The Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship (MDHC) released this Monday (13), during a seminar in Brasilia, an overview of the work carried out in recent years by the Program for the Protection of Children and Adolescents Threatened with Death (PPCAAM). The survey showed that there are currently 538 protected people, 236 of which are children and adolescents and 302 family members. Among young people, 74% are male and 72% are black.
According to the national secretary for the Rights of Children and Adolescents, Ariel de Castro Alves, from 2003 to 2022, 4,942 children and adolescents threatened with death took part in the program, in addition to 8,197 family members also protected in order not to separate these young people. at risk from their relatives. Added to the two groups, the PPCAAM has already protected more than 13,000 people. “The war on drugs is one of the main causes of lethality among our teenagers, who are often exploited by drug trafficking. It is not the incarceration that resolves, much less the police repression and the abuses included in this repression”, criticized Alves.
For the Minister of Human Rights, Silvio Almeida, there is a direct relationship between these deaths and the issue of social class and race. “We are one of the countries in the world that kills the most children, from domestic violence; and teenagers, victimized by urban violence”, said Almeida during the event.
A study by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the Brazilian Public Security Forum, published in 2021, showed that, from 2016 to 2020, there were 35,000 murders of children and adolescents in the country. According to secretary Ariel Alves, up to the age of 11, domestic violence is the main cause of these deaths, with 60% being male victims and 66% being black. Among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, 88% are boys and 83% are black, usually victims of urban violence and state violence. “Most of the victims are young, they are black, they are poor, they live in our suburbs. We have 19 children and adolescents murdered every day in Brazil,” said Alves.
In this sense, the minister criticized the lack of data and studies in recent years on violence against children and adolescents, in addition to the absence of a State policy based on science and with a critical eye on reality. “It is unacceptable that we can normally live with the violent death of children and adolescents. We want scientifically oriented actions that translate into the effective protection of children and adolescents in Brazil”, he defended.
Almeida also highlighted that these policies need to be improved to account for the changes in reality, hence the importance of obtaining scientific data to transform them into youth protection policies in the country. “What happened to us in the previous period is the result of a disconnect between state policy, state bureaucracy and the interests of the Brazilian people. Our challenge is to build this political stability. The theme of children and adolescents must be a State policy, protected by civil society, and by a government that knows how to receive and translate the historical yearnings of the Brazilian people.”
Created in 2003, the PPCAAM aims to preserve the lives of children and adolescents threatened with death and their families, seeking to ensure the guarantee of fundamental rights, such as the right to family and community life, education and health, in the perspective of full protection . The program is coordinated by the National Secretariat for the Rights of Children and Adolescents (SNDCA/MDHC).
