At some time in their life, everyone experiences
the delicate moment of the loss of a loved one.
Whether or not it was foreseen, death brings
with it pain, but it also demands a series of
subsequent practical measures. What do we
have to do? How should we act? Organized by
mothers who lost their children, Instituto Mães
Sem Nome (“Nameless Mothers’ Institute”)
identified the need to create material to address
the practical consequences of death. The idea
gave rise to the “Legal Leaflet for the Bereaved:
practical and legal guidance for families,”
developed in partnership with the FGV, through
its Rio de Janeiro Law School (Direito Rio).
Produced by 44 undergraduate students at the
law school, within the scope of the Nucleus for
Legal Practice (NPJ), the leaflet was launched in
2016 with the aim of showing all the legal and
administrative steps people need to take when
they lose a loved one. The publication provides
guidance in simple, direct language.
Divided into six sections, the leaflet addresses
the following topics: procedures in line with
location of death (at home, in the street, or
abroad); cases of disappearance; funeral issues
(burial, cremation, declaration of death, and
death certificate); assets and inheritance law
(judicial and extrajudicial inventory); pensions
and insurance; and cancelation of records,
passport, ID documents, and bank accounts.
The question and answer format lets readers
directly look for topics of interest. The set
of questions and answers was based on the
experiences of the mothers themselves, who
took a questionnaire, enabling the most common
queries to be mapped.
The leaflet also provides brief guidance on how
to activate insurers, apply for pension rights,
initiate the inventory process, share out assets,
receive small sums left by the deceased party,
report violations of rights, and respond in the
case of violent deaths.
Above all, the publication reflects one of the
objectives of the Rio de Janeiro Law School’s
Nucleus for Legal Practice, namely to carry
out legal practice activities aimed at having a
positive impact on institutions, society and the
formulation of public policy.
The complete leaflet is available, in Portuguese,
at