Permanent Forum of Non-Governmental Organizations in Defense of the Child and Adolescent – DCA Forum

The project aims to strengthen efforts to create an observatory for the rights of childhood and youth with a focus on the institutional violence that adolescents face in detention facilities in the state of Ceará. The idea is to increase visibility of the reality of the socioeducational system; mobilizing youth, the community and human rights organizations to debate, denounce and intervene in this reality, while raising awareness about the cultural hegemony that criminalizes poor, black youth and generates high rates of homicide and violence against youth in the state.

– Consolidating, through meetings and debates, human rights organizations toward the creation of an observatory for the rights of adolescents in the socioeducational system.

– Holding visits to the responsible administrative bodies of this system.

– Organizing and mobilizing, through discussion groups and campaigns, a group of mothers of adolescents so that they can report violations that occur in the socioeducational system and self-organize in defense of human rights.

– Strengthening adolescent groups to create a video denunciation of the socioeducational system and criminalization of this segment of society.

Ceará is noted to be one of the states with the highest adolescent incarceration rate, which leads to overcrowded detention units, resulting in torture by agents as well as cases of deaths and serious injuries. According to a study by the Special Secretary of Human Rights in 2010, in relation to 2009, there was a 5.04% increase in sentences, 30.77% provisional detention and 39.63% in restricted liberty, all above the national averages. Ceará was fourth among states in total adolescent incarceration with, at the time, 1,083 adolescents serving socioeducational sentences. While the national average is 8.8 adolescents detained per ten thousand, in Ceará the number rises to 10.3

In addition to this context, Ceará’s number of adolescent deaths has also risen considerably. This problem is an extension of the what happens in detention units, since many youths murdered are former socioeducational system detainees. According to the most recent Map of Violence, the homicide rate among youths in Ceará rose 171.6% in just the last decade.

The DCA Forum – Ceará is a collection of non-governmental entities that act in defense and promotion of the rights of the child and adolescent. Its values are against any religious, ethnic, party, age and gender discrimination and its commitment is to strengthen organized civil society for social control of public policies and actions dealing with upholding human rights for children and adolescents.

FDCA is part of the National Children and Adolescents Defense Forum.

There was a mobilization by mothers in defense of rights and education in human rights, with  activities such as discussion groups about the rights of children and adolescents, campaigns and mobilizations against the violence and criminalization of youth, groups for exchanging experiences with representatives of mothers associations and movements from other states, as well as the production of a video denunciation of the socioeducational system and criminalization of this segment of society.

The video can be seen  here.