Institute of Human Rights Defenders (DDH)

The project seeks to graduate a new class in Popular Education in Human Rights in the community of Borel (Rio de Janeiro). By way of this course it intends to foment the creation of a Popular Human Rights and Public Safety Committee to organize civil society to observe and elaborate public policies in the communities marked as Police Pacification Units (UPPs), strengthening respect for the fundamental rights and guarantees of a democrac

– Evaluation of the main conflicts arising from the implementation of the UPPs.

– Elaboration and execution of the Popular Course through seminars, workshops, discussion circles, study groups and lectures; creation of cards and human rights manuals.

– Institutional communications of the project: online publication; distribution of folders and announcements on community radio. Delivery of monthly press releases on human rights violations in “pacified”communities.

– Fomenting and strengthening bonds between community leaders in Complexo do Alemão and Borel.

– Creation of a database with violations in the communities reported to national and international human rights protection organizations.

– Release of the report for national and international entities that act in defense and promotion of human rights; and legal assistance in emblematic cases.

The Police Pacification Unit (UPP) is a community police program in development by the state government of Rio de Janeiro since December 2008. Its approach is to remove, reprimand and recover the territory of a particular favela community through coordinated activities with the Special Operations Forces (Bope), after which officers then occupy the community. The occupation should result in the approximation between the population and police forces, while also involving the undertaking of social policies.

UPPs however are not only public safety measures but also part of a greater city project. It is no coincidence that the areas covered are in good part those near regions that will host projects related to the World Cup and the Olympics (such as the region near Maracanã Stadium), or near growing neighborhoods, of great interest to the hotel and construction industries (Barra da Tijuca and part of the western zone). Currently, we can identify four elements that make up the UPPs’ principal structural problems: 1) permanent state of exception; 2) criminalization of daily life; 3) militarization of social relations; 4) process of cultural selectivity.

The Borel UPP, the eighth such Pacification Unit to be implemented, was linked to recent reports of abuse of power and excessive police violence, even leading to the creation of a resistance movement, “Occupy Borel.” The community was also the victim of a killing spree in 2003 that led to a movement that united victims and human rights defenders in the fight against state violence in the community.

This project is a continuation of an earlier supported initiative: “Criminalization of Poverty in Communities with the Implementation of UPPs,” from 2011, which made the Popular Education in Human Rights course possible in Complexo do Alemão (Rio de Janeiro).

The Institute of Human Rights Defenders – DDH is a non-profit civil association founded in December, 2007. Its mission is the development of programs that promote and defend human, economic, social and cultural rights, most of all through free legal guidance in paradigmatic cases of rights violations due to institutional violence, as well as the development of educational and training activities in human rights.

The Network of Communities and Movements against Violence, the Criminal Justice Network, of which DDH is a part, Global Justice NGO, Favela Observatory, Torture Never Again, ISER, State Education Professionals Trade Union (SEPE), the Roots in Movement Institute, EDUCAP, APAFUNK, the Human Rights Commission of the OAB-RJ and Planetary Virus Magazine.

The project’s support allowed for another project called “Criminalization of Poverty in Communities with the Implementation of UPPs” — that made the Popular Training Course in Human Rights possible at the Complexo do Alemão — to continue through the formation of a new class. A solidarity network connecting the students and the team was established, materialized through a Facebook group that acts as a space for exposing violations and sharing events and activities. Moreover, it lead to the strengthening of ties with movements from the community of favelas, such as Ocupa Borel, Ocupa Alemão, the Borel Institutions Network, Networks against Violence, among others. Additionally, the primer “Popular Culture and Human Rights” was published.