The Brazilian Senate approved on Tuesday (Jul 16) an agreement between Brazil and China aimed at accelerating extradition processes. The poll for the deal took place in 2004, a day before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Brazil’s National Congress. He came to the country for a BRICS summit (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).

The main topic addressed by the deal is Interpol’s permission to issue preventive detention orders for extradition purposes and engage diplomatic bodies in order to follow bureaucratic procedures. This should make extradition processes faster and more efficient.

The agreement does not include significant changes in matters already settled by international law. It is, for instance, not legal to extradite citizens born in the country receiving the extradition request; and it also not allowed to extradite an individual when the punishment imposed conflicts with the law in the country to effect the extradition. Brazil, for example, would not be permitted to extradite people sentenced to death in China.

Additionally, the country to whom the request is sent may also deny a person’s extradition if the authorities believe that the reason for the request is connected with persecution based on religion, skin color, race, or with other types of human rights violations.

The extradition is optional and may be turned down due to humanitarian criteria, like old age, or a poor health condition.

Since the deal has been approved by the Chamber of Deputies, it is now pending ratification by the Presidency.