Initiative is from the Steering Committee of the University Pact for the Promotion of Respect for Diversity, the Culture of Peace and Human Rights
In May this year, as part of a set of inclusive actions, Unicamp joined the University Pact for the Promotion of Respect for Diversity, the Culture of Peace and Human Rights of the MEC/Ministry of Justice. To prepare the support and incentive plan for Human Rights research and practice at Unicamp, a Steering Committee was created linked to the Rector's Office and coordinated by professor Néri de Barros Almeida, from the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH).
The pact University for the Promotion of Respect for Diversity, the Culture of Peace and Human Rights It is part of a State policy that responds to the initiative launched by UNESCO in 2006 to promote Education in Human Rights. The UNESCO Action Plan was carried out in two stages, the second of which, implemented between 2010 and 2014, focused on Higher Education.
In this context, the discipline "Public Policies and Legal Interpretation" will be offered by professor Ana Elisa Spaolonzi Queiroz Assis, from the Faculty of Education (FE), with the participation of professor Luis Renato Vedovato, from the Faculty of Applied Sciences (FCA). Enrollments can be made until December 20th through the Unicamp Academic Board (DAC) system.
Support for the discipline is an initiative of the Pact Management Committee at Unicamp, whose objective is to make accessible, to a wider public, an experience initiated within the research line "State and Public Policies", of the Program of Postgraduate course at the Faculty of Education, introducing students who analyze public policies to aspects of legal interpretation that are important to complement this analysis.
"The subject contributes to the activities of the Pact in that it demystifies a dogmatic, positivist reading of the laws or administrative acts that develop public policies, informing and training in a Human Rights education perspective”, says professor Néri de Barros Almeida. “It is also important to point out that this is not the only discipline at Unicamp that allows this dialogue, and the Pact Management Committee hopes with this initiative to motivate other professors to open the discussions they conduct to the entire community, strengthening the dialogue between research in Human Rights at Unicamp”, highlights the professor.
According to Néri de Barros Almeida, with this first discipline what is offered is an approach, among others that the Management Committee intends to promote in the hope of highlighting, through a set of actions to support research, teaching and management , Unicamp's role in creating a culture of respect for Human Rights based on knowledge. To achieve this result, the Committee studies the creation of specific actions and environments at the University.
“The Steering Committee’s Work Plan intends to reflect the will of the community and will be published next semester after extensive consultation with bodies and units”, reveals the coordinator of the Pact Steering Committee.
In the following interview, the teachers Ana Elisa Spaolonzi Queiroz Assis and Luis Renato Vedovato talk about the discipline to be offered.
Unicamp Newspaper – The subject "Public Policies and Legal Interpretation", linked to studies on Human Rights, is now accessible to interested parties across the entire student body. What changes between your previous offer and this one committed to the Pact’s actions?
Ana Elisa Spaolonzi Queiroz Assis and Luis Renato Vedovato – When rethinking the discipline, the idea was to go beyond the exclusive discussion of education, to deal with topics sensitive to social policies in general, directly related to Human Rights, and in particular to the principle of Human Dignity. In this sense, we discuss issues of the right to life, the right to same-sex unions, the right to health, electoral rights, the right to housing, the rights of foreigners, quotas, among others. The subject will work, in all classes, with a theoretical text of legal interpretation accompanied by actions that were discussed in the STF and involve these themes that we have just listed.
JU – Messrs. Could you highlight the most relevant points of the course’s syllabus?
Ana Elisa Spaolonzi Queiroz Assis and Luis Renato Vedovato - The course begins with two classes that discuss what constitutes legal interpretation and its relationship with constitutionality control. Then, we open up to the themes we mentioned previously: the right to life (anencephalic fetus, stem cells) which touches on the discussion of abortion; right to same-sex union, which problematizes the institution of marriage, issues of gender and sexuality; right to health, which touches on actions to demand medicine and consequently on issues of existential minimum and reservation of what is possible; principle of human dignity, related to the right to education and the right to housing, seeking to highlight the broad spectrum of the principle; right to equality, with two moments, the first with the specific discussion of the limits and possibilities of the right material and subjective equality, and the second with a discussion on ethnic-racial quotas within the scope of the STF; electoral law, as a crucial part of political law highlighted by Marshall in which we problematize party actions with constitutional interference; and ending with the legal situation of foreigners, given the current discussion of this topic in the legal sphere, and with repercussions on sectoral and intersectoral discussions of public policies.
In each class we use actions on these themes linked to hermeneutic texts by Hans Kelsen, Miguel Reale, Theodor Vieweg, Tércio Sampaio Ferraz Júnior, Jürgen Habermas, Niklas Luhman, Virgílio Afonso da Silva, among others. In each subject we also have the contribution of students, as they bring their research themes and/or theoretical concerns to the classroom, and as they are responsible for setting up the discussion seminars, they add other equally relevant questions to what was previously planned. An example from the last course was the case of children and adolescents at risk, educational mega-companies, the rights of the female prison population and the teaching challenge in relation to Human Rights education.
JU – What contributions, in your opinion, can the subject bring to the University’s curriculum and, consequently, to the establishment and/or consolidation of a culture of peace?
Ana Elisa Spaolonzi Queiroz Assis and Luis Renato Vedovato - Discussing public policies from a Human Rights perspective and the principle of human dignity already delimits a theoretical and practical option for teaching, research and extension; Sharing this across disciplines is an initiative that brings together the commitment made to this stance and to the critical analysis of public policy.
It is not just information, as most Human Rights topics are conveyed, but a formative process as indicated by the Pact. Thus, we believe we contribute to the signaling and discussion of topics that are often silenced and/or approached superficially without the necessary relationship between law-State-society. Regarding the establishment or consolidation of a culture of peace, we borrowed the theory of the “gift” in non-antagonistic installments from Marcel Mauss, which, in very general terms, encourages exchanges for the perpetuation of an eternal debt.
If we exchange knowledge, tolerance and respect, which is the content and practice of the discipline, encouraging the expansion of this exchange and the consolidation of a debt that can never be paid - because giving back does not mean giving back - according to the author, we will be contributing to this culture of peace. And encouraging and recognizing other actions that may exist or already exist in our fields.
JU – In this context, the recent case of a man who threatened to open fire on students and employees at USP, in a widely reported episode, caused perplexity in the academic community. To what extent has this environment of polarization and intensification of clashes in the fields of politics and disrespect for differences, recurrent in the country today, migrated to universities? What are the effects of this phenomenon and what can be done to mitigate it or, ultimately, mitigate its consequences?
Ana Elisa Spaolonzi Queiroz Assis and Luis Renato Vedovato – The university is not outside, separated from society, so recognizing that the behaviors that we see outside it are reproduced in it is just the identification that it is part of the social body, just like any other institutional body. The effects are the same anywhere, and from what we have experienced, highly damaging; however, as an institution of human and professional training, it has a social and training obligation to combat violent, disrespectful, prejudiced and, in some instances, criminal behavior.
To mitigate this would be to consider some room for tolerance for these consequences, however, so as not to need to refer to the 1940 Penal Code, still in force with some modifications, the 1988 Constitution did not welcome intolerance of any kind, nor support for eugenic and segregating policies. such as projects such as a non-partisan school and the suspension of anyone in the Enem editorial office who made comments against human rights.
In this sense, any teaching, research and extension activities that the university carries out, reaffirming constitutional principles and honoring human dignity, are actions to combat inappropriate behavior in our legal system and social life.
JU – In the field of Human Rights, Brazil has a history of abuse and appearing in vexatious positions in surveys carried out by national and international organizations, often recording setbacks in some areas. What can be done to change this situation?
Ana Elisa Spaolonzi Queiroz Assis and Luis Renato Vedovato – We must be fair to our country. In the same way that it has configured, a few times in the past, and in the last year, a more recurrent attitude, in headlines that discredit the fight for Human Rights - as was the case with Minister Carmen Lúcia's decision not to reset the Enem tests that were against constitutional principles, or the decision of the STF plenary in favor of allowing indoctrination in the subject of religious education, which is mandatory, but the course is optional, or even the legislative change on labor reform and the freezing of expenses for 20 years, - also achieved many laurels on the international scene, by approving laws such as Maria da Penha in defense of women and the Statute of Children and Adolescents, as well as in decisions of great repercussion such as the recognition of same-sex unions. This Human Rights Pact is also important.
Although there is a certain schizophrenia in the government in which opportunities like this open up, at the same time we see the deliberate prohibition of discussing gender in schools since the discussion of the National, State and Municipal Education Plans. In this scenario, the important thing is to identify actions like this in the Pact and develop them in all aspects.
Another option is for the university to become more present in places such as the STF and plenary sessions of the legislative house. There is always the possibility of giving our opinion on how amicus curiae on a topic of great repercussion, such as the trial of religious teaching. We need to organize ourselves to be a constant figure in these spaces, forcing closer dialogue between society and universities.
JU – What is the role of the State in this context and what assessment do you make? make of your performance?
Ana Elisa Spaolonzi Queiroz Assis and Luis Renato Vedovato – The Public policies, several authors, including professor Heloisa Hoffling, who is retired from Unicamp, would say, are the State in action. The role of the Brazilian State, according to the constitution, that is, the contract we signed in 1988, is to ensure the fundamental rights of Brazilians, which includes their human dignity, education, housing, health, work, social security, leisure, socializing Ultimately, it is to promote social policies that seek to minimize the abysmal social differences that we have.
They range from purely material issues, such as unemployment insurance, to coexistence issues, such as walking safely on the street at any time in any part of the country, however, since the 1990s, having become increasingly stronger in recent times, not only has a managerialist bias directed policies that are social in rather lame terms, but in particular the conservative position has allowed the use of the State to promote this or that political-ideological-religious positioning, closing off any dialogical and plural perspective that may be possible. have, and must have, in a democratic state of law. Also against this misuse of the State, the discussion of public policies in the discipline, fights for the space for democratic coexistence in Brazilian society.
Enrollment takes place between December 04th and 20th through the DAC system.
