Originally called the National Human Rights Secretariat (Secretaria Nacional dos Direitos Humanos), it was initially attached to the Ministry of Justice.

[2] MDHC is headed by the Minister of Human Rights and Citizenship (Ministro dos Direitos Humanos e da Cidadania), a ministerial-level position.

In this respect, it functions as a conduit between other countries' central authorities and the various Regional Federal Tribunals in Brazil which deal with international child abduction cases.

[6] International outrage and a highly public campaign severely damaged the image of SDH and the Brazilian judiciary and Sean Goldman was eventually returned to his father in December 2009 only after the US government withdrew trade benefits from Brazil.

The Special Secretary for Human Rights, in what some have labeled a damage-limitation exercise, visited the US Department of State for a full week in November 2009 to review longstanding cases involving the abduction of US children.

During this trip, she and Brazilian Embassy officials met with the parents of children kidnapped and taken to Brazil, NGOs, members of the US Congress and a federal judge who works on Hague Convention cases.