Center for the Defense of Children’s and Adolescents’ Rights – Cedeca (Rio de Janeiro)

Objectives and Target Population:

Through the monitoring of shelters in the city of Rio de Janeiro and the creation of a video documentary, Cedeca-RJ will evaluate the effects of the current policy of compulsory apprehension of street children and/or crack users, which has been in effect for over a year, as of March 2012. The project’s focus will be pointing out contradictions and human rights violations inherent in this policy, from the perspective of the guiding, holistic protection described in the Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA).
Cedeca-RJ argues that the street kid phenomenon is a reflection of an intense process of exclusion, and ought to be taken on by the government, society and family with effective and appropriate measures that assure access to education, shelter and healthcare.

Main activities:

– Visit and monitor shelters in the city of Rio de Janeiro;

– Produce a video documentary;

– Once the findings are in from its study on the current reality in these shelters, the group will promote widespread public debate involving civil society, various figures from the rights movement, universities and the affected segments themselves, in order to soften public opinion and deconstruct the consensus on compulsory apprehension as a solution while giving other approaches and possibilities greater visibility.

Context:

In 2002 Rio de Janeiro City Hall was found guilty in two public civil suits and obliged to increase the Juvenile Mental Health Network, to promote health assistance programs and respectful treatment of street kids and provide shelters with the structural conditions to meet the norms prescribed in the ECA.
Currently the city provisions three shelters with scarce physical, human and material resources. According to the Popular Budgetary Forum, the municipality puts only 3% of its budget into Social Assistance and Citizens’ Rights.

Recently, with the mega-events of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics on the horizon, the city of Rio de Janeiro has gone through violent transformations that directly afflict historically vulnerable and marginalized segments of society.

Children and adolescents, especially those who live in the streets or use psychoactive substances (crack), are among the targets of the government’s repressive actions. Rio de Janeiro City Hall, with the ostensible presence of the police, has rounded up and apprehended kids in parts of downtown and in the favelas.

About the organization:

Cedeca-RJ’s mission is to promote the prevalence of and respect for human dignity through the social and legal defense of children’s and adolescents’ human rights, social mobilization and popular education. Besides orientation and social and legal assistance, the group holds training activities and participates in debates on public policies towards children and adolescents.

Partnerships:

The organization cooperates with: Rio Child Network; the National Network in Defense of Adolescents in Conflict with the Law; the National Association of Centers of Defense of Children and Adolescents (Anced – DCI Brasil); the Popular Budgetary Forum of Rio de Janeiro; Don’t Hit Network; Eduque; ECPAT Brasil; participation with the Human Rights Commission of the OAB/Rio de Janeiro; State Council on Children’s and Adolescents’ Rights and in partnership with the Regional Social Services Council and Rio de Janeiro Legislative Assembly’s Human Rights Commission.