Two new spaces linked to Unicamp's Executive Directorate of Human Rights (DeDH) were inaugurated this Tuesday (10), in a double virtual ceremony: the new headquarters of the Directorate and the new Raízes auditorium, created through a partnership between the DeDH and the Dean of Undergraduate Studies (PRG) of the University. In addition to welcoming the professionals who make up the Board's team, the new headquarters will be an open environment to welcome everyone from the university community, with places to work and read, meetings, and a mini-gallery with photos from the annual photographic competition.” How I see human rights” and a small library with works on Human Rights. The new Raízes auditorium is a multifunctional space for holding meetings of the Unicamp Working Groups, the Central Graduation Commission (CCG) and its subcommittees, the DeDH Advisory Council, the Board's advisory committees, subcommittees and also to receive various events. It also has part of the mini-photo gallery.
The inauguration of the new spaces was attended by the Rector Marcelo Knobel, the General Coordinator of the University, Teresa Atvars, the Pro-Rector of Undergraduate Studies, Eliana Amaral, the Executive Director of Human Rights, Néri de Barros Almeida, and those responsible for the six Advisory Committees that make up the DeDH: Accessibility, Ethnic-Racial Diversity, Inclusion and Participation of Indigenous Peoples, Combating Discrimination based on Gender and/or Sexuality and Sexual Violence, Human Rights Observatory and Sérgio Vieira de Melo Chair, for refugees.
In their presentations, the teachers recalled a little about the history of the space, located on the second floor of Ciclo Básico 1, which was previously used by the CCG team. Eliana Amaral pointed out that sharing the location with DeDH contributes to the Human Rights agenda being increasingly incorporated into undergraduate teaching and the work of professors and researchers at the University. "The combination of these things is what leads to true inclusion, which in addition to the social and rights aspects, has the academic aspect. We therefore understand that this new space symbolizes all of this", commented the Pro-Rector.
The General Coordinator, Teresa Atvars, also recognized the importance of the work carried out by DeDH since its inception. According to her, it is through initiatives like the one that created the Board that Unicamp shows its potential for innovation. "Today, swallowed by an unprecedented pandemic, we are seeing terrible consequences for the most needy populations. Not only from the point of view of health, but also of social conditions and the weakening of their social rights. Therefore, this board becomes increasingly necessary," he reflected.
For Néri de Barros Almeida, Executive Director of Human Rights, the inauguration of the new headquarters and the Raízes auditorium symbolizes Unicamp's commitment to the demands for Human Rights. “Over the next few years, the work across teaching, research, management, extension and social interaction that DeDH has the mission to develop has the potential to bring many positive results to the university. All moving forward to show that the best research and the best teaching are those in which respect for the dignity of life is present as a non-negotiable principle", stated Néri. The perspective is shared by Rector Marcelo Knobel, who recognized the growing involvement of teachers, students and employees with these agendas: “Looking at the number of people who are involved, have participated, have dedicated themselves to this action, I am convinced that this is a consolidated issue at the University".
In an interview with Portal Unicamp, Néri de Barros Almeida takes stock of the work developed by DeDH to date and outlines perspectives for new projects for the future.
How was the DeDH headquarters designed? What will the community find in this space?
The DeDH headquarters was designed to function as an administrative space and reception area. Thus, in addition to respecting accessibility principles, the project, designed by Prof. Gabriela Celani from the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Urbanism, also has relaxed areas for waiting and receiving visitors, including those who just wanted to stop by for a coffee, to consult our books or to visit our mini-gallery. The welcome extends, of course, to those who seek our help and services. For this we have a small meeting room. The responsibilities of the advisory committees refer to combating racism and all forms of prejudice and violence against minorities, welcoming and valuing diversity through attention to black and indigenous people, women and LGBTs, people with disabilities, students in refuge conditions and, of course, human rights education.
What is your assessment of the work carried out by DEDH so far?
Our objective is to support the community in developing a culture of rights that guarantees increasing autonomy for different bodies to deal with issues related to prejudice and discrimination and for the effective inclusion of diversity in all their activities. The foundation of our work is the development of an inclusive culture in the language of the culture of peace, that is, having as a principle a logic that is antagonistic to conflict. DeDH was created to help the university deal with problems it already knew about. The board began to organize this agenda by gathering information, producing informative material, meeting specific demands from units and bodies, preparing educational actions and discussions and proposing standards. In these eighteen months of DeDH's existence, some important actions were carried out: in partnership with Educorp, we started to offer a permanent training course in human rights aimed at employees with a focus on service, the protocol for the process of investigating self-declaration of quota candidates for our entrance exam, guaranteeing legal security for the university, a policy to combat violence and discrimination based on gender and sexuality was created. Along with the renovation and adaptation of the space, we worked on the certification of the body and on the constitution and training of our team, which currently involves two in administration and a social worker who works in the Sexual Violence Attention Service, SAVS. We also have a team of fellows divided between supporting administrative tasks and communication activities and a valuable group of volunteers who support us on fronts ranging from communication to IT.
During this period, we mediated, within the framework of new and pre-existing cooperation agreements, the creation of Work Plans that establish partnerships between public institutions and centers and nuclei, with the IFCH, the Faculty of Medical Sciences and the Institute of Economics and others. In direct partnership with the Public Ministry of São Paulo, we participated in updating the booklet to combat domestic violence into English, French and Spanish and carried out its full translation into Arabic and Haitian Creole. This was an activity carried out entirely by volunteers under the supervision of a language teacher. It makes us very happy to be able to mediate situations in which the researcher who works with Human Rights is prestigious and in which the external community benefits.
And what are the Board’s next actions that you highlight?
We are forwarding the draft of Unicamp's Human Rights Policy to the November Consu session, with clearer guidelines on what is expected of the community, and what commitments the community must have to concretely embrace the Human Rights agenda. Along with this policy, a code of conduct will also be sent, which we call the Unicamp Human Rights Code, which will be presented to the community for discussion and possible consideration by Consu in March (2021). The code details the prescriptions presented in the policy, offering more detailed explanations of the historical and legal foundations of that policy and offering illustrations for it. We are also creating a Human Rights award that should honor projects by researchers working on the topic in the State of São Paulo. There are other projects and partnerships being studied, these are just a few examples. Our policy is to work with short, medium and long-term goals.
I believe that the pandemic brought demands on you that were not anticipated. What did you need to incorporate into DeDH’s work with her?
We understand that a culture of peace must be supported by coherent, clear, frank and rapid communication. As soon as the pandemic began, we stepped forward to support communication in order to provide security to those involved in our commitment to everyone's well-being. In this way, we participate in conversation circles in student housing and support coronavirus testing, especially in student housing. In the beginning there was a lot of anxiety, especially for those who live far from their family, but we worked on permanent communication to reassure people, showing that management was committed to resolving the difficulties (testing, access to the restaurant, safety in using the university bus, distribution of basic food baskets, utensils and clothing). We expect medium and long-term results from this type of action with an increase in the degree of institutional trust and the prevention of conflicts through the prevalence of a culture of dialogue. .
When Unicamp made the decision to continue its activities remotely, it at the same time assumed the need to pay attention to inequality in access to computer equipment among our students. Immediately, rector Marcelo Knobel proposed the creation of a volunteer service, which was located at DeDH. Today, this volunteering has several fronts and was fundamental in mobilizing the community to obtain equipment that was loaned to Unicamp students who needed this gesture of digital inclusion. It was a very important step, received a lot of attention from the media and ended up being a model of action for other institutions in the country in this context. The coordinator of the first steps of Volunteering at Unicamp was the professor. Josianne Cerasoli. The activity counted on the valuable partnerships of PRG, DGA, DAC and SAE. Today, Volunteering is under the coordination of Professor Sônia Cal Seixas and develops other projects.
What expectations do you have for DeDH’s work with the Unicamp community?
It is important that the community thinks that the cultural change that DeDH's mission is to carry out is a profound process built by many individuals and through different types of action. So it is slow. This does not mean that we intend to be slow in combating and investigating forms of violence. These are two different things. We intend to move quickly in combating explicit actions, but it is when it comes to deeper changes that we believe we have a long way to go. The more the community mobilizes around this issue, the shorter it will be. We also have the mission of making the community think about their responsibilities with Human Rights in their core activities. This means that teaching, research, extension, management and coexistence are thought of in light of respect for Human Rights. In this way, human rights policy can have an impact on productivity to the extent that it is successful in promoting more harmonious work environments, more confident in the institution's interest and capacity to resolve conflicts. We need to recover our sense of belonging and co-responsibility for the university. To achieve this, it is essential to improve the perception of our common achievements. We live in difficult times, and, in this context, celebrating what we did in the past and what we have done today strengthens us as people and as an institution. The health crisis will pass, but we will continue to be in a crisis situation and in this context we need to think about the role of the University as a place of understanding its role in guaranteeing Human Rights in society. This does not just involve the work of the Humanities. It involves commitment, or an identification of this commitment, among scientists in the areas of Exact Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, Technologies, with Human Rights. And Unicamp has a lot of people in these areas working with their eyes focused on human rights.
