CEDECA Ceará

Strengthen the policies that regulate the permanence of children and adolescents in youth detention centers of Ceará, with respect to the rights of this group in the State. Fighting torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment towards adolescents in Ceará. Increasing the transparency and social control of the socio-educational public policies in Ceará; Set the socio-educational system and the rights of adolescents in youth detention centers in the public agenda.

• Monitoring the socio-educational policy aimed at youth detention centers in the state of Ceará.
• Advocacy in national and international councils.
• Mobilization of groups of mothers and families of victims (community action).
• Implementation of public policies.
• Defense and accountability, as well as the prevention and fight against torture.
• Communication.

In the last two years, the socio-educational system in youth detention centers of Ceará is experiencing a crisis of human rights violations. In 2015, there were almost 60 riots and a teenager was killed during one of these episodes. As early as 2016, there were more than 400 breakouts and 80 conflicting episodes in the youth detention units of Ceará. In the first four months of 2017 there were about 25 riots in the state units. In addition to the repeated rebellions and mass escapes, this crisis manifests itself through institutional violence, marked by various reports of torture, ill-treatment, overcrowding, restriction of access to water, food, and family life, as well as the absence of schooling activities, of leisure, sport, culture, and professionalization. Such violations of human rights occur systematically in the ten youth detention centers in Ceará, which currently house about 800 adolescents and young people. CEDECA Ceará, together with the DCA Ceará Forum, has been monitoring the youth detention system since 2006, producing reports and triennial recommendations for the executive authorities and the Juvenile Justice System. Due to the lasting character of this serious context of human rights violations, CEDECA Ceará has been advocating nationally and internationally and it has also monitored national human rights bodies (CNDH, CONANDA, CNPCT, MNPCT) and international organizations (IACHR and UN – RPU).

Cedeca Ceará is a non-governmental organization that defends the rights of children and adolescents, especially when violated by public authorities. It has been working in the State of Ceará since 1994 through three main strategies: advocacy, social mobilization and production, and dissemination of critical knowledge. During this time, it has worked on issues such as the right to health, to the monitoring and control of public budgets, the right to participation, the fight against child labor and institutional violence and for the right to education.

- Fórum DCA/CE.
- National Association of Defense Centers.
- National Campaign for the Right to Education.
- Human Rights Platform - Dhesca Brasil.
- Great Jangurussu Articulation Network.
- Ancuri.
- Reajan.
- DLIS Network - Bairro Bom Jardim.