3. The legislative journey that resulted in the adoption of the Legal Framework

Also, Terra launched the Early Childhood Parliamentary Front (the Parliamentary Front) on 22 March 2011. In Brazil, politicians can create Parliamentary Fronts. These are supra-party institutions created within Chamber of Deputies. These groups aim to influence and raise awareness on policies regarding specific subjects and capture a particular set of interests.58 A total of 231 out of 513 deputies and 3 out of 81 senators joined the Parliamentary Front.59 When interviewed, Terra noted his genuine support for transforming ECD policy in Brazil, he wanted to create “a policy that transcends governments” and independent of political orientations.60

The Parliamentary Front seeks to promote a broad debate on early childhood to deepen the political and social understanding of the subject and incentivise the creation of laws protecting early childhood.61 To achieve this, the Parliamentary Front organises interactive public hearings as well as international and state seminars. It actively promoted the adoption of the Legal Framework,62 which is perceived by consulted stakeholders to have played a crucial role for its adoption.63 Following the Legal Framework’s adoption, the Parliamentary Front continues to promote debates, engage leaders and put forward proposals for norms to ensure the effectiveness and comprehensiveness of child protection, especially in early childhood.64

3. The legislative journey that resulted in the adoption of the Legal

Framework

In December 2013, the proposal for the Legal Framework65 was submitted to the Chamber of Deputies by Osmar Terra together with twelve other deputies that attended the ELP. From this point onwards, it was important to ensure that the proposal would successfully make it through the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate for it to turn into a new law.

3.1. The Chamber of Deputies’ special committee, seminar and debates

In 2014, after some initial hesitation within the Chamber of Deputies, where the proposal was initially assigned to several committees (see Section 4.3), an Early Childhood Special Committee66 within the Chamber was created to assess the Legal Framework and produce a legislative report. The creation of the committee in the Chamber of Deputies meant that the resulting text would not need to go to plenary and could be forwarded to the Senate to be analysed. This was an important step as it helped streamline the approval process (see Section 4.3 for further details).67 Once established, the committee’s membership needed to be defined. The Parliamentary Front helped organise this. Ultimately, the committee had 46 members, of which 23 had gone through the ELP.68 Throughout 2014 (and since April 2013), a series of seminars (international seminars69 and public hearings) were organised to discuss the content of the legislative proposal in the Chamber of Deputies. These debates were organised within the Chamber by the Early Childhood Special Committee and the Parliamentary Front, but they also took place at the state and local level organised by RNPI.70 The objective of these seminars was to build broad support for the Legal Framework and to enrich the legislative text with stakeholders’ contributions.

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