University of Public Security and Social Development

Brazilian STF president Cezar Peluso presented a proposal to create a University of Public Security and Social Development to 40 specialists in a Rockfeller Foundation meeting, in Italy.

Read below the full presentation.

The proposal of creation of the University of Public Security and Social Development has as its main objective the production of academic reflection with a view to broaden the perspectives of action to fight criminality and poverty with resources from different areas of expertise. The institution will act in the formation of a new kind of practitioner—a public manager capable of working in the many areas of administration involved in the maintenance of public order. It can also work in education and training of practitioners from private, community and non-government institutions, related directly or indirectly to the issue of security and social development.

The proposal falls within the "new paradigm" that has been framed around the need for an intersectoral and multidisciplinary approach to issues of public security and human and social development. According to the definition adopted by the United Nations, human security is the concept that manages to combine the dimensions of peace, security and development ("Human Security Now: Protecting and Empowering People", Commission on Human Security, New York, 2003). This is a concept that involves not only the absence of internal violent conflict, but also fundamental rights, governance, access to health and education etc.

The PRONASCI - National Programme of Public Security with Citizenship, launched in 2007 by the federal government and approved by consensus in both houses of Congress, illustrates the mobilization of efforts to consolidate the new approach. The programme has as its fundamental mark the confrontation of crime, violence and the sense of insecurity by combining security policies with social action. The university of Public Security and Social Development would be an additional tool in the collaboration towards this effort.

The university should be structured in four distinct formats: undergraduate, post-graduate studies (masters and doctorate), specialization courses and research institute. The under-graduation would train managers of public security and development. The master's and doctorate would be aimed at high-level scientific production in the area. In specialization, the main objective would be the training of professionals already working in the area, in the range of the Renaesp - Network for Advanced Studies in Public Security and of the National Curricular Core to the Degree in Public Security of PRONASCI. The research institute would work in the elaboration of specific researches commissioned by internal and external concerned parties.

The curricula of the university of public security and social development should be developed in accordance with the following lines:

i) Democratic State of Law, Security and Social Development: analysis of the necessary relations between citizenship, fundamental rights and violence control as factors of economic and social development;

ii) Social development policies: the importance of social policies, especially education and health as pillars of both citizenship and security policies;

iii) Public Security and Criminal Justice: discussion of individual rights as a limit of the intervention of public security agencies, and the role of criminal justice in the balancing of rights in democratic states;

iv) Repression, peacemaking and human rights: studies about the essential multidisciplinary approach on the public security policies, focusing on examples such as the UPP (Pacifier Police Units) and CIC (Center for Integration of Citizenship);

v) Media and cultural diversity: analysis of policies to support peace in multicultural environments (such as favela communities or cases of violence aggravated by racism or xenophobia, for instance); relations between the perception of insecurity and the action of the media.

vi) International relations, human rights and criminality: transnational aspect and the importance of international cooperation in combating violence and poverty, with emphasis on international regimes to guarantee fundamental rights.

The United Nations support is fundamental in the constitution of the university of public security and social development. Firstly, it represents international recognition of the innovative Brazilian action taken against poverty (Bolsa Família) and violence (the implementation of the UPP in Rio de Janeiro, and also the Brazilian command of MINUSTAH in Haiti). The establishment of a university of the UN in Brazil would represent a true "export platform" of innovative measures formulated and implemented by Brazil—for illustrative purposes, one should note that, from the Brazilian experience in Haiti, the Foreign Ministry has received requests for cooperation international crackdown in favelas and post-conflict zones. In addition, the UN support to the proposed creation of the university can facilitate the access of Brazil to international sources of funding and partnerships with other scientific centers in the area of public security and social development.

(Published in STF - April 5, 2011)