Fórum Juventude Sul Fluminense em Ação (FJSFA) 

Youth Forum of South Fluminense in Action 

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Children and young people have played a fundamental role in transforming citizenship and democracy over the decades. In the redemocratization of Brazil, students and student associations established their importance when they won the right to vote from the age of 16. The 1988 constitution also foresees a series of rights in defense of education, comprehensive protection and social justice. 

Social participation and the protagonism of citizens in the public sphere are not restricted to budgetary practices and neither to voting polls. Volta Redonda, for example, has a history which begins at the time of redemocratization when social movements such as the Ethical Movement in Politics (MEP/VR)[1], a non-governmental institution that provided social services, and the Ecclesiastical Base Communities[2] played a fundamental role in establishing an organized civil society, mobilizing people in favor of strengthening and instrumentalizing the mechanisms of control and social participation, in order to guarantee and perpetuate such protagonism.

One such case is the Children’s Rights Council, which in its history is formed by the mobilization of mothers, women and human rights entities. After a year of the promulgation of the Statute on the Child and the Adolescent – a federal law that replaced the previous Code of Minors, it established that children and adolescents are also subjects of rights. The same organized civil society pressured the public sectors to create the Council, which constitutes a public space where civil society through organizations and the government, discuss public policies in addition to inspecting and supervising policies aimed at children and adolescents. According to Article 7 of the Municipal Law nº 4866 of the Volta Redonda City Council, “the Children’s Rights Council (CMDCA), linked to the Municipal Government Secretariat, is a deliberative and fiscal body responsible for the rights and actions aimed for children and adolescents at all levels ensuring equal popular participation through representative organizations” (VOLTA REDONDA, 2012). This is considered one of the most advanced legislations in terms of the role, participation and monitoring of sectoral councils in Brazil. In three decades of activity this council has gained much visibility for advancing in several areas both in participation and in policy-making.

Considered by law as the final decision-making body on any policy for children and adolescents in the city, the CMDCA has the power to veto a law that stipulates any policy for children and adolescents considered irregular. After all, who better to deal with politics for children and adolescents if not the sectoral council itself? The council is a reference in protagonism since it is the first council to hold a seat for its audience, including the right to speak and vote, as well as two seats for children and adolescents to act as counselors, elected in their own forum. 

[1] Ethics in Politics Movement is an association non-partisan, inter-religious, non-profit and non-discriminatory on the basis of religious creed, nationality, ethnicity or economic condition. It stands for morality, transparency and ethics for allocating public resources. MEP also offers education to society through the Citizen Pre-Vestibular. The priority focuses are socio-political, socio-educational and socio-environmental areas (MEP/VR, 2020).

[2] According to CPDOC/FGV (2020) the Basic Ecclesial Communities (CEBs) are organizations of the Catholic Church that are characterized by: (a) Sunday celebration held by secular men and women; (b) Broad participation in decision-making, usually through assemblies; and (c) Link between biblical reflection and action in society.