Protest against lowering the age of criminal responsibility in the capital.

Fernanda Canofre, On the 21 - Late Tuesday afternoon (7), neither cold nor the threat of rain deterred young people from more than 20 organizations and collectives in Porto Alegre who gathered in front of the City Hall in an act against the reduction of the age of criminal responsibility. According to the organizers of the demonstration called by the FILA Collective, from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), around 300 people were in the march. The Military Brigade and EPTC (Public Transport and Circulation Company) estimated half of this number.

The protesters gathered in Montevideo Square, where they prepared banners and signs, and then marched along Borges de Medeiros Avenue. During the march, shouts of "Out with Cunha," referring to the president of the Chamber of Deputies, were accompanied by chants such as: "What a contradiction, mistreating the youth to treat education!"; "Jump, get off the ground, those who are against the reduction"; and "The police kill black people every day. Reducing the age of criminal responsibility only increases torture."

Then, the group turned at Praça General Daltro Filho and continued to the corner between José do Patrocínio and Avenida Loureiro da Silva, where the march ended. Before dispersing, some members took the opportunity to present points against Constitutional Amendment Proposal 171, approved in a maneuver in the Chamber of Deputies on July 1st. The demonstrators also called for attendance at the next event, scheduled for this Friday (10).
In addition to Porto Alegre, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Brasília also held protests against PEC 171 this Tuesday.

"Criminalization won't solve anything."

Today's event was the first one called by FILA CollectiveThis is an extension project of UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul) that accompanies family members in the queue for visits to adolescents hospitalized at the Carlos Santos Institute (ICS) in Porto Alegre. The initiative arose three years ago, in partnership with the Association of Mothers of Adolescents at Risk, Amar. "This action arises because of this; criminalizing adolescents is not going to solve the problem," says Samantha Luchese, a member of the collective.

With the support of student movements in the capital, the group decided to call for Tuesday's demonstration in response to the vote held in Congress last week, which managed to approve the reduction, less than 24 hours after the amendment was defeated in the house. The Rio Grande do Sul delegation was one of those that maintained the greatest balance in votes. Of the 31 deputies, 13 voted "yes" and 17 maintained their "no" vote from the previous day. Now the Gaucho Committee Against Lowering the Age of Criminal ResponsibilityThe group, of which FILA and other organizations involved in the Act are a part, is reinforcing the campaign of sending emails and making calls to parliamentarians urging them to reject the proposal. In addition to the deputies, senators from Rio Grande do Sul are also expected to join the campaign soon.

According to Samantha, in addition to fighting the approval of the reduction, the group is also working to bring up another issue "hidden" by her: the increase in detention in the proposed reform of the Statute of Children and Adolescents (ECA). "Adolescents cannot spend this phase of their lives incarcerated," she explains. "We want to show that there are socio-educational measures in open settings that can help. Measures that they can fulfill within the community."

The ECA (Statute of Children and Adolescents) moves forward, the PEC (Proposed Constitutional Amendment) moves backward.

According to data from the 2014 Violence Map, of the 56 people murdered in Brazil that year, approximately 30 were young people between 15 and 29 years old. 77% of them were black. In other words, this places teenagers more often as victims of crime than perpetrators. Furthermore, the study shows that while the prison system has a recidivism rate of 70%, in the juvenile justice system this number drops to 30%.

While Brazil votes to lower the age of criminal responsibility, most developed countries set the age of criminal responsibility at 18. Most justify this choice based on studies about the development of cognitive skills. Magda Oliveira, a member of the Community Service Program (PPSC) at the Faculty of Education of UFRGS, endorses this position.

“Committing a crime in an adolescent's life is not simply a choice. It's not something that falls within the individual realm; it's something that falls within the social realm. This speaks to a context, a circumstance that the adolescent lives in, where many rights are violated, and which builds the possibility of them breaking the law,” says Magda.

Like FILA, PPSC is part of the PIPA project, which develops an interdisciplinary methodology to monitor the situation of adolescents in conflict with the law. In addition to these two groups, PIPA also includes the PSI Institute of the Faculty of Psychology and G10, a university legal aid group that provides legal defense for adolescents.

For Magda, with the adoption of the ECA (Statute of Children and Adolescents), Brazil inaugurated a new paradigm based on the idea that children and adolescents are developing. "We believe that there is still much to improve in this system before giving up on it, abandoning it. It is a great advance in Brazilian legislation, and what is happening today is a major setback," she adds.

The Statute focuses on thinking about accountability, not just as punishment, but as a measure that educates. “The socio-educational system will provide for health, mental health, and education for adolescents. And they won't have that in the prison system,” explains Magda. “We have a history over all these years that the Faculty of Education has worked with the PPSC, which shows that it takes time and human investment in adolescents to be able to reverse some situations.”