December 20th, auditorium packed to hear guests from the Unicamp Human Rights Observatory who discussed the topic “Clinical Teaching of Human Rights”. Human Rights clinics were born in North American universities in the 1960s, they became a successful idea and today they are spreading throughout the world. The objective of the clinics is to offer students the opportunity to face real problems and experience the practical application of Human Rights. Clinics emerged in law courses, but their commitment to attention to concrete situations made interdisciplinarity their main foundation.
Thus, the approach to situations that could end up in the field of legal debate was revolutionized by the partnership with anthropology, sociology, history, philosophy, political science, demography, but not only that. This complex of academic relationships also brings together researchers from the areas of health, architecture, engineering, economics, etc. There are practically no limits, since the most different areas can connect through the doors of protection for the vulnerable.
For professor Néri de Barros Almeida, coordinator of the Observatory, the notion of vulnerability can be extended to the environment taking into account both its direct protection (through the concept of diffuse rights) and the damage to human life that its degradation causes. This is one of the ways in which it is possible to affirm the relevance of thinking about human rights clinics, since sustainability must be recognized as a central element of contemporary agendas relating to fundamental rights. With the aim of deepening the debate on the creation of an Interdisciplinary Human Rights and Sustainability Clinic at Unicamp from 2019 onwards, professors Camila Nicácio, from the Human Rights Clinic at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), and Janaína were invited Dantas Germano Gomes, from the Luiz Gama Human Rights Clinic at the USP Law School (FADUSP), explaining the work and challenges encountered in the respective clinics. Professor Paulo Borba Casella, Susana Henriques da Costa and Guilherme Assis de Almeida, all from FADUSP, and Alfredo Attié, TJSP judge, president of the Academia Paulista de Direito and founder of the São Paulo International Center for Human Rights of São Paulo, also participated in the event. academy.
The Unicamp clinic project intends to work with thematic axes lasting at least two years. One of the axes discussed is the study of the relationship between social vulnerability and access to work. Thus, the opening of the event was in charge of Catarina von Zuben, national coordinator of the National Coordination of Eradicatestion of Slave Labor (CONAETE), from the Public Ministry of Labor, who explained the support for the project of a Clinic at Unicamp: “The interdisciplinary vision is fundamental to understanding the current challenges of human rights. Especially in the field of work, therefore, support for the Unicamp Clinic is in line with the institutional objectives of the Public Ministry of Labor”.
For professor Paulo Borba Casella, head of International Law at FADUSP, the protection of human rights must be built globally, in order to successfully face possible local challenges, which makes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights a fundamental instrument for the advancement of the realization of Human Rights.
For Susana H. Costa, traditional teaching does not prepare people to face the challenges of reality, therefore, the Clinic can ensure that there is a better match between teaching and concrete problems.
Participant in the debate, the State Public Defender, Lúcia Thomé Reinert declared that the Clinic is a learning space, which can allow students to recognize the importance of “listening to the forgotten, welcoming the abandoned”, considering that “openstart the cause é What is expected from a democratic societyethics that seeks justicesocial security and the consecration of human dignity”. The event, which lasted from 14 pm to 18 pm, ended as it began, with the auditorium packed. Students, teachers from Unicamp and other institutions were present.
“Gathering, on December 20th, so many people is a clear sign that human rights have not left the agenda, on the contrary, they are getting stronger every day”, said Néri de Barros Almeida, coordinator of the Unicamp Human Rights Observatory, for whom the operation of an interdisciplinary Clinic would benefit the dissemination of research data in areas in which Unicamp already stands out and would enhance its dialogue with public policies through closer and continuous cooperation with justice bodies, such as the Public Ministry of Labor, Defense and Judiciary, among others.
Luis Renato Vedovato is a professor at FCA and vice-coordinator of the Human Rights Observatory at Unicamp
