Justice within everyone's reach.

The inclusion of a special section dedicated to the Public Defender's Office in the Federal Constitution, within the chapter dealing with Essential Functions of Justice, is a measure that we have long needed to take.

Without guaranteeing full operating conditions, with all the prerogatives enjoyed by other institutions such as the Public Prosecutor's Office, for example, the Brazilian justice system, in its broadest sense, was not fully realized.

This is because the Public Defender's Office lacked clear definitions in our Constitution. Therefore, we voted for and enacted Constitutional Amendment 80, which, among other things, to guarantee full access to justice, establishes an eight-year deadline for the Union, the states, and the Federal District to provide all judicial districts with public defenders.

In 2013, Congress had already approved Constitutional Amendment 82, which granted budgetary powers to the Public Defender's Office, a significant step forward. However, the approval of this new law was a long-held dream of public defenders across the country, which has finally been realized.

A study conducted by the Institute for Applied Economic Research, called the Map of Public Defenders in Brazil, revealed that only 59% of public defender positions are filled, covering 28% of Brazilian judicial districts, representing a total deficit of 10.578 public defenders.

This means that the Public Defender's Office is operational in only 754 of the 2.680 judicial districts distributed throughout the country.

As a permanent and essential institution for the rule of law, the Public Defender's Office performs an extremely important function for that segment of the population that cannot afford lawyers to assert their rights. Without the full functioning of the Public Defender's Offices, at all levels of the Union, it is not possible to make constitutional precepts effective, including the provision of comprehensive and free legal assistance to those who prove insufficient resources.

The full functioning of Public Defender's Offices guarantees the right to equality, insofar as it allows for the treatment of the unequal, that is, the less fortunate, in the exact measure of their inequality, ensuring them proper legal guidance. Only with the guarantee of broad access to the Judiciary for the entire population is it possible to speak of maximum effectiveness of Social Justice and, consequently, of the fulfillment of the principle of human dignity.