Bulletin IINfancia N° 4 by IIN OEA

AUTHORITIES Luis Almagro OAS Secretary General Néstor Méndez OAS Assistant Secretary General Ricardo González Borgne IIN Directing Council President Raúl Escalante IIN Directing Council Vice President Víctor Giorgi IIN Director General Daniel Claverie IIN Contents Coordinator Ingrid Quevedo IIN Technical Assistant of Communication Belén Güenaga IIN Design

Edition December 2017

The IIN is as Specialized Organization of the Organization of American States (OAS) in childhood and adolescence, which assists the States in the development of public policies to be taken for the benefit of children and adolescents, contributing in the field of their design and implementation in the perspective of the promotion, protection and full respect of the rights of children and adolescents in the region. Special assistance is aimed at the needs of the Member States of the Inter-American System and at the particularities of the regional groups.

Contents 8

Editorial- Víctor Giorgi, Director General of the IIN. 14

Some General Considerations 28 Years after the Adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Luis Pedernera.

The Abolition of Corporal Punishment in Childhood. Reflections on the Costa Rican Experience. Mario Alberto Víquez Jiménez.

The Gender Issue in and from Childhood: Contributions from Anthropology. María Florencia Alvarado Torres.

A critical look at interventions in child abuse and child sexual abuse: the human factor. Sandra Baita.

Central Pages - 2017 Summary of the InterAmerican Training Program (PIC).

Reducing the age of criminal responsibility and enemy criminal law: A form of breaching the principle of non-regression and human rights. Pedro Augusto Sousa Silva Neves y Valéria Matinho Marques.

Backpackers for Early Childhood. Javier Quesada.

Education in human rights and restorative practices with juvenile offenders. Isabel Maria Sampaio Oliveira Lima, Jéssica Silva da Paixão y Laís de Almeida Vega.

Believing in child and youth participation. Laura Cely Gómez y Luis Alberto Torres Álvarez.

EDITORIAL VĂctor Giorgi Director General - IIN

This new instalment of the IINfancia newsletter is being published at the close of an intensive year marked by a number of events. In the previous issue we referred to the celebration of the IINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 90th anniversary and to the meanings that this celebration acquired in the current situation prevailing in the region, and in the Institute. On this occasion, the commemoration of the 28th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the General Assembly of the United Nations provides an opportunity to reflect upon the progress and pending tasks, the threats of regression and the challenges facing organizations such as ours, working on behalf of the rights of children and youth in the region. Much has been said in relation to the fact that this date, 20 November 1989, represents a sea change, a genuine turning point in the ways in which societies related to their respective children. The break contained in the CRC in relation to earlier treaties can be summarized by the much-vaunted expression: children 8

as ‘holders of rights’ – this is the core aspect of the paradigm of comprehensive protection. However, this term is not limited to the acceptance of the child as a ‘legal entity’. The new ‘child entity’ that emerged from the Convention is the holder of enforceable rights, which must be ensured by families, societies and States. But these children are also social stakeholders, bearers and generators of culture, thinking beings, capable of forming opinions, of having their own ideas according to their level of development, and the adult world must recognize and respect them as such. General Comment Number 12 strengthens this aspect and endows it with new meaning, with particular significance as the focal point of the new positioning with regard to children and youth when it argues that: ‘The right of all children to be heard and taken seriously constitutes one of the fundamental values of the Convention.’ And further on it continues: The right to be heard and taken seriously ‘which has been broadly conceptualized as participation’, is at the same time a right and one of the guiding principles that mainstream the whole text. Thus, participation has become the apex or meeting point of a number of rights on which it is supported: the right to form their own views, freedom of opinion and expression, to be heard, to seek, receive and share ideas, to be informed and seek information, to freedom of association and assembly, to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, to have their views considered in such settings as their families, schools and other institutional areas. Twenty-eight years after that historic event, we can say that much has been achieved in the transformation of legal frameworks, in the institutional re-engineering that maintains the systems of protection, in the design and implementation of 9

policies. However, and despite the fact that rights-based discourse is gaining ground, it is evident that among all the rights enshrined in the Convention, the one which is most ignored, often silenced and resisted by the adult world is this so-called right to participation. This calls into question the system of myths and beliefs on which the absolute authority of adults is grounded and makes essential the repositioning of children and youth within the symbolic universe of society. When we analyse the symbolic configurations and practices related to the distribution and exercise of power, we must reflect that that which resists embodies a critical point in the process of change. The right to information, to holding opinions and being heard and taken seriously in the various areas of social life constitute a major step in the deconstruction of ‘childhood’ as ‘subjects without a voice’, opening the way to a new communicative rationality, in which children must be considered as valid interlocutors by adults. This conception recognizes in children an essential feature of all human beings that J. Habermas defined as ‘subjects dialogically interrelated through language’. If we pause to analyse the condition of children in the region, institutional practices and how adults behave towards children, it is clear that the doctrine of the irregular situation, which dominated the outlook regarding children for the better part of the last century, is still prevalent and coexists with the progress of the new paradigm. Twenty-eight years after its adoption, references to the Convention are inevitable in any paper, regulations or technical and political discourse involving children. However, it is often apparent that expressions such as ‘best interest of the child’; ‘special protection’; ‘progressive autonomy’, and even participation, are handled without any clear content, giving rise to conceptual gaps which tend to become infused with old attitudes and to coexist with the former tutelary practices. The ambiguities surrounding the use of violence as a tool for discipline, the

criminalization of fragilely integrated children and youth, the tolerance of sexual exploitation and victim blaming, or the invalidation of children’s testimonies in judicial settings are only a few examples of this resistance, and even counter-offensive, on the part of pre-Convention notions. These shifts in meaning should be taken as a warning of the existence of a process in which the core aspects of a still new paradigm have been frozen or hollowed out. Still new, because twenty-eight years is very little time in which to overcome centuries of patriarchy and adult-centrism, but perhaps sufficient to begin to remove from the Convention its foundational and transforming strength, and turn it into a ‘politically correct’ cliché. Working for the authenticity of discourse and ensuring its consistency with practice is one of the major challenges facing us at this stage. And as rights should start at home, this year we have taken steps that we do not regard as enshrined achievements, but as the start of a move in the right direction. We have already referred to the decision of the OAS to designate 9 June as ‘Americas Children and Youth Day’, a day for reflection and work, which will include the voice and the eyes of children and youth regarding the situation in the region. This resolution, coupled with the resolution taken in 2009 of instituting the Pan American Child Forum as part of the Pan American Child Congresses, opens areas for listening and constitutes an opportunity to move forward in the consideration of children as social stakeholders in the region. Accordingly, at the 92nd Meeting of the Directing Council of the IIN, held in Barbados in September of this year, the Directing Council welcomed the Institute’s efforts to promote the active presence of children and youth at different institutional events,

and requested the Director-General to produce a methodological proposal which will ensure the inclusion of childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s contributions at future meetings of the Directing Council. These decisions, framed as they are within the intensive efforts that the IIN is making, together with the States and the children themselves, in order to foster, consolidate and improve the quality of participation in different settings throughout the region, constitute both opportunities and challenges. Opportunities to open up spaces in adult institutions, to take steps towards mainstreaming participation and listening to the voices of children when they refer to topics of interest to them, that affect their lives and regarding which they have much to contribute. Challenges represented by the ever-present threat of falling into the trap of distorting participation, manipulating childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opinions, and congratulating ourselves because they say what we adults want to hear. This calls upon us to work hard to provide training and methodologies, and build tools which will make it possible to move towards genuine and increasingly autonomous participation. Moving in this direction requires, among other things, a strong capacity for self-criticism on the part of adults. Self-criticism understood as the systematic exercise of identifying and disabling the untruths residing within ourselves and our institutions. When it comes to human rights, there is no stagnation possible; we either move forward or we move back. Twenty-eight years after the adoption of the Convention, we at the IIN extend our greetings to all those who from different places work for and with children and youth and we invite you to intensify your efforts to advance towards a culture where rights are a daily reality.

Some General Considerations 28 Years after the Adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child Luis Pedernera I am grateful to the Inter-American Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Institute for their invitation to contribute a paper to the newsletter and share some thoughts regarding child rights in our region. Likewise, I should like to extend my best wishes on the 90th anniversary of the foundation of the Institute, a pioneer in working on behalf of children in the Americas. In this short paper I will share some thoughts in relation to the current situation and the challenges facing our region in the matter of child rights. How the CRC is perceived in the region As we know, the States accepted (ratified) the Convention on the Rights of the Child and used it as a guide in the process of adjusting their tutelary laws within a relatively short period during the 1990s. The CRC marked a strong change in the forms of enunciating rights, which shifted from an objectifying vision of childhood to one which is positioned on rights-based discourse and builds its rhetoric on the child as a holder of rights. 14

There were changes that generated innovative institutions, such as the so-called participation councils1, which became highly significant in placing the voice of the region’s children at centre-stage. This, added to the fact that Article 12 of the CRC gave rise to doctrine, despite not in fact using the word participation. It was on the basis of this article that both doctrine and specific experiences related to the right to participation evolved, and in this respect, it has been one of the most noteworthy events as regards endowing a right with meaning and legitimacy, based on movements of organized children and social organizations in the hemisphere. The problems However, what some refer to as the doctrine of the irregular situation has not entirely disappeared. It still survives in a range of grey areas, for those who undertake their analysis in terms of black or white; that is, the irregular situation versus comprehensive protection. Mary Beloff2 is right when she states that: A phantom swept through Latin America [...]: the phantom of legal reform in childhood issues. People working in specialized justice and other State organizations for the protection of minors in Latin America in the late eighties and early nineties (judges, employees, operators and social workers) were aghast. What was behind this desire to “change the law”? What was happening that was causing the people who had been working with children for decades to feel I refer to participation councils as encompassing the varied and rich institutional matrices generated in order to give voice to the children and youth of our region. 2 BELOFF, Mary, REFORMA LEGAL Y DERECHOS ECONÓMICOS Y SOCIALES DE LOS NIÑOS: LAS PARADOJAS DE LA CIUDADANÍA, * Presented at the IV Séminaire “Perspectives régionales: intégration économique et une protection sans discrimination des droits sociaux et économiques dans les Amériques”, organized by the Centre d’ Études sur le Droit International et la Mondialisation, Montreal, Université de Quebec, 25/11/2005 1

so threatened? Two of this reform movement’s indisputable assumptions were generating commotion among the operators of the region’s classic tutelary systems. In the first place, there was a message which was becoming strongly ensconced: everything that they had been doing for so long, with so much selflessness, so many good intentions, in order to “save” children, had been worthless, or had served for so little that it was hardly worth mentioning. None of the efforts of eighty years of reforms and humanitarian aid for children had seemed to produce any good results. Secondly, and at the same time, the banner which this reformist phantom was flying was that of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, a treaty whose signature these same operators had celebrated and which they considered most appropriate to continue their mission to save children. [...] What boomerang effect did this external critique lead to? It was only to be expected that the outcome was that the operators of the classic tutelary structure developed a corporate defence of their own practices and institutions, while, at the same time, adopting the new official discourse relating to the fundamental rights of children. In fact, throughout Latin America today, both civil society organizations and all State operators in the area of childhood make use of the language for the protection of children in terms of human rights. However, those who work there are still doing exactly the same as before, or worse than ten or fifteen years ago, but now with a completely different narrative.

This orthopaedic discourse resulted in people working along politically correct lines, but the lives of children and youth continuing in almost the same situation as before. From the abandoned minor, terms shifted to the categories of child at risk, vulnerable children, lacking in containment, from a critical context, etc. At the same time, the Convention was used as a supermarket where everyone takes what he or she prefers.3 There is no document, law or action which is not said to be inspired in comprehensive protection. If we had to describe the treatment meted out to children in the hemisphere, I believe the most accurate description would be that it oscillates between poverty and criminalization, even almost 28 years after the adoption of the CRC. Poverty Over the last decade, the region’s socio-economic indicators have revealed a positive trend and, in general terms, poverty indicators have declined in several countries, as compared to the nineties, when the neoliberal process consolidated the presence of poverty among children and youth. However, it is far from being eradicated. The concentration of poverty among the child and youth populations in our region includes features that render it complex: it is the population sector with the highest levels of biological reproduction, with serious obstacles to gaining access to quality education. This situation is aggravated by school drop-out rates, or, more specifically, by school expulsion, which later has an impact on their chances of finding quality jobs and, therefore, generate a decent Manfred LIEBEL and Marta MARTÍNEZ MUÑOZ. “Entre protección y participación”, in Manfred LIEBEL and Marta MARTÍNEZ MUÑOZ (coords.) (2009), Infancia y Derechos Humanos. Hacia una ciudadanía participante y protagónica. Lima: IFEJANT. 3

income4. In fact, children from families whose head of household has little education and is unemployed register ninety per cent poverty incidence. The GDP of countries like Uruguay has been increasing, but their structural poverty – as pointed out in 2012 by UNICEF’s Children’s Rights Observatory in Uruguay – clearly shows that the existence of greater wealth does not automatically lead to the reduction of poverty. Moderate optimism might have been possible in the face of economic growth and the reduction of poverty experienced in the region in the last decade, but the hard core of poverty generated in the eighties has not been affected. At the same time, the economic downturn of recent years has immediately made itself felt in the lives of the children and poverty data are again worrying. Challenges pending The question that we should be asking ourselves is, I believe, how can we protect children without violating their rights, and contribute to the development of their autonomy? A task we must still face is for the right to a family life to become the driving force behind public policies. While there are large numbers of institutionalized children in the region, Uruguay represents a paradigm in relation to this challenge; it is the southern country with the largest number of children in institutions and the third in Latin America. This is quite a paradox if we consider that the economic crisis affecting its neighbours has still not made itself felt here to the same extent. As Antonio Carlos Gómez da Costa pointed out, in order to move forward in this matter we must reason simply that: “there are no neglected children without neglected families”. Change must necessarily involve rethinking the 4

Children’s Rights Observatory (2005). Montevideo: UNICEF.

whole series of services existing for this type of interventions, which at present do not seem to be able to break with the rationale of viewing subjects in isolation, individually, so their protection needs are addressed accordingly.5 In addition, childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s voices must necessarily be placed at the centre of adult-children relations and efforts made to build together. Their outlook and experiences make this sharing much richer and devoid of preconceptions.6 In noting the illegitimacy of our stance when we refer to child rights, Eduardo Bustelo stated that they did not elect us to speak in their name. Acknowledging this would at least be a significant step towards more genuine behaviour.7 Childhood as part of a collective project Today, more than ever, children need to be part of a collective project that positions them as protagonists. We cannot delay any further; otherwise, we shall find ourselves in the situation des-cribed by Jean-Paul Sartre in his memorable preface to the book by Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our victims know us by their scars and by their chains, and it is this that makes their evidence irrefutable. It is enough that they show us what we have made of them for us to realize what we have made of ourselves.â&#x20AC;?

I have seen cases of families who lost their homes in climate-related disasters and the only policy suggested by institutions is separate shelters: the mother to one, the father to another and the children institutionalized in child centres. 6 None better than children to express their experiences and their claims. This is how I have perceived it in my experience in organizations when submitting alternative reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and, currently, in listening to their testimonies as a member. 7 Eduardo BUSTELO (2007). El recreo de la infancia. Argumentos para otro comienzo. Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI editores. 5

Luis

Member of the United Nations Child for the period 2017-2021; m of IELSUR (Institute of Legal and executive secretary of the Uruguayan Convention on the

He was a member of the National Hon hood and Youth, a body provided

He was also a member of the Coordina Caribbean Network for the Defence of (REDLAMYC), representing the south Paraguay an

During his extensive experience monitori and coordinated work teams for the insp In 2011, he was a founder of the Nation of Criminal Liability, which was involve amendment which, in 2014, proposed

He is the author of numerous ar academic and specialized publicat on discrimination against child NGOs. He co-authored “Estudi Implementación de la Con del Niño. Impactos y Aprob

Pedernera

Committee on the Rights of the member of the Board of Directors Social Studies of Uruguay). Former n coalition to provide follow-up to the Rights of the Child.

norary and Consultative Council for Childfor by Uruguay’s Children’s Statute.

ation Council of the Latin American and the Rights of Children and Adolescents hern sub-region (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, nd Uruguay).

ing juvenile justice systems, he has visited pection of detention centres for children. nal Commission Against Reducing the Age ed in putting a stop to the constitution trying juveniles in adult criminal courts.

rticles on the subject appearing in tions and has coordinated research dren and the policy advocacy of io de Balance Regional sobre la nvención sobre los Derechos Retos a 20 años de su bación”.

T he Abolition of Corporal Punishment in Childhood. Reflections on the Costa Rican Experience

Mario Alberto Víquez Jiménez

I. Introduction This essay is underpinned by three core elements: Costa Rica’s experience in the process of abolishing corporal punishment, the design of public policies in this area and a paper I wrote, published in 2014 and entitled, ‘El Castigo Físico en la niñez: Un maltrato permitido. Estudio de la autoridad Parental’ [Corporal Punishment in Childhood: Permissible Abuse. A Study of Parental Authority].1 Throughout the world and in our region, the issue of corporal punishment and its gradual abolition is closely linked to the historical shifts that have occurred in the relationship between parents and their children and, therefore, in the exercise of parental authority. In particular, we should note the radical transformation in the conception of children and youth represented by the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention emphasizes that children and youth have the same rights as adults and it highlights those rights that flow from This book was donated to UNICEF and is available online at: https://www.unicef.org/costarica/CastigoFisico-final-9octubre-web.pdf 1

their special status as human beings who, through not having reached their full physical and mental development, require special protection. Corporal punishment as a parenting method has been a widespread practice in historical terms, both legitimized and in everyday use, systematically infringing on the human rights of children and youth, from the perspective of human dignity, the right to physical integrity and equality before the law. Because of this paradigm shift, in most of the countries in the region, the Convention and its commitments have led to a significant process involving the redrafting of regulatory frameworks and social mobilization in the area of child rights. It is on this historical background, embodied in the search for new forms of exercising mother and fatherhood, in accordance with the human rights of children and youth, that this paper revolves, as a reflection on the Costa Rican experience and a proposal to continue reflecting on how to be fathers and mothers in the post-modernity, without physical violence and without humiliating treatment.

2. The subject There are a number of reasons why we should think about corporal punishment in childhood. Of these, the most obvious are those linked to psychology and the meaning of happiness; legal reasons which entail the full recognition of human dignity; and social reasons which refer to the kind of society that we aspire to build.

In this paper, corporal punishment is defined as: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The deliberate use of force and the abusive use of power, by any person, causing or not causing physical injury, which violates the physical integrity and dignity of and inflicts pain in a child or youth, with the purpose of correcting or controlling his or her behaviour.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Hence, approaching corporal punishment as a means of correction is a prime opportunity to address a meeting with parents with regard to that which is known in Law as: Parental Authority. It is to delve within the intimacy of the connection involving the exercise of motherhood and fatherhood in terms of wielding unlimited power that emerged thus with the history of humankind and which is now shifting towards the boundaries of dignity and the recognition of children as holders of rights. It is to approach the fringes of that difficult task of exercising power over another person, who is now afforded, legally at least, full recognition as an individual person. Life in childhood and its conditions and happiness have value in themselves, enough for us to wonder about childcare models, but no less should we be asking about how these parenting models, transmitted from generation to generation, have an impact on society. Particularly when we refer to violence-laden relationship patterns, these questions are related to the aetiology of violence in humankind. Corporal punishment and alternative ways to exercise parental authority can be addressed from various fields, including academic reflection. But it can also be addressed from the practical activism of political activity with a commitment to transforming conditions in the face of reality. In this respect, this paper is an attempt to document a

small part of Costa Rica’s experience in changing the legal and collective conditions of childhood. This within the framework of the new concepts inspired in the human rights contained in the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular as they refer to the abolition of corporal punishment as a form of bond and correction. With the perhaps utopian aspiration that this will have an impact on the symbolic function of the law, on parental relations and on future society.

3. The abolition of corporal punishment in Costa Rica Lo prefiero en pedazos en el cielo que entero en el infierno [I prefer them to be in pieces in heaven than whole in hell] (a popular Costa Rican saying, similar in meaning to ‘Spare the rod, spoil the child’).

In Costa Rica, this history of the changes in parental authority began with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which entered into force as international law in 1990 and is binding (of mandatory compliance) for States parties, with a higher hierarchy than ordinary law. In this way, the relationship between childhood and youth and law was redesigned in two senses: Firstly, through the rejection of the old idea according to which children and teenagers belong in a ‘natural’ world of private relations not regulated by law. In other words, children have ceased to be ‘things’ owned by their parents. Secondly, the relationship according to which children and youth were objects of law; that is, subject to guardianship and repression, was reversed, and they became active and protagonist holders of rights. Thus we moved away from paternalistic and authoritarian guardianship to the safeguarding of rights; from compassion-repression, to citi25

zenship for children and youth. This shift implied shifting from the doctrine of the irregular situation to the doctrine of comprehensive protection. The principal consequences of the commitments undertaken in the Convention can be summarized in five aspects:

1. Immediate application in terms of domestic law, in both jurisdictional and administrative procedures. 2. An obligation to report regularly on the status of child rights. 3. The dissemination and promotion of the rights of children in the community as a whole and among children in particular. 4. The design and application of public policies aimed at providing the basic conditions for the survival, development and protection of children. 5. The analysis and adjustment of the national legal framework in light of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, according to the principles of normative hierarchy, which does not obviate the obligation to apply it effectively in matters of domestic law. In the abolition of corporal punishment, the Costa Rican experience emerged from the fifth commitment undertaken with regard to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. As regards the redesign and adjustment of the legal framework, it was quite a synchronized process, with broad social participation, the consensual agreement of the different political movements and intensive public debate.

In this respect, it may be stated that the abolition of corporal punishment in Costa Rica was not a random or improvised affair. It was the result of the hard work of many activists, advocates, organizations and international agencies, and was not without its difficult moments and unexpected surprises. It should be noted that the amendment to the law on the subject of corporal punishment, in terms of the modification of paternal and maternal powers, was one of the last legislative reforms to be performed. It could even be said that it was the most difficult of the proposed amendments, inasmuch as it took nearly five years to adopt, with expressions of resistance of various kinds. It even surpassed the difficulties encountered in the adoption of more extensive and complex frameworks such as the Children’s Code. We could interpret this by viewing this issue as the last stronghold of authoritarian and patriarchal resistance in the field of children’s rights. The process for the abolition of corporal punishment in the legal framework and the reform of the Family Code. The issue of corporal punishment began to be debated on the country’s public agenda in 2003, when the Office of the Ombudsman for the Inhabitants of the Republic (DHR, for its acronym in Spanish), formally presented, in its legal capacity to submit bills, a draft bill seeking abolition as a corrective to the current legislation.2 In In fact, the process began in 1999, at the Office of the Ombudsman for the Inhabitants, when, in my capacity as Children’s Ombudsman I was privileged to draft the first draft bill to repeal in Costa Rican legislation all authorization of the use of corporal punishment, prohibit corporal punishment explicitly as a corrective measure and establish the need for public policies aimed at replacing such practices by new methods of child-rearing. The strategy on that occasion was first to raise awareness within the institution which defended human rights (the Ombudsman for the Inhabitants of the Republic). 2

Costa Rica, the term abolition, is of great significance, in view of the fact that it is used to refer to historically significant processes, such as the ‘abolition of the army’ in 1948. Interestingly, it became necessary to modify the term during the negotiation process, at the request of certain legislators who wished to reduce its relevance and collective significance. The project was presented as a vindication of the human rights of children and youth, inasmuch as we were addressing a legalized, collective and everyday practice which violated their rights to equal protection before the law and to full respect for their physical integrity and human dignity. (3) The analysis and debate of this issue, for the adoption of the Act, went on for five years, during which time, fruitful public debate took place, as well as awareness-raising and training for public officials, parents and caregivers. Subsequently, we continued to drive the project forward from the Executive Presidency of the National Children’s Board, with actions which might be described as obstinate, but, finally, the legal amendment was adopted in August 2008. Law Nº 8654 ‘The right of children and youth to discipline free from corporal punishment or humiliating treatment’ was adopted. In its basic elements, this act implied repealing from Costa Rican legislation any authorization of the use of corporal punishment, prohibiting explicitly its use as a corrective measure and proposing public policies in pursuit of new methods of parenting. The final draft, adopted after a long and controversial legislative debate, reads as follows:

Law Nº 8654 ‘The right of children and youth to discipline free from corporal punishment or humiliating treatment’ ‘Article 24 bis. The right to discipline free from corporal punishment or humiliating treatment Children have the right to receive counselling, education, care and discipline from their mother, father or persons responsible for their custody and upbringing, as well as from staff and persons in charge of education centres, health and care centres, penal youth institutions or any other, without corporal punishment or humiliating treatment being authorized in any way. The National Children’s Board shall coordinate with the different bodies of the National Comprehensive Protection System and non-governmental organizations, the promotion and implementation of public policies which include educational programmes and projects for the exercise of parental authority which is respectful of the physical integrity and dignity of underage persons. In addition, it shall foster in children and youth respect for their fathers, mothers and caregivers or guardians. The National Children’s Board shall ensure that the various agencies of the National Comprehensive Protection System incorporate in their institutional plans, the programmes and projects mentioned in this article, and shall report to the National Childhood Council on its compliance.’

ARTICLE 2. Amendment to article 143 of the Family Code. The text shall read: ‘Article 143. Parental authority representation. Rights and obligations

and

Parental authority confers rights upon parents and imposes the duties of guiding, educating, caring for, watching over and disciplining their children; in no case does it authorize the use of corporal punishment or any other form of humiliating treatment against underage persons.’

4. Conclusions Final thoughts on the Costa Rican experience It is important to note that despite the existence of a strongly punitive legislative movement and of punitive populism, it was possible to argue that the purpose of the Act was not to penalize, but to make an effort to modify social representations of children and youth in everyday social practices. To this end, it was essential for this unambiguous statutory prohibition to exist. And, above all, to repeal the State’s explicit authorization for fathers and mothers to hit their children. After the act was passed, its implementation and followup was taken over by the National Children’s Council and the National Children’s Board, with the purpose of putting into place the appropriate inter-agency and crosssectoral coordination and synchronization. It is possible to state that the work done in Costa Rica on this issue has been exceptional. Not only was legislation against the use of corporal punishment against children

adopted, but a baseline investigation was also developed in order to measure changes over the succeeding years as a result of the lawâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s impact. Finally, a number of specific public policies on the subject were adopted and implemented. While the Act was not passed exactly as it was intended in the original proposal, which referred to the concept of abolition, affording it a significance and character similar to that of the Abolition of the Army, the fact remains that it was possible for Costa Rican legislation to finally abandon the shameful legal authorization of corporal punishment. Despite strong opposition, legislation was achieved regulating the exercise of parental authority and corrective functions without the use of corporal punishment. In addition, it was also possible to achieve synchronized public policy under the responsibility of the governing body for child rights. With the generation of a baseline study, the foundations have been established for future evaluations and longitudinal research, which will make it possible to learn how this new legislation and public policy have influenced social attitudes and practices, and alternative parenting patterns.

Bibliography Baratta, Alessandro. Infancia y Democracia. I Curso Latinoamericano Derechos de la Niñez y la Adolescencia. San José, Costa Rica, 1999 Braunstein, Néstor. ‘Psicología: ideología y ciencia’. Edit. Siglo XXI, Mexico DeMausse, Lloyd. Historia de la Infancia. Edit. Alianza Editorial. Espasa. 1982. Ferrajoli, Luigi. Infancia y Democracia en América Latina. Preface. Edit. IIDH, SanJosé. Costa Rica, 1999 Foucault, Michel. Chap. V Derecho de Muerte y Poder sobre la Vida. Edit. Productora Gráfica Capuchinas. Mexico, March 2007 Garro, Lilliam. ‘Infancia: entre mito y realidad’. Revista Inscribir el Psicoanálisis. No 4. Edit. Porvenir, San José, 1995. Víquez. Mario Alberto. Castigo Físico en la Niñez. Un maltrato Permitido. Edit. UNICEF, San José, 2014

Mario Alberto Víquez Jiménez Sociologist and psychologist with degrees from the University of Costa Rica. Master’s Degree in Criminology from the Vocational Training Institute of the Office of the Attorney General of the Federal District, Mexico. Professor at the University of Costa Rica. He coordinates the graduate studies in Criminal Sciences programme and directs the post-graduate degree in Law at the same university. He has conducted a number of research studies in the fields of children and youth human rights, education, violence, citizen security, juvenile criminal justice and criminal psychology. As Deputy Minister of Justice and Grace he promoted the first crime prevention programme, drafted regulations for the General Directorate for Social Adaptation and has wide experience in the field of crime prevention and prisons. He was the Executive Chair of the National Children’s Board in two periods (1996-1998 and 2006-2010), served as president of the Directing Council of the Inter-American Children’s Institute (IIN-OAS) and became the first OMBUDSMAN for Children. He has acted as consultant for UNICEF in Central America, and for UNESCO on matters related to violence; as a researcher in education, he has promoted public policies in the field of children’s human rights. He acted as Costa Rica’s representative to the United Nations (UN) in the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and has drafted and promoted laws relating to children and youth.

T he Gender Issue in and from Childhood: Contributions from Anthropology

MÂŞ Florencia Alvarado Torres Summary Over the course of the challenges that arise in everyday or professional life, genuine quagmires can emerge when it comes to attempting to understand the diversity of human specificity within the framework of a paradigm based on the best interest of the child. My experience in the field has led me to recognize the difficulties that can arise when questions about gender and childhood are posed, and their meanings in a diverse context. Fully aware of the complexity of the subject suggested for this article, I shall attempt to cast an exploratory, systemic and crossdisciplinary light on these issues, which will provide professional practitioners and/or caregivers with a broader picture than that which may be derived from a univocal view of the matter, by focusing all my efforts on facilitating an understanding of the life experiences of those who rarely have the opportunity to express themselves and/or be heard, on the basis of a genealogical analysis of the categories mentioned above. Key words: gender - childhood - diversity

Introduction Recently, I had the opportunity to participate as lead instructor, in a teaching experience attended mainly by students from different countries in Latin America. I was able to observe that while the subject matter was received with great interest and enthusiasm, as the teaching units developed, a kind of shift in the meanings of the childhood and gender categories began to emerge, based, on the one hand, on open and participatory discussion among participants from different areas of civil society (teachers and students from various academic levels; lawyers; social workers; psychologists; psychiatrists and other healthcare practitioners; representatives of human rights organizations; political and social activists, etc.) and, on the other, on the analysis of a variety of social contexts. While I do not propose now to explain the content, experience and reflections that I was able to derive from this innovative approach in this field of study, I do wish to underscore the need to suggest methodological and epistemological strategies for professional practitioners working with children â&#x20AC;&#x201C; as well as for caregivers with an interest in these issues â&#x20AC;&#x201C; who wish to gain an understanding of subordinate realities; that is, emerging social outlooks which, in the light of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Best Interest of the Child, I deem to be of the utmost importance in building more equitable societies which are, at the same time, respectful of the diversity of the condition of being human. In this respect, Gender Studies is recognized as an interdisciplinary field which is present in all of the human sciences (Aranzadi Martinez J., 2010), and which focuses on the study of gender issues and/or the sexuality of both women and men, as well as of LGBTIs, on the basis of the critical analysis of social and/or institutional structures and their respective meanings in different cultures. Some of the disciplines analysed in the light of this perspective include Anthropology, Sociology, Biology,

Ethology, Theology, Philosophy, Political Studies, Economics, History, Language and Literature. For its part, the Anthropology of Childhood aims to study diversity and the socio-cultural construction modalities surrounding this category. It is therefore relevant to refer to childhood. A historical review such as that which Pachón Castrillón X (2009) carried out on knowledge production in this field since the late 19th and early 20th centuries reveals a number of different ethnographies that portray different kinds of childhood. For example, Matilda Coxe Stevenson (1849-1915) and her work with indigenous Zuñi children; Margaret Mead (1901-1978) and her classic work, “Coming of Age in Samoa”; Beatrice Whiting and Carolyn Edward (1988); or the controversial, but nonetheless significant work of anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes entitled “Death Without Weeping” on her extensive work in marginalized areas of Brazil. It is also possible to trace new routes with the compilation undertaken by Valeria Llobet (2010) “La infancia en América Latina. Un estado de la cuestión”. So far, each of the cited works can be read in terms of gender, in order to determine how social roles in different cultures are organized; their hierarchies and inequalities. After providing this brief review in order to put this paper into context, in the next heading, as I mentioned above, I shall lay out an epistemological and methodological approach which, in a somewhat selftaught manner, will make it possible to draw up the specific geography of the network of meanings that make up the childhood and gender categories. A selection of empirical evidence is presented below, which moves beyond dichotomous models in an attempt to incorporate within the personal and collective imaginary, other modes of being, and being present in the world.

Methodological approach Forms of denoting socialized bodies and the roles assigned at different stages of life in society and in a specific culture can vary and, like cultural guidelines and conventions, do not represent images fixed in time. In relation to enculturation (socialization in a specific culture), Herskovits has this to say (in Aguirre Beltrán G., 1991): “People are conditioned by the basic patterns of their culture. They learn to handle the symbols of their language, the accepted forms of behaviour, recognized values and institutions to which they must adapt” (p.42). We should, however, bear in mind that this is not an irreversible process, since the human brain is constantly being reshaped in the face of possible transformations over the course of ontogenetic development. (Ramírez Goicoechea E., 2011). We might ask here: What are these basic cultural patterns? On the basis of which traditions of thinking do we reproduce meanings and values? Is it possible to think about new ways of relating to otherness? In regards to genealogical research method in its different forms (Nietzsche, 1887; Rivers, 1910; Foucault, 1969; Schneider, 1984) it seeks origin, caste, or family; that is, the identification of links; their rationale, meaning and language. Whether in the field of the anthropology of kinship (Rivers; Schneider) or in the field of philosophy and morality (Nietzsche; Foucault), I can state that the exercise of rethinking critically the complex network that revolves around gender issues in and from childhood makes it possible to de-naturalize associations such as female/woman; male/man; woman/reproduction; man/ production; etc. In beginning to trace a genealogy, I can take the case of the Judeo-Christian tradition, whose ethos may be perceived in various post-colonial cultures, in which it is possible to identify certain events with a critical eye and a “philosophy of suspicion” as recommended by anthropologist Elena Hernández Corrochano (2012). Genealogies enable us to recognize the realities

and myths that nest in the collective imaginary and inquire into their ties to the present. The interpretation of the Biblical story about Eve (a sinner, responsible for the expulsion of humanity from Eden, etc.) represents only one among several possible readings of this myth. There are a number of theologians such as, for example, Rosemary Radford (1981); Schüssler Fiorenza (1984); or Dickey Young (1993), who suggest useful alternatives that shift the role of women (and of men), both in ecclesiastic and in other social institutions. I could also undertake another genealogy whose meanings are still alive in the present, to a greater or lesser extent, such as in fragments of the works of Aristotle (Pol. 1254 b 26-27). For this author, woman’s only virtue in classical Greek society was to obey man, and she needed to be instructed on how to behave appropriately (Nicomachean Ethics 1150 b 6-14). Or I could also to refer to the Enlightenment era, quoting Montesquieu (1689-1755) on the condition of women’s citizenship at that time, or the works of J. J. Rousseau, in which it is possible to find quotes such as: “To please [men], to be useful to them, to make themselves loved and honoured by them, to educate them when young, to care for them when grown, to council them, to console them, and to make life agreeable and sweet to them – these are the duties of women at all times, and should be taught them from their infancy” (1997 [1762]: 545). This selection of “structural focal points of memory” (Del Valle, 2012), which, as I understand, are some of the different representations surrounding the idea of being a woman and being a man, are an example of how to chart genealogies to inquire about the origin of differences built around sexual division and its corresponding gender roles and, above all, “the silences and the causes that produce them" (Ibid., 2006/2007: 36). It is also possible to identify these “focal points” in narratives of subjective experiences, since they represent (like those mentioned above, though in different ways) inescapable diacritical marks in our understanding of the process of

socialization and identity construction. The genealogical method is, above all, a critical, personal and collective exercise in memory in which we discover the intersection where hegemonic thinking conceals its power and, at the same time, reproduces inequality. It is also an invitation to dive through the pillars of our own identity, allowing an alienating attitude to emerge by exercising critical observation of everyday experiences that do not conform to binary models and require answers. The existence of high levels of uncertainty with respect to gender issues in and from childhood on the part of a number of sectors in society, either as a result of a lack of knowledge, or of opportunities for inter/cross-disciplinary dialogue, as well as the absence of political willingness to promote meetings – among other issues – leads to an emptying as well as the expropriation of meaning and/or representations that converge in individuals’ personal and collective identity. In this sense, as Giorgio Agamben (2007) states: “Experience has no correlation in knowledge [as regards to modern knowledge], but in authority; that is, in the word and the narration” 9). It is because of this that, on the one hand, I highlight the need to reassess certain voices (stories, discourse) which have been silenced or displaced to marginal regions for different reasons, and, on the other, I again stress the need to reflect upon the importance of the narrative of rights-holders, which is what concerns us here. Finally, I wish to emphasize some of the key features of the method proposed: a) It contextualizes the chosen line of thought; b) It recognizes the specific language used to name certain ideas and events; c) It makes it possible to visualize the rationale mainstreamed in social institutions; d) It can give an idea of the symbolic aspects of the human group involved and its respective relationships; d) It shows how biological and sociological aspects merge with power relations; e) It encourages a distrust of naturalized genealogies; (f) It sheds light on other possible epistemologies (and ontologies); (g) It draws a new configuration of the ways in

which we view social relations in order to provide other possibilities of interaction. Empirical evidence from different perspectives In the previous section I described some of the main aspects of genealogical research, as well as the opportunities it provides to begin critically questioning meanings which have been reproducing themselves throughout history. In the following paragraphs I discuss a selection of empirical evidence which makes it possible to enter into dialogue with those other narratives, and, therefore, to continue preparing new genealogies on the basis of the intersection of three fields of knowledge: Biological Sciences; Social and Cultural Anthropology; and Biosocial Science. In the charts below I have attempted, as an introduction, to present the diversity of human specificity from different perspectives. They can all complement each other to facilitate phenomenological understanding of the gender issue in and from childhood, without aiming to establish any hierarchies among disciplines, since incurring assessments of this kind may amount to reproducing inequality. I recognize that from the standpoint of an ethnocentric viewpoint, in which Biological Science is preponderant, this may be a somewhat difficult exercise, but I deem it necessary in order to continue sketching subordinate social scenarios from a systemic and critical outlook. The first chart shows the classification used in contemporary Biological Science in relation to the sex of humans based on sexual dimorphism; that is, based on the existence of only two sexes: male/female. Other cases which are beyond the binary logic tend to be viewed as pathologies and are occasionally subjected to surgical intervention with the purpose of achieving a suitable development of the individual. In this respect, if we analyse sexual di-

versity in these terms, it will not be difficult to conclude that the fundamental rights and best interest of the child are relegated to the health authority, parents and caregivers, who usually make decisions regarding phenotypic sex determination. These decisions are often not carefully thought out, as a result of the taboo surrounding the sex and sexuality of a newborn baby, heteronormative Picture 1 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE RECOGNIZED CASES

SILENCED CASES

Phenotypic sex (or outer physiological-anatomical manifestation)

Chromosomal hermaphrodites

Genetic hermaphrodites

Gonadal hermaphrodites

Anatomical hermaphrodites

Genotypic sex (or All of those cases that do not fit into the male/female claschromosomal manifesta- sification are categorized as â&#x20AC;&#x153;biological anomaliesâ&#x20AC;?. In most tion): cases, the situation is silenced and, therefore, difficult to quantify. Source: Aranzadi Martinez, J. (2010)

Picture 2 SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY GENDER ANTHROPOLOGY Two-spirit Multiple gender tra- Cross-gender tradition dition (or third sex)

Non-Binary Gender

Picture 3 BIOSOCIAL SCIENCE ANIMALS HUMANS intersex intersex

CULTURES intersex

hermaphroditism

cultural conventions and the wishes projected upon new generations, among other factors. The second chart shows the anthropological perspective, whose goal is not to rank sexual and/or gender diversity, but to shed light upon it on the basis of empirical evidence to be found in a number of different societies. These studies have shown that there is a division in gender role organization in all human groups. It is possible to state that this is a cross-cultural event that takes on different forms of organization which are mainstreamed across social institutions. In this respect, it is usual to speak of gender inequality, but I also consider it necessary to analyse the values and meanings that are established between the genders, as well as the hierarchies that are derived from this social fact. A comparative, contextualized and in-depth study of social structures could be useful to identify the multiple modalities in which gender role division is organized, with the purpose of avoiding abstract generalizations that prevent true dialogue between cultures and their complex web of meanings. The third chart shows that on the basis of a number of studies with different perspectives and approaches, it is impossible to deny the existence of the homosexual, intersexual and/or hermaphrodite condition in non-human animals, in at least four hundred species studied (Howard P.E.,1989; Young L.C., Zaun B. J., VanderWerf E. A., 2008; Chávez Lanz O., 2010 ). Meanwhile, ecologist and evolutionary biologist Joan Roughgarden (1998; 2004; 2009) has presented a critique of Charles Darwin’s (1809-1882) “natural selection”, bringing the causes of “sexual selection” into question, indicating that this type of behaviour is not always due to genetic reasons; thus shifting the issue into the social field: Sexual selection is driven by mating, focusing on who mates with whom; social selection should emphasize participating in a social infrastructure to produce and raise offspring to deliver offspring into the next generation rather than on how to attract 42

mates (Roughgarden J., 2009). For this author, it is social factors (rather than the sexual field, in genetic terms) that are the primary source feeding diversity. She continues: It is only thus that gender and sexuality acquire an evolutionary meaning, rather than appear to contradict evolution, due to the valuable features of diversity (Ibid.). With this statement, added to I have discussed above, little remains to be said. Only to indicate that all divisions and/or relationships which may be established between social and natural factors â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Nature and Culture â&#x20AC;&#x201C; are forms of cognition (among many others) which organize that which we call reality into categories, which are being debated repeatedly in different fields of study. In conclusion, it may be necessary to reflect upon what approach should be used to address everyday experiences. I consider that if the main objective is to promote equality in order to achieve equity, relational and inclusive thinking (not dichotomous and/or segmental) is a fertile approach.

Bibliography Agamben G. (2007). Infancia e historia. Buenos Aires. Adriana Hidalgo, Editor. Aranzadi (2010). Historia de la Antropología del Parentesco. Madrid. Editorial Universitaria Ramón Areces. Dickey Young P. (1993). Teología feminista. Teología cristiana. En busca de un método. Tlacopac, San Ángel. DEMAC. Gregorio Gil C. and Castañeda Salgado M. P. (Coord.) (2012). Mujeres y Hombres en el mundo global. Antropología feminista en América Latina y España. D.F. Siglo XXI Editores. Hernández Corrochano E. (2012). Teoría feminista y antropología. Claves analíticas. Madrid. Editorial Universitaria Ramón Areces. Pachón Castrillon X. (2009). ¿Dónde están los niños?. Rastreando la mirada antropológica sobre la infancia. Naguare, Nº 23 pág. 433-469. Ramírez Goicoechea, E. (2011). Etnicidad, identidad, interculturalidad. Teorías, coneptos y procesos de relacionalidad grupal humana. Madrid. Editorial Universitaria Ramón Areces. Roughgarden J. (2009). Evolution’s Rainbow. Diversity, gender, and sexuality in nature and people. California. California University Press.

Mª Florencia Alvarado Torres Antropóloga social y cultural Master’s degree candidate in Medical Anthropology and Global Health at Rovira i Virgili University – Higher Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) – Universitat de Barcelona. Social and Cultural Anthropologist, National Distance Education University (UNED), Spain. Former student of the Network of Graduate Studies of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), with training in Studies on Childhood and Youth in Latin America. Permanent member of the Forum for the Rights of Childhood, Adolescence and Youth of the province of Buenos Aires; member of the Network of Ibero-American Anthropologists (AIBR). Professional experience as public policy consultant and university lecturer at the National University of La Plata. Independent researcher in the fields of childhood anthropology, gender anthropology, political anthropology, peasantry and ethnicities; extensive field experience in Paraguay, Argentina and Spain in highly vulnerable and/ or multilingual contexts. Communications: Summer University. In Loco Association. Faro. Portugal. 2011: New social movements and the 15M movement in Spain. I Latin American Conference of Social Theory. Buenos Aires, 2015: -Gender, childhood and power in the Paraguayan Chaco -Gender, childhood and peasantry: the case of a multi-sited ethnography II International AIBR Conference. Barcelona, 2016: -A time of childhood and territories: identifying identity deconstruction processes in the province of Buenos Aires Contact: florencia.alvatorres@aibr.org http://www.aibr.org/ http://www.ethosantropologico.wodpress.com/

A critical look at interventions in child abuse and child sexual abuse: the human factor

Sandra Baita In its articles 19 and 34, the International Convention on the Rights of the Child establishes childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right to be protected from all forms of maltreatment, abuse and/or sexual exploitation. Unfortunately, it is still within their families that children are most likely to be physically and emotionally maltreated or sexually abused, and subjected to physical and emotional neglect. Often, they are also sexually exploited. The text of the Convention is as clear as the academic definitions of what constitutes child abuse in general and each typology of abuse in particular. However, despite the existence of legal instruments designed to implement and even strengthen protection mechanisms, the latter very often continue to fail. This failure is based on at least two factors: on the one hand, deficiencies or limitations in terms of material resources to underpin adequately the protection practices determined by law. Secondly, what I call the human factor, which includes the interpretations that intervention system operators make of the situations in which they must intervene, and which may be based on insufficient specific training, as well as on ideological biases. Referring to interventions in child abuse and child sexual abuse implies including diverse sectors of society: a neighbour can be the first link in an intervention when 46

he or she reports that someone in the building is mistreating their child, but that same neighbour has no further responsibility in the matter than the fact of having made that report. In this case, the decision involves ethical, moral and human considerations; there are no laws compelling a neighbour to take action in this way. However, detection â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the first link in the intervention â&#x20AC;&#x201C; can also be initiated by a public or private school, a doctor, nurse, educational or other psychologist, social worker; whether these professionals work in the public or the private field. In these cases, the administrative regulations governing the actions of the institutions where they work, the laws of professional competence and, more to the point, the specific laws on the comprehensive protection of children and/or comprehensive protection against family violence determine the extent of professional practitionersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; responsibility and urge them to act. That is to say, in the case of professionals, response and taking action are no longer personal decisions, but actions upheld by law. The second step in an intervention is making a diagnosis of the situation, in which the professions involved are fewer in number, as they are, too, in the third step, treatment. In both cases, the aim is to repair the psychological and physical damage arising from exposure to ill-treatment. Over and above the actions of the various professions in any of these three steps, is the action of Justice and its protection services, as the ultimate safeguard for child protection. All of these, together, constitute the intervention system. If these three steps, judicial actions and those of the child protection services are to operate appropriately, there must be, above all, specific and quality training on these issues beginning as early as during degree courses. This aspect still appears to be lacking. While training in the subject does seem to exist in postgraduate courses, such courses do imply a personal choice on the part of graduates; that is, not all practitioners follow the same 47

postgraduate training routes, even when working in similar positions. Are the lack of material resources and the insufficient training the only causes of intervention failure? Belated dissociations, over-hasty restorations, children who have been separated from their families of origin and returned to them even when the conditions that gave rise to the dissociation are unchanged; children who remain in institutions for years awaiting the resolution of their situations, and then waiting to be adopted by candidates who will take them on when they are already seven or eight years of age or even older; children who return to the system because their adoptive families have been unable to handle their behavioural problems and their difficulties in adapting to the new families â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all of these situations constitute failures in the protection mechanisms and are not the responsibility of the dysfunctional families in which the children were maltreated and abused. They are the exclusive responsibility of the intervention system. How often can a protection measure which was originally intended to last a maximum time measured in days be renewed? How many attempts can be made to convince an substance-addicted mother to enter a rehabilitation centre while still ensuring that her children, all of whom are under the age of five, remain under her increasingly precarious care? Why are the repeated failures of parents to visit their children in a home or their aggressive behaviour towards their children when they do visit reported asâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;displays certain difficulties which have already been pointed out by the Institutionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, without providing detailed information regarding those difficulties? Why does a professional transcribe verbatim a detailed account of the sexually abusive behaviour that a young girl has been

subjected to, only to conclude that the account is not credible, without substantiating this opinion academically, and without explaining where such a detailed account might have come from, while at the same time suggesting that the child should receive specialized psychological care for child sexual abuse? Why should a judge consider that children should be restored to their abusive parent because sufficient time has elapsed, or because, after all, this is the parent the child has, without making sure that the abusive behaviour will not be repeated? Is it the law, the lack of resources or the conceptualizations of the problem which operate in these decisions? In his celebrated article on The Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome, R. C. Summit was already suggesting in 1983 that – paradoxically – the explosion of interest in the topic increased the risk for child victims of CSA, since, although on the one hand the possibility of abuse being discovered was increased, at the same time, it was not possible to protect victims from what he called the secondary assaults of an inconsistent intervention system: ‘Adult beliefs are dominated by an entrenched and self-protective mythology that passes for common sense [...] When no adult intervenes to acknowledge the reality of the abuse experience or to fix responsibility on the offending adult, there is a reinforcement of the child's tendency to deal with the trauma as an intrapsychic event and to incorporate a monstrous apparition of guilt, self-blame, pain and rage.’ (Summit, 1983, pg. 178) (consulted in translation). The adults to whom the author refers in this article are mainly those involved in external intervention, whose objective is to prevent abuse or maltreatment from continuing and facilitate child protection in order to ensure the necessary conditions of safety so that the damage can be repaired.

Various experts in the field have noted the tendency to minimize, or even rule out violence in its various forms as a focus of concern, when it comes to decisions involving the custody of a child. Ideological bias is based on nodal beliefs which – implicitly – underpin recommendations which can negatively affect child protection. Among these, for example, are that fathers tend not to make false allegations of child abuse, but that mothers may not only make false complaints, but also alienate their children because they resist the notion of co-parenting (Saunders, D.G. et al, 2011, pg. 11). In a preliminary study of cases in which some form of violence against a child was reported, but the first judicial decision was contrary to child protection, Silberg and Dallam (2013) found that 85% of the mental health practitioners responsible for advising the judges making the decisions had not believed the accounts given by the reporting children or parent (the mother, in most cases), or had believed the allegation, but had nevertheless recommended that the child maintain contact with the abusive parent (and even suspend contact with the reporting parent). The main reasons for this disbelief were: the lack of specific training in the subject; making recommendations with no empirical or academic support whatsoever and on the basis of personal opinions; ignoring their own findings regarding the violent and abusive behaviour of the accused parent, and concluding that the child’s account of this violence was not credible; the pathologization of the reporting parent’s conduct, such as taking the child to be checked by a doctor, to visit a psychologist, or taking note of the child’s account and confusing domestic violence with ‘a highly conflicted couple’. In the same study, the symptomatology reported by children who were placed under the exclusive care of the abusive parent, or shared between the abusive and the

non-abusive parent, was: suicidal thinking and behaviour, dissociative symptoms and disorders, sexualized behaviours, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, eating disorders, depression and evolutionary regression. The power to cause damage of a person who intervenes wrongly is as great as the power to cause damage of the person who abuses or maltreats a child. And the worst of it is that when child victims of maltreatment and abuse fail to be protected by the intervention system, there is nowhere left for them to turn. In his article, Summit refers to a 1975 passage by Suzanne Sgroi in which she stated: ‘Recognition of sexual molestation in a child is entirely dependent on the individual’s inherent willingness to entertain the possibility that the condition may exist’ (Summit, op.cit. pg. 187). This is the fundamental element of the human factor that tends to derail any possible intervention aiming at child protection: the individual’s willingness to believe that abuse and maltreatment exist, that they are perpetrated by adults mainly within families, and that the damage extends into adulthood and multiplies when it is not detected and intervened in time. This was as true in 1975 as it is today in 2017. Judith Herman argues that when the psychological trauma is the consequence of actions carried out by another human being, the witnesses to these atrocities are caught up in the conflict between the victim and the perpetrator; a conflict in which, says this author, it is morally impossible to be neutral. And she continues: ‘It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. [...] The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement, and remembering. [...] After every atrocity one can expect to hear [on the part of the perpetrator] the same predictable apologies: it never happened; the victim lies; the

victim exaggerates; the victim brought it upon herself; and in any case it is time to forget the past and move on.’ Herman, 1997, pgs. 7 and 8). Are we so sure that those same predictable apologies that Herman refers to are only uttered by the perpetrator? When the intervention system calls upon child victims to forget the past and move on (that’s in the past, that’s the daddy they’ve got, we cannot punish a single error forever), who is actually being protected? The States that have undertaken to enforce the will expressed by the International Convention on the Rights of the Child have a commitment to human development, which is the development of our countries. This commitment can only be carried forward through real, specific actions which are embodied not only in public policy but also in the necessary allocation of resources if these policies are not to be fruitless. But it is not only the States that must undertake a commitment. In every stakeholder in society, in particular those of us who are part of the intervention system, there is a commitment which can only begin to be fulfilled individually when we ask ourselves, what is our attitude to violence? What do we find difficult, what does it hurt us to see? What is it that, if we could, we would choose not to see? Each of us can then enter into contact with the impact that violence has on every human being, an impact against which no profession offers impunity. It is only through this contact that we can achieve real awareness, which will enable us to answer the following question: Are we really protecting children through our actions, or are we protecting ourselves?

Bibliography Saunders, D.G., Coulborn Faller, K., & Tolman, R.M. (2011). Child Custody Evaluatorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Beliefs About Domestic Abuse Allegations: Their Relationship to Evaluator Demographics, Background, Domestic Violence Knowledge and Custody-Visitation Recommendations. University of Michigan, School of Social Work. Final Technical Report Submitted to the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice. Silberg, J. (2013). Crisis in Family Court. A look at turned around cases. Unpublished. Summit, R. C. (1983). The child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome. Child Abuse and Neglect, 7, 177193.

Sandra Baita She is a clinical psychologist with a degree from the National University of Buenos Aires and worked for 15 years in the programmes of the General Directorate for Women (GCBA â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Argentina) on the provision of residential and outpatient care for children who are victims of domestic violence. Since 2008 she has been providing training on the subject of child sexual abuse to judges and prosecutors in Uruguay and has been guest lecturer on the subject at the universities of: National University of Buenos Aires, National University of La Pampa, National University of Mar del Plata, Museo Social Argentino, Catholic University of Uruguay and FLACSO Uruguay. She also works in private practice in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Contact: sbaita68@gmail.com

Summa Inter-American Trai The IIN / OAS Inter-American Training Program aims to strengthen and multiply professional capacities, while at the same time contributing to the permanent mobilization and dissemination of sensitivities around the issues prioritized by the region with respect to the protection of children's and adolescents rights.

In this framework, the program offers the region a series of virtual and semi-face-to-face courses, in addition to other training spaces, organized by semesters, with the participation of students who are inserted or close to the network of integral protection of rights of the childhood and adolescence of the States. Deepening the action of the program is an essential component of our institutional objective of moving "towards a Culture of Rights". Below is a summary of the activities carried out by the Inter-American Training Program in 2017: During the first and second semester, 12 courses were taught: Introduction to the Rights of Children and Adolescents (Spanish and English), Planning and Management of Comprehensive Public Policies for Early Childhood with a rights perspective, Promotion of the Participation of Children and Adolescents, International Child Abduction, (Spanish and English), Adolescents in conflict with the Criminal Law, Rights of Children and communication, Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents in Disaster Risk Management (Spanish and English) and Violence and Rights of Children and Adolescents ... building peace environments.

ary 2017 ining Program (P IC) In these courses participated 466 professionals from 38 countries of America, the Caribbean and Europe: Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Austria, Barbados, Belize, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, United States, France, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Peru, Dominican Republic, St. Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela.

Special activities

Semi-face-to-face course on Promotion of Child and Adolescent Participation, in agreement with the Protagonic Participation Office of the National Secretariat for Children and Adolescents of Paraguay.

Course on Rights of Children and Adolescents adapted to the reality of Mexico. We worked with the DIF professionals on the adaptation of the contents to the national reality and the transfer of training capacities, in order to build a national training system.

Virtual workshop for Children and Adolescents Correspondents of the IIN (CORIA). 19 girls, boys and adolescents from 8 States participated: Argentina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay.

Elaboration and dictation of the Thematic Module on the Rights of Children and Adolescents and Public Policies for its inclusion in the International Course on Public Policies in Human Rights of the Institute of Public Policies in Human Rights of MERCOSUR.

New academic offer: "Violence and Rights of children and adolescents... Building Peace Environments”

Agreement IIN/OEA–AISOS

In compliance with the Action Plan 2015-2019, and in the Cooperation Agreement with SOS Children's Villages in the Latin America and the Caribbean region, the first edition of the course "Violence and Rights of children and adolescents… building peace environments” was developed and implemented during the second semester of 2017. Nearly 1300 applicants from 21 American states and 3 from Europe formed the massive response to the new course offered, confirming the avidity for the issue of adoption and ongoing training on the thematic issues that need various forms of contention. Update concepts, enable reflection spaces, share significant experiences of the region, while adding in the technical strengthening, they also do it in contention, by visualizing ourselves accompanied by integrating a large group of protection.

Interamericano 2018Programa Courses Offer de CapacitaciĂłn IIN - OEA

Spanish Introduction to Child Rights

Early Childhood

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

Juvenile Justice

Disaster Risk Management

Child Participation

International Child Abduction

Comunication and Child Rights

Violence and Children Rightsâ&#x20AC;Ś Building Peaceful Environments

English

Reducing the age of criminal responsibility and enemy criminal law: A form of breaching the principle of non-regression and human rights Pedro Augusto Sousa Silva Neves1 Valéria Martinho Marques2 INTRODUCTION After the 1989 International Convention on the Rights of the Child, most countries in Latin America began to adopt similar systems of juvenile justice. However, in recent years, the debate on reducing the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 years and incarcerating underage persons with adults has been gaining strength. In a context of insecurity and the loss of credibility of the judiciary, Latin American society is being influenced mainly by the sensationalist media, which believe that ‘tougher’ sentences are the solution to the problem of teenage offenders. By broadcasting extensively on chaos, they make it possible to connect this scenario to Enemy Criminal Law, a criminal law trend advanced by Claus Roxin and Gunter 4th year academic member of the law course of the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, campus of Três Lagoas, Brazil. E-mail: pedroassneves@outlook.com. 2 Licentiate degree in Law from AEMS - Educational and Cultural Association of Mato Grosso do Sul, in Três Lagoas / MS, Brazil. Lawyer. E-mail: valmartinho@hotmail.com. 1

Jakobs. In general terms, this trend approaches the application of criminal law as a way to advance punishability and set disproportionately high sentences for those whom society considers to be social enemies. In this paper, we shall seek to consider briefly the matter of reducing the age of criminal responsibility in countries such as Brazil and Uruguay, countries which are signatories to human rights treaties and conventions, but which are attempting to breach these rights with such proposals as these. International Conventions

Human

Rights

Treaties

and

The Charter of the United Nations, signed in 1945, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 are considered by the doctrine to be the start of a human rights-based approach, inasmuch as they constitute a positive international approach to the minimum and fundamental rights of human beings, the dignity of the human person and universal personal rights. We should note that the Declaration of 1948 not only acknowledged human rights, but also made them universal, bearing in mind that it â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;condensed all of the wealth of that long theoretical elaboration by proclaiming, in its Art. IV, that all men, everywhere, have the right to be recognized as personsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (COMPARATO, 2010: 44). With regard to this specific approach, in 1989 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), according to which the States adhering undertook to give priority treatment to children and adolescents, with a view to improving their quality of life. It was ratified by 196 countries.

Three fundamental pillars of protection are established in this document: the recognition of the condition of being a child as a person in the process of development; the protection of the right to live with a family, and the mandatory commitment of the States parties to safeguard the rights enshrined in the Convention as an absolute priority. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which officially became international law in 1990, represented a change in the perception of children and youth. The former concept of children’s incapacity gave way to the concept of children and youth as holders of rights. In 1990, both the Uruguayan State and the Brazilian State ratified the Convention, thus undertaking to ensure that the rules laid down in it were implemented in those countries. In the same year, Law Nº 8,069 – known as the Children and Youth Statute (ECA, for its acronym in Portuguese) – was enacted in Brazil, and in 2004, the Uruguayan parliament adopted Law Nº 17,823 – the Children and Youth Code (CNA, in Spanish) – both of which represented progress in adapting national legislation to the CRC. Proposals to reduce the age of criminal responsibility in some Latin American countries, violating the principle of non-regression. A general overview of the debate on the reduction of the age of criminal responsibility in Latin American countries shows a remarkable number of draft bills based on social aspirations, which are imbued with a common sense of insecurity derived from the intensive dissemination through the media of a culture of fear.

During Uruguay’s 2014 election campaign, the Colorado Party’s conservative candidate, Pedro Bordaberry, managed to gather the signatures necessary to submit the reduction of the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 years to a national referendum. On the basis of episodes such as that of a boy of 16 who killed a restaurant employee of the La Pasiva chain in 2011, the media spread the idea that underage persons went unpunished and should be tried as adults. The campaign was fierce and the ‘Yes to the Reduction’ slogan moved ahead in the polls. However, an intensive campaign which brought together students, artists, intellectuals and other members of the public, reversed the score and ‘No to the Reduction’ was the winner. In Brazil, Constitutional Amendment Bill (PEC) Nº 171/93 seeks to reduce the age of criminal responsibility from 18 years to 16 in cases of heinous crimes, such as intentional homicide or bodily injury followed by death. It was passed by the Chamber of Deputies in 2015 and was sent to the Senate. However, the bill is still awaiting the vote, as 49 votes are necessary for it to be passed, representing two-thirds of the members of the Senate. In a note to the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), the chairman of the Commission on the Reduction of the Age of Criminal Responsibility, Pedro Pablo de Medeiros, expressed his opposition to PEC 171/93, stating that the reduction was ‘unconstitutional, violates international law, and is, therefore, inappropriate, aside from which, it will fail to reduce crime’ (MELO, 2015, p.1). The PEC 171/93 bill model is already being applied in countries such as Guyana and Suriname, and is considered to be one of the most severe in relation to the punishment of young offenders.

The same form of punishment exists in Argentina; there is no possibility of enforcing penalties by incarcerating juvenile offenders in regular prisons or the possibility of applying life imprisonment. The country has already been denounced by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) for human rights violations. In addition to having one of the most stringent criminal laws in this field, in 2013, Argentina debated a proposed reduction of the age of majority from 16 to 14 years of age. However, this was not passed. It should be noted that although there is no universal age of criminal responsibility, most countries in the world follow the guideline of not setting it below the age of 18. However, what we should point out is that reducing this age to under 18 leads to a violation of the principle of non-regression and damages the basic rights of protection of children and youth. By broadcasting extensively on chaos, sensationalist media make it possible to connect this scenario with Enemy Criminal Law, a criminal law trend advanced by Claus Roxin and Gunter Jakobs. Spreading the notion that these people have no human rights only serves to feed the practice of taking negative action against the less fortunate. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;From marginalized children are sculpted marginalized adults, shaped on a daily basis by a violent society that denies them the basic conditions of existence.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; (DIMENSTEIN, 1994: 48-49). Or, in the words of Brazilian author Jorge Amado: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;They stole, fought in the streets, mocked names, knocked little black girls into the sandbanks; sometimes even wounded men or police officers with razors or daggers. However, they were good guys; 64

they were friends with one another. If they did all those things it was because they had no homes, no fathers or mothers; their lives were lives without the certainty of food and sleeping in a big old house almost without a roof. If they did not do all of those things, they would starve to death...â&#x20AC;&#x2122; (AMADO, 2008, p. 35). Therefore, the desecration of isolated crimes committed by juvenile offenders, which the sensationalist media portray as recurrent and repeated acts, generates a collective insecurity which seeks to toughen penalties. What we may conclude from this is that in most countries, proposals to alter the age of criminal liability are related to emblematic cases that were given a great deal of space in the media, and in particular, in opinion pieces. In the words of Brazilian writer and journalist Gilberto de Dimenstein, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;a street child is more than a barefoot, thin, threatened and badly dressed being. He is proof of the failure of citizenship in the country as a whole, in which safeguards in huge quantities failed to emerge from the paper that the Constitution was written onâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (DIMENSTEIN, 2011, p.28). Making punishment tougher, however, cannot be admitted, since the right to protection cannot be reversed in order to meet the aspirations of a society alienated by the newscasts, which show isolated crimes as if they were common practice. In addition, the countries that ratify and become signatories of the international rules for the protection of children and youth, as the domestic norms for their protection determine, cannot regress in the matter of fundamental rights.

Thus, we come to the principle of non-regression, according to which, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;after being realized at subconstitutional levels, the fundamental social rights are no longer freely available to legislators, under pain of breaching the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations, which is inferred from the principle of the rule of lawâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (CANOTILHO apud GOTTI, 2012). For this reason, seeking the reduction of the age of criminal liability is a violation of domestic law and, in international terms, of the treaties and conventions on the protection of children, as it constitutes an attempt to override rights which have already been recognized. CONCLUSION With regard to human rights, legal documents such as the Children and Youth Statute and the Childhood and Youth Code, in keeping with international protection parameters, give rise to a new paradigm influenced by the concept of children as genuine holders of rights, ensuring the prevalence and primacy of their interests by safeguarding their comprehensive protection. However, despite the clear attribution of child rights through these regulatory innovations, severe social inequalities and the challenge of incorporating the new paradigms perpetuate the breach of the human rights of these social groups, regarding which there is, by now, consensus, not only internationally, but also nationally. Teenage crime is not an isolated phenomenon, but merely a side-effect of the problem. Little will be achieved by tightening the response to crime committed by teenagers, while there will certainly be a negative impact on their future. The situation of juvenile offenders must be addressed from a different perspective. Deprivation of 66

liberty is a measure of last resort. Prison is the harshest punishment that the State can impose on a teenager who has committed an offence. In this context, reducing the age of criminal responsibility does not appear to be a viable solution to the problem of violence, but, rather, a magnifier of this social issue, as well as a setback in the protection of the rights of children and youth. We should build upon the emancipation of their human rights, without breaching their right to respect and dignity. Bibliography AMADO, Jorge. Capitães da Areia. 57th ed. Rio de Janeiro: Record, 2008. ASSEMBLEIA. American Convention on Human Rights. Pact of San José, Costa Rica. United Nations General Assembly of 22 November 1969, available from: http://www.cidh. org/basicos/english/basic3. american%20convention.htm BRAZIL, Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil of 1988, 5 October 1988, available from: <http://goo.gl/wUgZP>. COMPARATO, Fábio Konder. A afirmação histórica dos Direitos Humanos. 7th ed. São Paulo: Saraiva, 2010. DIMENSTEIN, Gilberto. O cidadão de papel. A infância, a adolescência e os direitos humanos no Brasil. 10th ed., São Paulo: Ática, 2011.

GARLAND, David. As contradições da sociedade punitiva: o caso britânico. Revista de Sociologia e Política. Paraná, n. 13, 1999, p.76. JAKOBS, Günther. Direito Penal no inimigo: noções e críticas / Günther Jakobs, Manuel Cancio Meliá; org. and transl. André Luís Callegari, Nereu José Giacomolli. 2nd ed. - Porto Alegre: Livraria do Advogado Ed., 2007. MAZZUOLI, Valerio de Oliveira. Curso de direito internacional público. 9th ed. rev., updated and expanded. São Paulo: Editora Revista dos Tribunais, 2015. OLIVEIRA, Ana Maria Assis de. Adolescente infrator e as garantias fundamentais do cidadão em situação peculiar de desenvolvimento. Available from: <https://goo.gl/G45nFu>. PIOVESAN, Flávia. Temas de direitos humanos. 5. Edição. São Paulo: Saraiva, 2012.

Backpackers for Early Childhood

Javier Quesada Presentation The ‘backpackers’ project conducted by Caritas Argentina is one of the socio-cultural animation practices undertaken by teenagers and young people from highly vulnerable social sectors. They are dedicated to the care of children through recreational and artistic activities aimed stimulation, prevention and socialization for children in their own communities and neighbourhoods. The project is conducted in 20 provinces in our country – 130 localities – with a total population of 1260 teenagers and young people, from both criollo and indigenous ethnic groups. The backpackers carry a backpack on their backs – thus giving their function its name – containing puppets, educational games, books and musical instruments, so that children can engage in informal educational activities. They invite the children to play, read and be entertained, giving rise to opportunities for creativity in contexts of poverty. The backpackers conduct a containment strategy by visiting families in order to promote school attendance.

These practices do not take place in institutions, but, rather, in settlements, street corners, rubbish dumps, squares, chapels, football pitches, health posts – in fields, social organizations and any places where there are children. The equipment used, which is of good quality and specifically aimed at children, represents a recovery of the rights-based perspective for so many children from vulnerable sectors who lacked access to books, games and musical instruments. The backpackers are provided with ongoing local training and coaching in working with children from a human rights perspective. They take part in local, regional and national meetings to expand their outlook and daily experience. Young people enrol in this social practice out of solidarity, as a way of committing to the transformation of their own reality, while soon recognizing that their function constitutes an opportunity for belonging, building upon their own subjectivity and filling an existential emptiness. The testimonial value of these young people is rooted in their own vulnerable situation, like that of the children with whom they work. They tell us: ‘I’m just one more person who wants to help build a better society’ (17 years old, La Quiaca); ‘thanks to the backpackers, many kids have left the drugs and alcohol route’ (18, Bº Zavaleta); ‘It’s changed my life, transformed the way I am (17, San Lorenzo). The Backpackers project is framed within the Popular Education perspective, as a way of thinking about educational processes, a way of looking at reality and engaging in its transformation. The aim is for the educational process to lead to greater freedom in all of the actors involved, so that they can recognize their abilities and possibilities of achieving social inclusion. ‘It’s feeling that

I’m doing my bit in this world, which is so hostile, in order to cooperate towards a better world’ (Lomas de Zamora). The difficulties that teenagers encounter when attempting to achieve social and, specifically, educational inclusion are the result of a complex network of circumstances, which include and exceed the reality of their close family context. A significant aspect we should underscore is that as the backpackers conduct their activities, they perceive that upon concluding secondary education and beginning their tertiary studies, their function is in keeping with their vocational choice and life project. That is, that the educational focal point they promote also includes them as full holders of the right to education. This is an educational intervention with a political perspective, which trans-forms both subjects and context. ‘It shows me the reality of the neighbourhoods and towns, their cultural, social and educational features’ (21, Carlos Gardel neighbourhood Play as a social construction While games have their value in terms of stimulation and recreation, satisfaction and leisure, they also have a socializing role, since it is through play that cultures transmit values and rules of conduct, resolve conflict, educate their young and develop many facets of their personality. Among these facets are some that specifically encourage their motor skills and intellectual abilities, which enable them to gain access to school-based knowledge. The backpackers provide children with stories, songs and games, thus contributing to developing their imagination, thinking processes and memory, alleviating their

suffering, returning forgotten smiles to their faces and strengthening their sense of humour through shared play and books. Thus providing a sufficiently healthy and containing affective area for growth, educating for sensitivity, imagination, curiosity, affectivity and stronger human bonds. By incorporating children’s closest adults to the group – mothers, fathers, grandparents, neighbours – they are also providing educational opportunities for these adults to stimulate their own children, reinforcing the family’s and the community’s capacity to teach, which can continue after the specific activity carried out by the backpackers has concluded. ‘Strengthening our kids from their roots to live in this harsh society’ (16, Catamarca); ‘It makes me feel that I am one more person who wants to help for a better society, not just financially, but also in cultural ways’ (19, Río IV). At the same time, these actions stimulate the circulation of oral storytelling, games and books that initiate a dynamic of their own, linked to children’s own identity and culture. This is why we refer to ‘processes’ that require systematic actions. Exposure to these elements in everyday life is what makes it possible for children to gain access to the formal education system, to the possibility of learning more easily, to participate in various social areas, to consolidate basic routines for learning and for life, helping them develop the traits that enable them to become citizens, and full holders of rights. The backpackers’ communicative action also enables them to detect issues that require assistance and offer containment by mobilizing the social networks, as well as referring issues to specific professional care, inasmuch as they are working with an awareness of rights and respon71

sibilities. Consolidating this process requires openness to local institutions and other communities, and, as a result, their action networks expand progressively, as does their personal containment, with other young people and responsible adults. Backpackers as intervention agents with a leading role in their own transformation The project has the twofold capacity to foster both personal and community development. It not only provides an area for communication, recreation and learning to those at whom the backpackers’ educational activities are aimed, but it also gives rise to a personal and group growth process in the young people in the community who engage in these tasks. It generates and provides a new area for action for this age group, which is often devoid of its own opportunities and areas. The interruption of education and the lack of employment alternatives make it difficult to maintain the capabilities and skills attained in the education system. For this reason, through these activities the backpackers are able to find their own areas in which to further their development, improving their self-esteem, exercising solidarity and feel that they are recognized at local social levels. At the same time, they build a background which has more than once led to gaining access to jobs. ‘It helps me fill gaps which we often don’t know how to fill. Being a Backpacker has made me feel useful and realize that my small contribution can help someone a lot’ (18, Santiago del Estero). As well as the intellectual activities they carry out, backpackers learn to moderate a group, handle their feelings in order to support someone else’s, organize their

work, constantly negotiate, mediate conflict, provide containment to social unrest, synchronize with others, manage resources and receive ongoing training that will allow them to continue their personal and social growth, in addition to triggering the need to pursue further studies, in some cases. One of the issues that researchers highlight in relation to today’s youth is that they find it impossible to develop a life project and, in consequence, have low self-esteem. This is particularly true among young people who have been excluded or are on the way to exclusion. This is also one of the factors that place young people at different kinds of risk in terms of substance use, or crime, among other issues. We should note that when they are carrying out their tasks, young people are often prey to fears, weakness and frustration, which is why providing the group of backpackers with containment is very important, and it should also be available for adult reference points and counsellors. ‘I love it; I’m not the same person when I’m with the other Backpackers, it has totally changed me’ (20, Puerto Iguazú); ‘It’s one of the best decisions I could ever have made in my life’ (14, Neuquén). The backpackers project enables these young people to work within their exclusion territory, with their peer group, in an activity displaying solidarity. It demands that they mobilize capabilities, and seek resources and training. It gives them the recognition and respect of other members of the community; that is, it generates conditions which should make it possible, as a result of that very solidarity, for them to build horizons for their own life projects, and, even better, with the support of a group and the guidance of an adult. That is, it opens up new avenues for inclusion. The backpackers project breaks away from the rationale involving personal projects underpinned only by individual achievements which make it possible for peo-

ple to ‘distance’ themselves from their context of origin. The theoretical and practical learning process ‘with and for others just like me’ enables them to acknowledge and analyse their own stories and problems and reflect on their own lives. Real needs also emerge which, by generating new answers, produce new opportunities and specific actions for these young people. The backpacker profile When issuing invitations to become backpackers, priority is given to young people from the communities, who are part of the neighbourhood networks and culturally close to the beneficiaries of the target action. From this perspective, the physical proximity of these young people to the educational area is very important; they should belong to the same neighbourhood which is the focus of the action. This will enable them to approach the area and find themselves in it spontaneously, both for planned activities and in their free time. The activity requires no preconditions related to ‘intellectual excellence’, but it does require a vocation for devoting oneself to others, knowing how to read and write, creativity, some leadership capacity and knowing how to establish solid bonds with children. In addition to flexibility and adaptability, being good at teamwork, sensitivity to the situation and interests of the participants, and commitment and constancy in action, together with a critical and reflexive attitude, which we can help to develop. Voluntary solidarity at a strategic stage of development helps to form a democratic and healthy personality that is reflected in their own actions.

Containment and training in support of the backpackers In their role as roving educators, they are natural communicators and social coordinators. This is why the training they receive should include the progressive development of both their sensitivity and their capacity to perceive feelings, as well as knowledge of individual and social rights. They should learn how to become aware of issues where these rights are affected or breached, giving support and coordinating community processes in order to seek resolution, restitution and the definitive promotion of rights. ‘This is an experience that will enrich me as I deal with people, and that will be useful to me throughout life’ (16, Mendoza); ‘It is a pleasure and an honour. In addition to strengthening the children, it helps us grow as people, morally and spiritually’ (18, Reconquista). Educational activities for these young people include training and coaching in different types of courses and workshops, as well as group and personal containment for the life trajectory of the young participants. Existing resources and scenarios The material resources on the basis of which the symbolic area is built include backpacks and rugs. The backpacks enable the young people to be itinerant, the rugs generate a virtual space which convenes children, brings them together and contains the links generated on the basis of action. The territory from which backpackers originate, the physical space that convenes them, is usually an ‘educational space’ which is physically situated in the neighbourhood, with books, games, musical instruments and art materials, and which acts as the operational support for their activities.

The books, games, costumes, stories and musical instruments included within the backpack are the result of a specific search for materials, respecting diversity as regards culture, age, gender and personal and local interests. The focus is on entertainment, but this does not mean that the activities do not also have a strong educational content. In the case of backpackers who belong to the Colla, Qom, Mbya GuaranĂ and Mapuche ethnic groups, work is done to recover and enhance the culture of these indigenous peoples, by reviewing, seeking, remembering and compiling everything that might help to rethink childhood within the indigenous culture. This is done by putting an emphasis on the play and cultural manifestations which are characteristic of each group, transmitting them, seeking the educational resources of each culture and finding ways of applying them in the rest of the country, in order to foster interculturalism. At the same time, specific workshops and training meetings are held, with a focus on appropriate content and adapted to indigenous backpacks. The whole process is accomplished with the full participation of indigenous communities. Methodology: the method is content The project involves actions that are reiterated in the same spaces or with the same groups, so that they are not limited to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;eventsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, but can give rise to processes that lead participants to a more systematic (although diverse), link with reading, self-expression, play and music, within an area of collective construction of knowledge and coexistence.

The backpackers do not work alone. After some prior planning, they identify the places where they will set up and how to call upon participants, as well as the kind of players or readers they might convene. After they make their diagnosis, they select the types of activities they can carry out. They organize their work by developing some alternative sequences of stories and drama or play activities and select the materials required. These sequences include introduction, motivation, presentation, a second development stage and a final closing stage, with suggestions for continuity. The sequences generate routines that foster an atmosphere of trust and security both for backpackers and for the participants in their action. With the new load in their backpacks, they then undertake their activities in a specific location. The children do not need to demonstrate any skills; just take part freely in educational situations and experiences. Special care must be taken to generate creative, rather than school-like activities, in order to maintain interest. A basic premise for the project is that the activities should be experienced as opportunities for free play, not an obligation, otherwise, their stimulating power is lost and they can come to be perceived as a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;dutyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Subsequently, a time for the group of backpackers to assess their actions, needs, requirements, possibilities and ways of continuing their action should be set aside, including planning for new action sequences. Progressive practice leads to improvement, but also demands more training, so they can optimize the use of resources and strategies.

Project sustainability Most of these young people are at a time of transition in their lives, moving towards another stage, owing to their studies or job situation. For this reason, this is an intervention model which should preferably be organized on the basis of a group of backpackers and not around ‘one’ single backpacker. This enables the young people to continue their studies, work or recreation at the same time as they engage in these activities. The training and planning events in turn lead to encounters between them, to networks providing containment, stimuli and development for themselves, with the support, first, of a Local Technical Assistant from each local Caritas, and then, of other adults in the context. This network exceeds the territorial scope of each group and is considered key to fostering regional and national meetings for training and experience sharing. More than ten collective events of this kind have already been held. All of which provides sustainability for the project; if one of the young people is unable to continue in this task owing to his or her studies or job, the activities still continue. As these actions are shared with adult educators involved with the children (fathers, mothers, related adults), these adults can incorporate both the resources and the strategies used by the backpackers in their daily practices, thus strengthening the family’s and the community’s educational capacity.

Some possible indicators to be used when evaluating the intervention Some possible indicators are: sustained or expanded attendance over time of children and their families to the backpackers’ activities; the circulation of games and stories in the communities; the involvement of young people and adults in the communities who can act as multipliers in other domestic or community opportunities; reading or play situations; growing demand for interventions in the same community or other areas; self-convening levels in the community relating to similar actions and community actions for book maintenance and the production of books or local games, the compilation of the indigenous community’s books, games and stories as a way to recover their own culture. Finally, the consolidation of the backpackers’ teen space, beyond their intervention activities, with activities for themselves. Their own voices: being a backpacker means... On a personal level

‘The commitment it represents, the responsibility, has made me grow as a person’ (15, Posadas). ‘It is growing day by day, moving forward with hope and love, making sense of my life and not painting it black’ (17, Bariloche). ‘It changed my life and transformed the way I am’ (15, Roque Sáenz Peña).

How to exist in the world and as a citizen

‘It is fighting against this mediocre and materialistic world. It is to deposit in each child the magic of a smile. It is to strengthen and expand ties of love between all. It is possible to banish spiritual and physical misery’ (18, Gualeguaychú). ‘It brands my soul. It makes me feel free to think, free to express myself. And very happy and satisfied because I know that there are more kids who are concerned about the good of society and about the younger kids’ (13, Humahuaca).

Note: This experience was presented at the 5th World Congress for the Rights of Children and Adolescents and recognized for its popular intervention model. It received an award from La Crujía Popular Communication Centre, of Buenos Aires, and from DAIA, the Argentine Jewish Association, as the annual youth and social justice experience. Recognized by UNICEF and CELAM’s ‘Centrality of Children’.

Javier Quesada He is a social educator and a social psychologist. He holds a postgraduate degree from FLACSO in Latin American Education and Youth, with a Master's Degree in Socio-Cultural Animation and Social Education. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Social Sciences (UNGS). He is the Coordinator of the Education and Early Childhood Area, Caritas Argentina.

Education in Human Rights and Restorative Practices with Juvenile Offenders Isabel Maria Sampaio Oliveira Lima1 Jéssica Silva da Paixão2 Laís de Almeida Veiga3 OVERVIEW This article aims to discuss education in human rights (HRE) as a strategy to strengthen restorative practices involving juvenile offenders in Brazil. A qualitative approach was adopted in order to review the literature on these practices, juvenile offenders and HRE. It is acknowledged that HRE enhances restorative practices. Together with other practices, restorative circles which aim to highlight community input and participation, promote the voice of adolescents and their families and encourage the construction of a culture of peace. Restorative circles have a special role to play in socio-educational areas. In providing youth with early care during the implementation of socioPhD in Public Health (ISC-UFBA). Professor for the Graduate Programme on Families in Contemporary Society of the Catholic University of Salvador (UCSAL). Court of Law Judge (retired). Postdoctoral residency at the University of Notre Dame (USA) and at the Eastern Mennonite University (USA). Peacebuilding Circles Instructor. Coordinator of the Research Group in Human Rights, the Right to Health and Family, Brazil. E-mail: isabelmsol@gmail.com 2 Master’s degree in Families in Contemporary Society from the Catholic University of Salvador (UCSAL). Peacebuilding Circles Instructor. Judicial mediator – Brazil. E-mail: jessicapaixao. jus@gmail.com 3 Law student at the Catholic University of Salvador (UCSAL). PIBIC CNPq-UCSal grant holder. Member of the Research Group in Human Rights, the Right to Health and Family, Brazil. Brazil. E-mail: laisveiga01@gmail.com 1

educational measures or when giving post-circle support, restorative circles focus on the best that adolescents can offer and encourage their positive points. We recognize the interaction existing between HRE principles, the restorative model and the socio-educational system. We conclude that there is a need to design public policies, train educators and devise HRE projects. In addition, we identify the need to determine pedagogical work flows with an emphasis on HRE, promoting circles involving youth, in compliance with socio-educational measures. In the face of cultural institutional characteristics in which violence is prevalent, it is essential to provide alternatives to deprivation of liberty and mechanisms to strengthen the dignity of every teenager. Key Words: Restorative practices; culture of peace; education in human rights; family. INTRODUCTION This article discusses human rights education (HRE) as a strategy to strengthen restorative practices involving juvenile offenders in Brazil. It includes a review of the literature and of legislation on adolescents in conflict with the law, HRE and restorative practices. Restorative Justice (RJ) is a social movement which establishes a dialogue with every societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cultural and axiological elements (LIMA, 2017). As a strategy for justice, RJ provides a humane response to situations involving violence, building on principles that speak to the perspective of the dignity of the human person and peacebuilding. RJ also focuses on making offenders responsible for their acts, on the reparation of damage and on collaboration between all those directly or indirectly affected by the conflict. The 83

methodologies applied in the restorative model promote respectful dialogue between the persons involved, giving them the opportunity to share their experiences and needs (ZEHR, 2008). Thus, an area of solidarity exists so that new strategies and plans of action can be devised in a circular manner, including all persons involved directly or indirectly. Subjective and objective mechanisms are developed with a vision involving shelter and otherness in order to overcome traumatic situations (MEDEIROS, SILVA NETO, LIMA, 2016). In addition to circles, meetings between the victim and the offender can be held, facilitated by committed mediators. We are aware that in addition to the damage caused to individuals, the violence they suffer also results in consequences for their close relationships and affects the community in different ways. When there is an obligation to repair damage and correct errors so that victims, offenders and communities have an opportunity to propose meaningful solutions for all (ZEHR, 2008, MCCOLD, WACHTEL, 2000), there is a renewal of the tangible and intangible network of human relations (LIMA, 2017). Attending to the needs of offenders, victims and families, and the construction of community values are significant aspects of restorative practices. In terms of social stakeholders, circles are of interest to civil society organizations, public defenders, prosecutors, the judiciary, universities, schools, police stations and other institutions that administer socio-educational measures applied to adolescents. RJ began to be implemented in Brazil at the beginning of the 21st century. In 2005, the first pilot projects found

a favourable context for restorative circles and peacebuilding with juvenile offenders, working together with Children and Youth Courts. The Comprehensive Protection Doctrine, which was installed on the basis of the Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Statute (ECA, for its acronym in Portuguese), contemplates restorative practices in order to safeguard rights and encourage youth protagonism. By means of restorative practices, and by sharing their life stories, people are invited to reconnect with their values, and with their best actions and thoughts (PRANIS, 2010). Thus, a network of interactive care is woven subjectively among families, communities and institutions in order to strengthen safety nets for teenagers. Over the last decade in Brazil, RJ projects and programmes have expanded in various areas. Interlocution with HRE is seen to be a way to encourage the values of a more dialogic culture, less litigious and more focused on the strengths that connect all individuals with their ties of human belonging, both at micro and macro levels. Adopting peacebuilding circles as an educational practice with teenagers, as well as with their families, in compliance with socio-educational measures, has led to positive outcomes which are still being monitored. Despite the limitations of evaluation indicators, and to be developed in forthcoming studies, RJ and HRE tend to reveal transformative experiences. They also relate to the potential of youth, as a method for peaceful conflict resolution. New scientific stu-dies are required for critical and interdisciplinary reflection to have an impact on academy, the community, the judiciary and other institutions that defend the human rights of this youth segment.

DISCUSSIONS AND OUTCOMES Education is a social right which in Brazil is safeguarded constitutionally by State and family. According to Claude (2005), HRE involves an efficient instrument which addresses individual growth, integrating human dignity insofar as it promotes knowledge and wisdom in human beings. By identifying the creative power of their belonging to a community, teenagers come to realize the positive revenue available to them for their connection and protagonism, mediated by values such as otherness, citizenship and joint cross-generational responsibility. When welcomed into restorative practices, adolescents are invited to reflect upon their life projects. HRE aims to train rights-holders by means of values that reaffirm diversity, the dignity of the human person and their constitutional and fundamental rights. As an essential tool in the preventive approach to violence, HRE enters into dialogue with the RJ paradigm, inasmuch as both seek to educate towards new values and a more humane society. While the methodology used in HRE procedures aims to promote critical thinking and autonomy, RJ methodology promotes autonomy, qualitative listening, non-violent communication, the sustainability of personal, community and environmental relations, alternative methods of conflict resolution and, consequently, the propagation of a peaceful culture (MEDEIROS, SILVA NETO, LIMA, 2016). In Brazil, the National Plan for Education in Human Rights (PNEDH, in Portuguese) of Brazilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s National HRE Committee has laid out the basic principles underlying basic

education. HRE is acknowledged to go beyond cognitive learning, to include social and emotional development (PNEDH, 2007). In this context, Teófilo (2015) states that HRE should interact under the aegis of three requirements: continuity, understanding and transformation, and must disseminate the culture of peace by means of equality, dignity and peacebuilding. For this author, educational methods should have an interdisciplinary and dialectical vision, in which teaching is seen as democratic and interactive, rather than authoritarian. In the field of youth, therefore, RJ should act as a means of building violence-prevention strategies, while ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard. Unlike the model used in traditional criminal justice systems, in which the victim is usually ignored while the State decides upon what “revenge” to exact from the offender, RJ builds bridges by using the best in each person and believes in the progressive autonomy of individuals. The challenges are recognized, in the knowledge that the mechanisms for the promotion of justice must be redesigned and made consistent with human rights and constitutional principles such as solidarity and the self-determination of peoples (BRAZIL, 2016). The National Socio-Educational Care System (SINASE, in Portuguese) is a public policy targeting juvenile offenders, which is in compliance with the socio-educational measures provided for by the ECA: provision of services to the community, assisted freedom, semi-freedom and confinement. SINASE puts into practice principles which are anchored in the promotion and defence of child rights and is implemented by means of Law Nº 12,594 / 2012.

The application of this act still requires specific action for the effective protection of youth. The reason for this is that the SINASE is organized on the basis of a set of principles and criteria that involve legal, political, educational and administrative dimensions (BRAZIL, 2012). The breadth of this system in a scenario of social vulnerability implies constant challenges and it can only be implemented through the convergent assimilation of HRE and RJ. Such an effort should promote network coordination leading to comprehensive and uniform care for teenagers, taking into account their individual and collective health, safety, educational and care requirements, as well as the inclusion of their families in accountability procedures. Profiles of juveniles complying with socio-educational measures reveal exposure to violent situations and a history of violation of rights, very often within the very institutions. Restorative practices find an echo in the ECAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s principles, such as comprehensive protection and absolute priority. Furthermore, the mandate of article 35, paragraphs II and III of the SINASA, determines that means of conflict resolution should be strengthened, that restorative practices or measures must be prioritized, and, whenever possible, the needs of the victims should be addressed. According to Zehr (2008), experiencing an act of justice is part of the healing process for both victim and aggressor. If conflict is not addressed appropriately, it is difficult for individuals to overcome a traumatic event and close the cycle of violence. RJ, as a paradigm of justice included among the focal points of HRE, bolsters peaceful conflict

resolution in socio-educational environments and aims to encourage the development of healthy bonds between professional practitioners in the system, teenagers, and their families. The National Council of Justiceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Resolution 225/2016 contemplates these RJ and HRE focal points, since it bears in mind the importance of empowering the community, from the perspective of Freirian pedagogy (FREIRE, 2011). Among the range of restorative practices for juvenile offenders, the most widely used techniques are family meetings, restorative and peacebuilding circles, circle sentencing and victim-offender mediation. In Brazil, restorative circles and peacebuilding have been the most common methods in trials involving children and juveniles, and in institutions applying socio-educational measures, inasmuch as they allow for greater opportunities for dialogue with teenagers and the inclusion of families and communities. According to Pranis and Boyes-Watson (2011), these dynamics act as an evocation of our ancestry and operate as a means to transform persons and relationships, reshaping the family and community networks of the people involved, leading to a strategy which can modify segregational institutional proceedings and cultures. Together with the families, a valuable human capital is strengthened for the future of children and youth (LIMA, LEĂ&#x201C;N, ALCĂ NTARA, 2015).

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS In the 21st century, RJ has become a complex social reconstruction process to be incorporated in current reflection within the field of child and youth law in the light of HRE. RJ strategies make use of the social bonds of solidarity and human networking to educate family members, educators, social stakeholders and legal operators, in a circular path of social pacification. The experience is moving forwards with different nuances, although it is imperative to modify the positivist, vertical and hierarchical pattern of legal courses, both in Brazil and in Latin America. It is only thus, with an interdisciplinary, cross-generational and critical understanding, that HRE and RJ will be able to strengthen violence prevention and enhance the culture of peace. Bibliography BRAZIL Estatuto da Criança e do adolescente. Law Nº 8069/1990 (2016). Provides for a Children’s Statute and other matters. Federal Senate DF. Brazil. Consulted on 10 June 2016, at http://www. planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/ L8069.htm BRAZIL Law Nº 12.594 of 18 January 2012 (2012). Establishing a national socio-educational care system (SINASE) and other matters. Diario Oficial da República Federativa de Brasil. Brasília, DF. Consulted 19 January 2012 at http:// www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2011-2014/2012/lei/ l12594.htm

BRAZIL. CONSELHO NACIONAL DE JUSTIÇA (CNJ). Resolution 225 of 31 March 2016. Provides for a national restorative justice policy within the area of the Judicial Branch, and other matters. Available from: http:// www.cnj.jus.br/files/atos_administrativos/resoluo-n225-31-052016-presidncia.pdf. Consulted on 20 Oct. 2017. CLAUDE, R. P. Direito à educação e educação para os direitos humanos. Rev. int. derechos humanos. v. 2, n. 2, p. 36-63. São Paulo, 2005. FREIRE, P. Educação como prática da liberdade. 14. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 2011.

LIMA, I.M.S.O. A narrativa: relação áurea com a estratégia da justiça restaurativa. In: VALOIS, Luiz Carlos; SANTANA, Selma; MATOS, Taysa; ESPIÑEIRA, Bruno. (orgs). Justiça Restaurativa. Belo Horizonte: Editora D’Plácido, 2017. p. 105-128 LIMA, I.M.S.O. LEÃO, T.; ALCÂNTARA, M.R.A. Relações familiares como capital humano de crianças e adolescentes no Brasil. In: BASTOS, A.C.; MOREIRA, L.V.C.; PETRINI, G.; ALCÂNTARA, M.A.R.(Orgs.). Família no Brasil: recurso para a pessoa e sociedade. São Paulo: Juruá, 2015. p. 243-259. MCCOLD, P; WACHTEL, T. Em Busca de um Paradigma: Uma Teoria de Justiça Restaurativa. International Institute for Restorative Practices. Paper presented at the XIII World Congress of Criminology, 10-15 August 2003, Rio de Janeiro. Available from: http://gajop.org.br/ justicacidada/wp-content/uploads/ Em-Busca-de-um-Paradigma-UmaTeoria-de-Justiça-Restaurativa.pdf. Retrieved: 20 Oct. 2017.

PLANO NACIONAL DE EDUCAÇÃO EM DIREITOS HUMANOS: Comitê Nacional de Educação em Direitos Humanos. – Brasília: Secretaria Especial dos Direitos Humanos, Ministério da Educação, Ministério da Justiça, UNESCO, 2007. PRANIS, K. BOYES-WATSON, C. No coração da esperança. Guia de práticas restaurativas. Porto Alegre: TJRS/AJURIS, 2011, (p.16 and 40). PRANIS, K. Processos Circulares. São Paulo: Palas Athena Editora, 2010. ZEHR, H. Trocando as Lentes: Um novo foco sobre o crime e a justiça. (2. ed.) São Paulo: Palas Athena, 2008.

MEDEIROS, J.G.P.; SILVA NETO, N.M; LIMA, I.M.S.O. Educação em Direitos Humanos e Justiça Restaurativa: Integrar a Justiça Juvenil. In: SILVA, Aída Maria Monteiro; COSTA, Graça Santos; LIMA, Isabel Maria Sampaio Oliveira. (Orgs.) Diálogos sobre educação em direitos humanos e a formação de jovens adultos. p. 99- 111. Salvador: EDUFBA, 2016.

Believing in child and youth participation Laura Cely GĂłmez Luis Alberto Torres Ă lvarez The department of Risaralda, the first in Colombia to believe in including child participation in local participatory budgeting. In our work as professional trainers, we have been travelling our country for over fifteen years, feeling, studying and analysing some of the effects of the daily coexistence of systematic, structural, direct and cultural violence on the child population. Parallel to this, we have witnessed the profound disenchantment, boredom and resignation that mandatory attendance at schools in general and public schools in particular generates in them. They are taught things that are of no use to them in the lives they lead or aspire to lead, and that do not transform them in the short term. Children in Colombia are already familiar with the ancient fabric of the education system. Repetition and content memorization, with predesigned and predetermined results as a learning strategy; this no longer seduces or inspires them; nor does it mobilize them in this interconnected world. In Colombia, as in other countries of the region and Europe, the reaction, rather than repudiation, hovers between disenchantment and disillusion with a type of education 92

which fails to seduce, whose curriculum content, teachers and forms or methods of learning are not renewed, or are of no use in reading and interpreting the changes and signs of childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s current reality (BM, 2017). Colombia is trying to emerge, peacefully, from one of the longest and most violent stages of its recent history; in whose shadow, impunity, backwardness and discrimination of ethnic and socio-cultural groups were rampant, together with slow and questionable development in comprehensive terms. Not to mention the psychological, ethical and social impact upon the entire population, particularly children. The country has been attempting to awaken from the deadly lethargy of the war for two years, so that it can fully address the issues that the armed confrontation was concealing. One of these, and perhaps the most serious, is the loss of the symbolic and cohesive power of democracy as a strategy for peaceful coexistence between different peoples. In the case of Colombia, the direct and participatory democracy of a free nation, existing since 1991. In this approach to strengthening and defending the current rule of law, in some territories of the country, and concurrently with the various types of violence and conflict, some meaningful experiences have evolved, which break away from this inertia and seek to strengthen the social fabric. In keeping with this perspective, Risaralda, one of Colombiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 32 departments, is seeking to implement different strategies, based on the promotion of child participation in public affairs. The department has 957,250 inhabitants and since 2001 has expanded its democratic governance and the exercise of citizenship through the implementation of participatory budgets. Since then, succeeding administrations have kept up the political willingness to strengthen participatory planning exercises, including budgeting, according to the premise and certainty that this conduct promotes and ensures more efficient, transparent and effective public administration, as 93

well as greater involvement of citizens in decision-making for their own well-being. During the last administration, the department expanded and promoted its children’s participatory budgeting programme, working with children between 6 and 13 years of age and maintaining the participation of children between 14 and 17. The application of a differential and educational approach safeguards children’s rights in decision-making in matters affecting their municipalities, in programmes involving them, as well as achieving the free development of their personalities. Ordinance 16 of 2016 recognized the need for methodological designs differentiated by age groups, to enable children and youth to influence the democratic processes of the department and its municipalities. At the Technological University of Pereira we took on the challenge of designing a trainers’ training methodology which was different, bold, innovative, inspiring, capable of breaking the inertia that resulted from the spectre of violence – involving distrust and silence – and of triggering the development of participation processes, in order to believe once again in the building of participatory budgeting, with 5000 children and youth between 6 and 13 years of age1, from urban and rural public schools and youth criminal liability centres. The three municipalities where this experience took place had received families who had been displaced as a result of the armed conflict. This was reflected in the educational institutions where the project was conducted; they became the stage for meetings and interconnections between child and youth victims, most of whom were Afro-descendants or indigenous.

Within the framework of the inter-administrative agreement between the Technological University of Pereira, the Colombian Family Welfare Institute and the Government of the Department of Risaralda. Colombia. Project on Participation is Key. Weaving Dreams. 2017. 1

Methodology for life and to return to a belief in participation and direct democracy for the personal and citizen development of the children in the department We deliberately focused on systemic thinking and complexity as a condition of the fabric of life (Capra. 2007. p. 439â&#x20AC;&#x201C;448)2 We believe that totality and order are involved and that we need to operate with different strategies in order to change the way we perceive this totality, and how we see ourselves in it. We developed an experience that would allow both trainers and children to recover their capacity for wonder, exploration and self-discovery. A methodology that works lovingly from the inside out, from â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;you to youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, with the purpose of offering ways to rediscover and empower the vital forces of change: authentic expression, singularity and subjectivity, as well as the ability to be receivers and givers of love and self-care, towards others and towards the environment. We knew that it would be very difficult to talk about and achieve active child participation in public participatory budgets if in their natural everyday interaction scenarios; that is, their homes and schools, participation and decision-making were limited and foreign. Formal and traditional education still follows authoritarian power schemes and one-way learning methods, with a vision of learners as passive and obedient beings. For their part, families continue to reproduce parenting patterns in which abuse is validated, or exercise child protection that prevents children from exercising their capacity for exploration, creativity and decision-making. We propose a methodology to strengthen the exercise of participation, at the heart and basic core of which is the search for and strengthening of self-expression, imagination, curiosity and a voice of their own. Without this, there is no genuine participation. Our work is based on In the same sense, see the proposals of Morin, Maturana and Rupert Sheldrake, among others, who agree, from different areas, on the inevitable connection with the living and inert systems with which we interact. 2

several premises. The first: teachers cannot give what they do not possess; therefore, they must be empowered and inspired. The second: there is no participation if children lack the serenity and freedom to express themselves, give their opinions and dissent freely. Their genuine participation is strongly linked to the recognition, respect and affection they receive at home, at school and in the community in which they live. Abuse and violence in all of their manifestations dampen their creative and bold impetus and causes them to become submissive and fearful. If we are forever telling children what and how to do and say things, we limit their creative power, the expression of their points of view, the validity of their imagination and their words, their learning from error, the possibility of building their own well-grounded criteria. Thus, we came up with a strategy that primarily made use of the body and movement as vehicles to enhance self-expression and creativity and to promote more respectful and affectionate relationships and contacts. At the end of each module, a performance-based collective corporal device was designed, which was capable of moving and mobilizing feelings, reflections and actions which suggested change. And which emerged from in-depth thinking about their relationship with themselves and their surroundings. To retrieve, awaken or build a solid basis of expression for community life, grounded in movement, memory, dance, the theatre of the unoppressed and sound; awakening curiosity by means of the essential connection for self-expression: the body. A body which feels comfortable in movement, in improvisation. Connecting with the possibility all children have of being agents of change and of the transformation of their territories and their culture. We are shifting from a culture of rebuke, mistrust and intimidation, to another involving trust, inclusion and solidarity, through individual and collective protagonism, recognition as creative beings.

We designed a special staging on the basis of Boalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Theatre of the Oppressed, as well as on body movement techniques derived from inclusive contemporary dance, which culminate in the collective construction of corporal performative devices. In them they express their feelings as citizens, and political and cultural beings, their dreams and requests, in aesthetic and purposeful ways. Each experience, organized in modules3, offered mechanisms in order to interact on the basis of exploration, care and inclusion. With this, we again found that working through body language facilitates communication, heigtens sensitivity, improves our multiple means of expression, deepens the knowledge that we have of ourselves and facilitates creativity. (CHOQUE. 2013. P.9) In this experience, participation is not an outcome. The methodology itself is an expression of it, which is why we draw attention to consistency in form, process and outcome. It is a methodology which turns children into protagonists, with their voices and different ways of expressing themselves. Our intention was to create jointly with the children and recognize their visions of the world and the city, always accompanied by reflection and dialogue. This is a proposal for self-discovery as well as for the discovery of participation in its exercise, with contact and interaction with others, who are different. Trainers who provide support, learn and play The strategy began by training trainers who had the challenge of sharing the methodology with 5,000 children and youth in the municipalities of Dosquebradas, Santa Rosa de Cabal and Pereira. One of the tenets of the methodology is that teachers experience it first and then they do so with their students, since we all learn A GUIDE FOR TRAINERS ON THE EXERCISE OF THE RIGHT TO THE CITIZEN PARTICIPATION OF CHILDREN IN THE DESIGN OF PARTICIPATORY BUDGETS IN RISARALDA. July 2017. Module One: Cultivating my voice, building my expression. Module Two: My right to participate, decide and dissent. Module Three: Creative citizenship at the service of the participatory budget. 3

more fully and deeply through the act of participating. We, both teachers and students, take on the same risks in the learning process. The trainers were provided with training which expanded the paradigms of their learning methods, their teacher-student relationships, the participation of body and feelings in educational support, the enhancement of education as the ultimate transformational political exercise. We implemented a pedagogy which led to an encounter with wonder, self-expression and candid and genuine curiosity, features which they considered characteristic only of the child whom they had left behind, even in their teaching practice, and whom they considered alien to their adult lives. The trainers experienced a process which expanded the boundaries of what they considered possible in their educational work with others.

‘I feel that I learned, that every person in this place acknowledged him or herself, and acknowledged the others, that we abandoned that biased and grid-like structure we found ourselves in at school every day, or here at the university, to find ourselves on new paths for learning. Our bodies are a means of learning, a means of communication, a means of recognizing the other; I think it wonderful to abandon the canonical structures that we have always been taught.’ Trainer Dora Castrillón, Municipality of Dosquebradas. ‘This is a pedagogy of astonishment. At first I was truly amazed, terrified at everything that we managed to do, but little by little I felt that this pedagogy of wonder was helping me to exercise knowledge based on and with my students.’ Trainer Cristian Calderón, Municipality of Dosquebradas. Our intention was to work with adult trainers, with their capacity for expression, so that they would lose their fear of error, and transform their hierarchical imaginaries regarding the learning process; evolve from being

the only sources of knowledge to learning how to bear magnifiers with which to guide the various paths proposed by children. We encountered teachers who were fearful of playing, who were more comfortable with rigid, lecture-based and instructional teaching practices, but who were, at the same time, concerned and seeking other possible ways to build knowledge that would really transform the lives of their students.

‘...We have been invited to get to know our bodies, to draw out the child within us, to live with it, to deal with it as adults; it is a totally transformative experience.’ Trainer: Jonathan. ‘It meant approaching other ways of acquiring knowledge, acquiring insight, knowing how to approach the other, dismantling that biased and closed affection we feel towards our youth, which is imposed by society and prevents real contact, which has generated individualization, a separation which should not exist, which limits us from building ourselves from our bodies, from affection, from our very humanity.’ Eduardo Pulido – a trainer from Pereira. Participation becomes a possible and everyday event According to Ángela María Pérez, the coordinator of the Dosquebradas territory, what the children stressed most and were most grateful for was the feeling that they were being well treated and that they were asked what they felt. ‘I had never felt that anyone was listening to me’, ‘I felt important’, ‘Teach, you listen to me’, were some of the expressions that were heard countless times during the experience. This reinforces the need to approach participation on the basis of practices that bolster children’s self-confidence through the vital forces of building singularity and subjectivity, genuine self-expression, to love and be loved. 99

The methodology we used shed light upon the initial situation that children found themselves in; that is, made it possible to provide a diagnosis of the forms of relationship existing in educational institutions. There was evidence of high levels of racism; Afro-descendant children are excluded and discriminated and they adopted marginalized positions during the meetings. Participation and inclusion are learned in these real and everyday experiences; they should be recognized as educational opportunities to empower and value differences. The trainers learned how to respond to these situations as opportunities to teach and achieve a high impact for life, as a genuine experience of an exercise in democracy and recognition. Using the body and breathing exercises gave rise to greater peace of mind and interest among the students. Some began to make use of the breathing exercises as mechanisms for group self-regulation. Contact has become friendlier and more careful, in settings where violent and confrontational physical contact was prevalent. At the same time, avoidance of and prejudice against taking people by the hand and looking them in the eyes are decreasing. This is the basis for democratic exercise in recognition of differences and the generation of sensitivity regarding others with whom we coexist. New and improved leadership has emerged among students. Children and youth are beginning to demand more information on decisions that affect them, including family budgets, how they are graded, their grades and the response to issues affecting their neighbourhoods and communities. Through this methodology they expressed their feelings through different artistic languages, overcoming their resistance against adults and offering innovative and peaceful solutions for their schools and neighbourhoods. This enabled teachers in the education centres to overcome resistance to listening with less bias to childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s concerns, ways of seeing life and calls for attention. It

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enabled them to perceive their students’ abilities, which it was difficult for them to see through formal and traditional learning methods, and which posed a challenge to their teaching practice. We emphasize the need to increase the involvement of parents in this participation experience, as some of them confessed to feeling uncertain in the face of their children’s requests. Others felt themselves to be under attack and at risk, as they felt their children might begin to talk about the violence experienced within the family and still others were grateful that their children were learning to be informed and responsible citizens.

‘It’s good that my daughter is learning about all this, so that she doesn’t do what I do, give away my vote for a market shop or a shingle.’ Testimony of a mother in Dosquebradas. As a result of our experience, we believe that both children and adults react to invitations and proposals that invite and convene them to rediscover themselves, firstly, as beings who express themselves, and then, as beings who participate. We believe that this type of experiential and living methodology, with its aesthetic and collective purposes, can awaken the creative being we all carry within ourselves and renew the possibility of participation for the children of this millennium, in the political processes that we have started. We consider that these processes (rather than the methodologies themselves) reverberate positively in the daily mechanics of the education system, leveraged in discipline and repetition, filling the lives and attitudes of children and teachers with fresh air and hope. These forms of learning attract attention because they are closer to life and the capacity for change. With these experiences, everyone sees that the dream of changing and improving their environment by peaceful means is possible. Teachers, on the basis of who they are and what they have,

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experience the enhancement of their teaching practices, they are renewed and filled with meaning. Children begin to believe again in adults, in the possibility of transforming their lives and setting, without shouting, without discrimination or violence. In addition, in view of the ages and socio-economic conditions of the participating children (6-14), outlooks and ethical elements are strongly expanded in order to support and renew the symbolic power of direct and participatory democracy, qualifying participation in the short, mid and long term. Children begin to broaden their awareness of citizenship by being part of real participatory processes where their voices and their expectations of life in the present are given pride of place. The challenge for us adults is to know how to act in the face of childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s questions and requests, with an understanding and inclusive attitude. To be enablers of opportunities for discussion and dialogue by means of in-depth questions which are capable of expanding informed decision-making and making it more complex, so that they become responsible for themselves, others and the environment. It is our immense duty to guide childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actions so that they can defend and care for life, recognize differences and maintain their creative and creating spirit in participation.

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Bibliography WORLD BANK World Development Report 2018 Learning to Realize Education’s Promise. Press release. 26 September 2017. http://www. worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2017/09/26/world-bank-warns-of-learning-crisis-in-global-education BAUMAN, Zygmunt, (2008) Tiempos Líquidos. Ensayo Tusquets. Mexico D. F. ________________, (2013) Sobre la educación en un mundo Líquido. Paidós. Barcelona. ________________, (2017) Estado en Crisis. Paidós. Bogotá. Colombia. BOAL, Augusto. (2015) Teatro del oprimido, Buenos Aires, interZona. BOHM, David. (2008) La Totalidad y el orden implicado. Editorial kairos. Barcelona. CAPRA. Fritjof. (2007) El Tao de la Física. Una exploración entre los paralelismos entre la física moderna y el misticismo oriental. Editorial Sirio. Málaga. Spain. 9th Edition. ____________, (2003) Las conexiones ocultas. Anagrama. Barcelona. 2003 CHOQUE, Jaques. (2013) La expresión corporal. 300 ejercicios de expresión corporal, mimo y juego teatral. Editorial Robin Book. Barcelona.

_____________, (2007) La educación como práctica de la libertad. Siglo XXI editores. Madrid, Spain. _____________, (2009) Política y Educación. Siglo XXI editores. Madrid, Spain. GARCIA, Claudia. (2008) La experiencia del presupuesto participativo en Risaralda: un modelo de coordinación gubernamental entre el nivel intermedio y el nivel local y un instrumento de activación democrática. Centro Latinoamericano de Administración para el desarrollo. Consulted in http://siare.clad.org/ fulltext/0060737.pdf GOLDEN, Roselle. (2002) Performance Art, Editorial Destino Thames and Hudson. Barcelona. Spain. Secretaría de Planeación Departamental Risaralda. (2003) Reglamento del presupuesto participativo, Fondo Editorial de Risaralda. Departmental Planning Secretariat of Risaralda (2010) Participatory Budget. Cartilla Guía 2010, Pereira. VELÁSQUEZ, Fabio. GONZÁLEZ, Esperanza. (2012) La planeación participativa, el sistema nacional de planeación y los presupuestos participativos en Colombia. Research report submitted to the Technical Secretariat of the Participatory Planning and Budget Network. Fundación Foro Nacional por Colombia. Consulted in: http://viva.org.co/documentos/

FREIRE, Paulo. (2009) Pedagogía de la Autonomía. Siglo XXI editores. Mexico.

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Luis Alberto Torres Álvarez He is a lawyer, specializing in Constitutional Law, and a percussionist musician. He has taken courses towards a master’s degree in History. He is a trainers’ trainer and an educator working on the basis of the body, movement and memory. Fifteen years’ experience as mentor in cultural transformation in organizations, the education sector and communities. A member of Specialized Creative Services (SECREE, for its acronym in Spanish). www.secree.co contacto@secree.co

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Laura Cely GĂłmez She is a political scientist and weaver and a pedagogue working with body and movement. A trainersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; trainer in the field of cultural transformation, the transformation of conflict and peace. She has experience in monitoring and evaluating social projects and in follow-up through programme and project processes and outcomes with high levels of attention and impact in Colombia. A member of Specialized Creative Services (SECREE, for its acronym in Spanish). www.secree.co contacto@secree.co

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