Hélder Câmara Human Rights Center

With the new Brasilian constitution of 1987 and the Child and Adolescent Statute of 1990, law became an important tool to improve the lives of Brasilian children -- especially street children. The Câmara Center is one of the pioneers in using the courts to defend children’s rights.

The Câmara Center emerged from Liberation Theology and the work of Bishop Câmara, famous for his work for the poor and oppressed of Recife. It began work in 1989, then changed its name in 1999 to honor the death of the bishop. In addition to its work with children’s rights, the Center also works on housing issues in the favelas.

The Câmara Center knows the law and understands the force of the courts, but it also understands that the courts are often the least effective tool for social change. Lawyers take the cases of individual children or of oppressed groups, when they can imagine a specific remedy. Even so, they prefer not to depend on the courts, because they seldom change structures of power and they do not change the way that people think.

With this idea in mind, the Center insists that rights are not just about laws and courts. The Center offers classes for grassroots leaders and plays an important role in the local media. In courses in public schools and churches, it teaches children how to express their rights. It trains police and workers in many NGOs about children’s rights and adults’ responsibilities. The hardest lesson is about child labor, because many people still think that working dignifies a child, and it is a challenge to teach another idea about childhood.

The Câmara Center has published several excellent books (in Portuguese), which can be ordered at the address listed below.

Centro Dom Helder Câmara de Estudos e Ação Social
Rua Gervásio Pires 804
Boa Vista, Recife, PE 50050 070
Brasil

tel-fax 81 231 3654

Contacto: Valeria Nepumenco, cendhec@terra.com.br