For an education in Human Rights

by Vinício Carrilho Martinez, Marcela Eduarda Farias Rech, Luana Cristina Falavigna, Titiani Garbellini Barbosa Lima, and Vanderlei de Freitas Nascimento Júnior

Translated and Reviewed by Matheus Lucas Hebling

Não te esperarei na pura espera

Porque o meu tempo de espera

É um tempo de quefazer.

Paulo Freire – Pedagogia da Indignação

 

Uma das primordiais tarefas da pedagogia crítica radical libertadora

É defender uma prática docente em que o ensino rigoroso dos conteúdos

jamais se faça de forma fria, mecânica e mentirosamente neutra.

Paulo Freire – Pedagogia da autonomia

 

Education in Human Rights is done amid respect, the defense of human dignity, and the integral acceptance of human values, in humanistic action and reflection.

At this moment when the country is going through, serious and blunt threats to the Rule of Law, to the Republic, to democratic institutions, it is essential that we are aware – with Science and militancy – that the defense of Human Rights is a task of each one, each of us.
There are no Human Rights without democracy; without a Republic, dictatorship, ignorance, contempt for public policies, health, and education prevail; without the Democratic State of Law, only the autocratic, authoritarian, abusive and denialist forms of Humanity itself thrive.
We have seen this course of attacks and attacks on democracy, human rights, humanism, and pacifism, on many occasions in human history. The worst, the most serious, was the Holocaust and the more than 50 million deaths in World War II.
Hitler moved to the Axis of Evil, Nazi, reaper of millions of human lives, around absurdly inhumane projections. Instead of full respect for Human Rights, this Angel of Death (and other bloodthirsty followers) came from the Law of Full Powers – always in hand to “authorize” massacres and genocides.
In Brazil, the 1964 dictatorship – like others in Latin America during this period – relegated an authoritarian heritage, disbelieving in the ability of the Brazilian people to manage their future. The surrender thought of the time is not far away: National Sovereignty was surrendered recently, together with dozens of ambassadors from all over the world.
Political violence, amid the electoral process, does not have, will not have limits. Just remember that direct attacks, various crimes, and political assassinations have already been practiced. Democratic institutions, starting with the STF and the TSE, are bombed every day and night. It is Fascism telling its “narratives”.
It is Fascism seeking to legitimize, in slogans, absurd distortions of reality, knowledge, and average intelligence. It is fascism that seeks to implement itself, more acutely, through violent action that tries to discredit everything that does not present itself as rancid, retrogression, and hatred.
On top of all that, National Fascism – real and digital, of robots and robotized people – is largely misogynistic, rancorous racist, nasty elitist, and exclusionary.
Therefore, even counting the refusal or deliberate delay in acquiring vaccines against COVID-19 – pushing chloroquine and other hallucinogenic placebos that led to the programmed death of thousands of people –, it must be said that the country depends on democracy to invest in Public Education to, then, be guided by the rationality of public choices.
Education in Human Rights is fundamental in the recognition, defense, promotion of human values, human dignity, and full respect for the principles that defend a free, fair, and egalitarian society – as we read in the Spirit of 1988 Constitution.
It is necessary to make it clear that the Complex Complex of Human Rights is our watershed, that criticism of Human Rights is not allowed, because it would be the equivalent of saying that we prefer subordination, the denial of the environment, that we like contaminated water and that public health can be annulled – in favor of private plans –, or even that the driver of any car can be drunk to choose random targets on the streets, as well as men kill women with impunity.
There is no choice here. Furthermore, by logic, we can only choose between two or more alternatives – and here there is only one alternative: undisputed, unscathed, conscious, and responsible adherence to the Complex Set of Human Rights. There is no choice, therefore, because no one in their right mind chooses death over life.
On the other hand, one must always remember the Spanish fascist model, in which the most characteristic slogan was, precisely, “Viva a morte!”. Here, we will say: “Long live all forms of life!” – and may all rogues perish (to paraphrase Kant).
We say this because the country is in such a rude situation intellectually speaking, so unprotected in terms of fundamental rights, that people (millions), in all layers, groups, families, strata, and social classes, are led to “choose” between Science, the real verification of the facts, and the denial of life, the most insane, surreal, puerile lies.
This moment is so complicated that (today) adults believe or defend “theses”, diagnoses, and prognoses, that, compared to two decades ago (yesterday), these theses are “thoughts” that would make younger children laugh a lot. Nobody else knows what prolegomena or epistemology are, but their worst negative bets are certainly accepted.
Nobody else knows what the Rule of Law is, the Polis, the Civilizing Process, the meaning of public life, democracy, humanism, emancipation and inclusion, prudence, ethical balance, isonomy, let alone equity. The question, in essence, is that this is a provoked reality – for the benefit of abusive power, of capital that dissolves the flesh and hope of the poorest, the workers, and the black woman (at the extreme limit of exclusion).
This encounter of social barbarism, of stubborn slavery in Brazil, with the fascist, disgusting, violent, genocidal practices of this brief 21st century, is not a coincidence – nothing is for nothing. In our country, the culture of contempt and social hatred is causality: we are sons and daughters of miscegenation built on mass abuse and rape.
Nothing will be by chance, in terms of what might be worse for us. Undoubtedly, we are continence of causes and effects, there is no chance in our defects since we are intentions, actions, and consequences.
Therefore, we also intend to increase our knowledge about the facts that surround us – as a demonstration of the most serious violations of Human Rights -, in line with the concepts, theories, and analytical elements that allow us to conclude.
And what would that conclusion be?
There is only one possible choice, so there will only be one logical conclusion: we will defend human rights, democracy, human values, and human dignity, in all our days, in all our reflections and practices.
We chose Human Rights because it is what logic dictates and logic commands us to choose what is best for all of us, that is, we consciously, rationally choose the only possible path: We choose Human Rights.

 

Vinício Carrilho Martinez – OAB/SP 108,390
Marcela Eduarda Farias Rech – Pedagogy academic/UFSCar
Luana Cristina Falavigna – OAB/SP 446,804
Titiani Garbellini Barbosa Lima – OAB/SP 337.352
Vanderlei de Freitas Nascimento Júnior – OAB/SP 264,069

This text was originally written as the opening for the course Human Rights Education.