“This is the listening forum.” This is how the coordinator of the Campus Experience Secretariat (SVC) and professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH), Susana Durão, defined the event, leading the organization of the Special Forum 20 Years – Human Rights in Practice: Women Building Social Justice , held on Friday (25/08), at the Unicamp Convention Center.
Female leaders from across the country were invited to speak about their daily experiences of fighting violence. “They are the experts, so we propose that they talk about their own policies, and we listen,” said Durão. The proposal of the Special Forum, which was part of the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Permanent Forums, was to debate human rights, based on the issue of violence, to produce reflections and actions on the role of the University in society.
Five women engaged in social causes whose lives were marked by experiences responsible for leading them to activism were invited to share their stories: councilors Marta Rodrigues Sousa de Brito Costa (Salvador-BA) and Monica Cunha (Rio de Janeiro-RJ) , state deputy Alzira Nogueira (Amapá) and indigenous leaders Valdelice Veron (Juti-MS) and Josi Ticuna (Belém-PA).
At the opening of the event, the Amoras Indigenous Dance Group, formed by students from the Acadômicas Indígenas Uirapuru collective from Unicamp, presented a carimbó choreography, a typical dance from Pará. The opening table was attended by Durão, the executive director of Human Rights , Silvia Maria Santiago, the pro-rector of Extension and Culture, Fernando Coelho, and the rector of Unicamp, Antonio José de Almeida Meirelles.
The dean highlighted the importance of the strength of women capable of transforming society. “Personal suffering here fuels a collective struggle,” said the rector, who also spoke about the importance of listening. “We are stripping ourselves of an academic arrogance, which does not hold the only knowledge.” Meirelles mentioned her mother's personal story. “It was the strength of this woman that brought me here. This is our connection”, said the dean.
Coelho also reinforced the importance of listening. “The first step in the change process is listening.” The dean also said that “we cannot live with the normalization of violence”. This is a topic that Santiago stated is a current topic of reflection. “We have reflected on the fact that violence reverberates, it does not just stay in that single case. It ends up justifying or encouraging other violence”, said the executive director, who identifies, in this context, the absence of public policies as state violence. “We need to have citizen action, which is what these women bring here, to interrupt the cycle of violence and build a different society.”
In the morning, councilors from Bahia and Rio de Janeiro made up the panel “Public Policies in favor of the Right(s)”, mediated by Durão. Serving his third term, Costa presented his history of work in the Salvador City Council, the second oldest in Brazil (the first is that of São Vicente-SP). “When we talk about security, it’s not just a police issue. It exists in other areas as well, such as structural and religious racism”, said the councilor, who recalled the murder of the Bahian quilombola leader Mãe Bernadete, eight days ago (the 17th).
Among the bills proposed by Costa is the Bruno and Yan Law, which creates the anti-racist seal for products. The name refers to Bruno Barros and Yan Barros, uncle and nephew, who were found dead in the trunk of a car with signs of torture after stealing meat from a supermarket in Bahia. “We have to make amends for violence, and it is with public policy and recognition that we make amends”, argues Costa, president of the Commission for Human Rights and Defense of Democracy Makota Valdina and specialist in Public Policies at Unicamp.
Cunha, in turn, defended the interconnection of other knowledge with the knowledge of universities. Encouraged by Marielle Franco (1979-2018, murdered Rio councilor) to enter politics, the current councilor lost a son in 2006, murdered by the police. “Marielle told me: 'It's your turn, you have enough basis to be in this place, because the pen, which has always been in the hands of those who took away our rights, has to be in our hands'.”
Cunha became a defender of human rights and decided to study to better understand the role of black women in society. “What affects us is structural racism in this country. There is a lack of public policies for the poor black population living in favelas. It has been established in this country that we have no rights.”
The Rio de Janeiro City Council, says Cunha, has three black councilors, out of a total of 51. The numbers demonstrate the need for a lot of struggle to be carried out. She chairs the Special Commission to Combat Racism, the first of its kind in Brazil, created in April 2023 by the Rio de Janeiro body. There is a call for this commission to become permanent.
In the afternoon, Josiane Otaviano Guilherme, better known as Josi Ticuna, spoke at the panel entitled “Actions and Projects to End Violence”, recounting her experience with conflicts in the border region in Benjamin Constant (AM). Graduated in Anthropology from the Institute of Nature and Culture of the Federal University of Amazonas (Ufam) and a master's student in the Postgraduate Program in Sociocultural Diversity in the Amazon at the Emílio Goeldi Museum, in Belém (PA), Josi Ticuna coordinates the Agrovida-Naãne Arü Project Mã'ü-Earth and Life.
Also on the table in the afternoon were Amapá native Nogueira, a master in Sociology, public prosecutor and activist in the fight for the rights of black women, and Veron, a doctoral student in Social Anthropology at the University of Brasília (UnB), recently awarded in Washington ( USA) with the Global Leadership Award from Vital Voices Global Partnership. In 2003, her father, chief Marcos Veron, was murdered in the fight for possession of indigenous lands.
The forum was organized by the Campus Experience Secretariat (SVC) and the University Experience Council (CVU), with support from the Executive Directorate for Human Rights (DeDH) and participation from IFCH and the Center for Public Policy Studies (Nepp ).
