Watch the video coverage of the Forum on threats to human rights (Sec Team/RTV Unicamp)
What would democracy be like without human rights? This is one of the issues discussed by political scientists, sociologists, historians, researchers and activists who participated in the Permanent Forum "Threats to democracy and the current situation of human rights", organized by the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH) at Unicamp, last Wednesday, (12). The Permanent Forums program is an initiative of the Dean of Extension and Culture (Proec). The assessment made by the debaters is that if Brazil at the end of the 1980s seemed prosperous in human rights, especially after the promulgation of the Constitution that was conventionally called "citizen", the scenario has changed a lot since 2013 and especially after impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.
According to the director of IFCH, Álvaro Bianchi, the institute collectively constructed the diagnosis that democracy is threatened and that a series of actions need to be taken, from research to events such as the Forum. "We have built a work plan and of political and social intervention" he stated. Bianchi was one of the participants at the opening table of the event, alongside professor Sávio Cavalcante; Proec advisor, Emerson De Biaggi; and the coordinator of the Unicamp Human Rights Observatory Néri de Barros Almeida.
At the opening conference, sociologist Maria Hermínia Tavares, member of the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns and also of the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning (Cebrap), spoke about "Dissatisfied citizens and democracy in Brazil". She brought data from the Latinobarometer report, carried out by a Chilean research institution. For Tavares, the current government is a concrete threat to human rights and is seeking to destroy democracy.
The sociologist commented on the extinction of experts from the National Mechanism for the Prevention and Combat of Torture (MNPCT) and on the focus of action of the Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns Commission, including the concern with the security activities of the governor of Rio de Janeiro , Wilson Witzel. The debate agenda also had the participation of the state deputy for Rio de Janeiro, Mônica Francisco (PSOL), and the former president of the National Human Rights Council, Darci Frigo, as well as several professors from IFCH and researchers from other universities such as USP and UERJ.
