Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescentes in Brazil: a Principle in Deconstruction
Children and Adolescents’Rights – Principle of Comprehensive Protection - Neoliberalism
The problem of this research is the need to investigate why, after more than thirty years of existence, it is still not possible to experience the effective application of the Principle of Comprehensive Protection established in the Federal Constitution of 1988 and in the Statute of Children and Adolescents? The research aims to contribute to reflections on the reasons why family, society and the State have difficulty not only fulfilling their role, but even understanding it within the framework of the Statute. Do the contemporary family, the Democratic Rule of Law and Civil Society really have the conditions to implement the Statute? Has the Irregular Situation Doctrine really been surpassed by the Comprehensive Protection Doctrine? What factors threaten the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents in Brazil? n this context, there is a hypothesis: that Neoliberalism prevents the full validity of the Principle of Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents in Brazil. The in-depth study of Neoliberalism, far beyond a purely economic perspective, can clarify how the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents in Brazil suffers great harm and fails to achieve its full application, despite the determinations of the 1988 Federal Constitution and the ECA. Authors such as Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval expose Neoliberalism as a New Reason, which influences society and the State in different aspects. And they go further, exposing that there is a civil war for neoliberal hegemony to remain and constantly renew itself. In The Ungovernable Society, Grégoire Chamayou works on the concept of "ungovernability" which justifies the reduction of social policies by the State. Wendy Brown helps explain the relationship between neoliberalism and conservatism, which also deconstructs the Principle of Comprehensive Protection as it defends the removal of State responsibility and places it solely on the Brazilian family. And, for an analysis also on the role of society, Jason Stanley's studies contribute, considering that the author works on the contemporary concept of fascism, establishing the main foundations of fascism and its relationship with the return of conservatism, such as the idea of reviving a mythical and glorious past; the use of propaganda to distort and undermine democratic concepts and institutions (the fragility of legal councils and the attack on CONANDA, for example); attacks on universities and intellectuals (questioning the rights of children and adolescents and scientific research, with the idea that “the ECA is fanciful; there are too many rights...”); a strong notion of hierarchy (the return to the institution of national power and the right of parents to discipline their children through the use of violence, for example); the law and order policy based on the idea of criminal minority groups (a bill that aims to reduce the age of criminal responsibility; the antivaccine movement; the defense of homeschooling; and the valorization of “hard work” to the detriment of health systems social welfare (defense of child labor: it is better for children to work than remain on the streets; defense of the removal of children from needy families and their placement in shelters). Finally, the research assumes that the ECA emerged through the same constituent values and social movements at the time of the promulgation of the 1988 Federal Constitution and, like it, is a guiding legal norm, aimed at transforming the Brazilian reality, with the possibility of be fully implemented. Analyzing how Neoliberalism has contributed to these norms not being fully implemented in Brazil, that is, how neoliberal policy hinders or even prevents the effective application of the Principle of Right to Integral Protection of Children and Adolescents in Brazil, is the general objective and the contribution of research.