Public Policies for Equality in Latin America and the Caribbean

Summary: The seminar aims to discuss the causes of the unprecedented setbacks in human rights in recent decades, exposing the hidden strategies employed within the framework of formal democracy. It will examine the processes of co-opting international human rights instruments to guarantee the concentration of power and wealth, with an immediate impact on citizens and on the culture of political and social violence. The topics covered will be:

1. Democracy and human rights put to the test: treating causes as causes;
2. The world-system and the co-optation of international human rights protection instruments;
3. International System for the Protection of Human Rights at the service of lex mercatoriaThe case of the Inter-American System of Protection;
4. The devaluative deconstruction of human rights by the media and the relationship between fundamental rights and guarantees;
5. International humanitarian law of selective and strategic application in the Americas;
6. The opportunism of international cooperation and transnational and extraterritorial clauses to the detriment of sovereignty and political autonomy;
7. Law and the justice system as an effort in hybrid strategies of regional destabilization: lawfare recognized as competitive for political and economic purposes;
8. Citizenship financed by the concentration of rhetorically humanitarian financial capital: the dilemma of financing think tanks and intellectuals in Latin America;
9. Violence and social and political fear as a form of control and destabilization: anti-politics as an end;
10. Reactions in the field of politics and integration. New formulas based on lessons learned;
11. Reactions in the fields of economics and human rights. New approaches based on lessons learned;
12. Democracy and Human Rights put to the test: learning from mistakes.

 Coordination: Carol Proner (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Summary: The 2008 crisis acted as a shredder on the consensus that inspired the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and organized the world since the end of World War II. The US, which won the Cold War, began to show, at the turn of the century, its difficulties in maintaining global hegemony in an increasingly multipolar world with China as the leading economic power, foreshadowing a new era of conflicts where the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the war in Ukraine, and the conflicts in the Middle East are signs of the breakdown of the old balances. At the same time, a paradox emerges. The right is abandoning its commitments to liberal democracy—coups, fake news, lawfareInternational financial blackmail—while the left has become the defender of the model despite the slim chances of profound changes from within governments. Feminism and environmentalism are emerging as the two major political actors in these times of change, although their repertoire of political organization remains unchanged, seeking a balance between parties and movements that is yet to be explored. If the pandemic restored the State to a central social role, neoliberal governance structures seem to operate with bursts of acceleration and braking. In confusing times, the first democratic obligation is to make sound diagnoses. This seminar will seek to approach an understanding of this complex international scenario from the perspectives of theories of the State and the approach they advocate regarding the social production of inequality.

Coordination: Carlos Monedero (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain)

Summary: 

Many empirical studies have focused on portraying the situation of vulnerable populations, analyzing their sociocultural profile and socioeconomic conditions. Few, however, have dedicated themselves to developing the same profile of national elites, especially those who control public institutions and national decision-making processes. What is their cultural, racial, and socioeconomic profile? How do they think, how do they act, and what values ​​do they defend? In times of rising neoconservatism and the far right, as well as increasing inequalities in Latin America, it is urgent to examine studies based on empirical research that offer an analysis of these political elites in the various branches of power within nations, in order to understand how they think about and operate the oppressions they legitimize. The purpose of this seminar is to discuss these issues from the perspective of sociological and anthropological studies, including the intersections of gender, race, and ethnicity.

Coordination: Rebeca Igreja (National University of Brasilia, Brazil)

Summary:

The view of education as a public and social good, a universal human right, and a responsibility of states is now a consensus and is reflected in much of the regulatory framework governing educational systems in Latin America. However, the effective realization of this right is far from being a reality in our region. Educational inequalities continue to plague our societies and our educational systems, finding new and increasingly sophisticated forms of expression. The growing consolidation and expansion of differentiated educational circuits result in the segmentation of educational systems. This, in turn, reproduces conditions of lower quality in education associated with social origin, ethnicity, gender, geographic location, and family structure. We begin with the recognition that education is a social, political, and cultural phenomenon and is therefore subject to ongoing disputes that determine its main configurations and directions within the specific context of historical moments. Thus, the analysis of educational inequalities and public education policies requires the consideration of multiple dimensions. The increasing privatization of educational offerings and the weakening of public education systems, the decline in funding, infrastructure deficiencies, the limited integration of digital tools and resources into pedagogical processes, and the consequent disconnect between school learning and the development of new cultural forms and expressions are some of the main educational shortcomings in the region. For their part, the impacts of the pandemic dramatically highlighted and intensified these shortcomings, revealing a series of unavoidable challenges. In this seminar, we propose to reflect on the main debates that are currently urgent from the perspective of the conception of education as a right and the promotion of educational justice. These include the analysis of education in emergency situations, the need to develop actions to strengthen and expand public investment in education in response to post-pandemic needs, and the challenges of teacher training. New literacies and digital citizenship; the gender perspective; reflections on ethics and human rights in artificial intelligence, are some of the topics we propose to address.

Coordination: Florencia Stubrin (FLACSO Brazil)