Glória de Ivone do Tocantins Center for the Defense of the Rights of Children and Adolescents (CEDECA), Tocantins State

The mission of CEDECA-Tocantins is to defend the human rights of children and adolescents, especially when violated intentionally or through omission by the government, family, and/or society. The focus is to guarantee and promote the rights established by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Brazilian Constitution, and the Statute of Children and Adolescents.

The Center began its activities with a grant from the Brazilian Fund in 2007. Since then, the organization has provided legal aid and psychosocial support for victims of violence and sexual exploitation. CEDECA has simultaneously conducted research on teenage pregnancy and sexual exploitation in the northern region of Tocantins State, known as Bico do Papagaio.

Another activity was training 700 teachers from the State public school system in eight cities in Tocantins to identify, approach, and denounce cases of violence and to network in taking steps to prevent, fight, and treat such cases.

Youth empowerment workshops and a statewide audiovisual campaign to fight violence and sexual abuse against children and adolescents are also part of the institution’s work.

The Project

With the State Observatory on Violence against Children and Adolescents: an articulated set of actions for the promotion and defense of rights, the proposal by CEDECA is to create an inter-institutional space for the development of actions against violence, abuse, and sexual exploitation committed against children and adolescents.

The initiative seeks to develop the work with the promotion and defense of rights in six dimensions: Technical, with the creation of a network for monitoring, warning, and action; Political, with the empowerment of social actors; Educational, through knowledge and the development of personal and organizational skills; Communications, producing and circulating quality information; Associative, building relationships with shared responsibility between government and society; and Assistance, with the creation and strengthening of initiatives to treat cases of violations.

The Observatory is intended as a hub or clearinghouse, promoting converging actions in the six dimensions described above.