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VIII. EDUCATION
The right to free, obligatory primary education is guaranteed in the Brazilian Constitution, and the Statute of the Child and the Adolescent expressly provides that youths deprived of their liberty, including those in pretrial detention, have the right "to receive schooling and vocational training."253 Yet the majority of youths in detention have only completed between one and four years of primary education; many are illiterate. Access to schooling would be particularly beneficial for youths in detention, many of whom are already at an educational disadvantage when they arrive. But many of the youths we interviewed do not receive an education while they are in detention. João L., seventeen, who had been in Rondônia's Casa do Adolescente for nearly one month when we interviewed him, had not attended classes since his arrival.254 Lucas G., held in the Espaço Recomeço detention center, told us, "I've spent a month in this place. I'm not studying."255 Damião P., who had been in the fourth year of primary school before he was detained, reported, "From the time I entered EREC [the Espaço Recomeço center], I haven't studied." He told us that he had been in the detention center for just over two months.0 Similarly, Gilson R. and Tobias V. told us that they were not attending classes.1 In the pretrial detention unit in Amazônas, no classes were offered. Staff and youths in the Raimundo Parente detention center in Amazônas also reported that education was not yet offered, although staff told us that classes were about to begin. "We don't have education at this moment," the center's director said.2 A state education official told us, "I have a teacher for the morning classes. The problem is the transportation." When we asked him when he expected to be able to offer classes at the Raimundo Parente detention center, he replied, "By the beginning of May [2002] the school will certainly be functioning."3 "What we most need here is schooling," Orlando S. told Human Rights Watch.4 In other detention facilities, there was no discernable pattern to which youths were permitted to attend classes. In the Espaço Recomeço detention center, for example, we heard from other youths who reported that they were in school. Maurício A. told us, "We study Monday to Friday. I'm studying. I'm in the second series."5 The same was true in Rondônia. Some youths told us that they were unable to attend classes while in detention because their facility did not offer classes at their grade level. "Here they only have up to the fourth [series]," said Flávio M., a seventeen-year-old in the Centro Juvenil Masculino who had been in the sixth series in the Espaço Recomeço detention center. "They don't have anything for me. I want to study. I want to do a course in computers."6 Loide Gomes, a social worker with the Marcos Passerini Center in São Luís, explained, "There are few students in middle school. That was always a problem."7 Others did not receive an education because the judges in their cases had entered special orders prohibiting them from leaving their detention centers, even to pursue their studies. Patrícia D., held in the Aninga detention center from August 2000 until May 2001, told us that she was not able to attend classes for this reason. "No, because I'd finished primary. I was in the first year of secondary. They didn't permit me to study outside [the detention center]. . . . I couldn't leave because of the judge's order."8 Youths who were placed on cell confinement frequently reported that they could not attend classes. This was particularly true in the Espaço Recomeço detention center. Henrique O. told us that there were no classes for those in cell confinement. "No, you can't attend them," he said. Asked why that was, he replied, "Because you have to be there," in the cell.9 Those who did go to school while in detention gave varying estimates of the amount of time they spent in class. All of those we interviewed in Amapá's facilities told us that they spent four hours in school per day. Youths in the Espaço Recomeço detention center gave the lowest estimates of time spent in class, usually two hours per day or less. "In general, education is very basic," said Francisco Lemos.10 "They use a system of acceleration," said Loide Gomes, describing a program of studies that is designed to teach students three years of basic education in fifteen months.11 Even when children are able to attend classes, their schoolwork may not recognized by the educational system in their communities. "Schooling [in detention] doesn't have formal validity," Lemos noted.12 The Right to Education
Under article 26 of the ICCPR, Brazil is obligated to respect the entitlement of every person "without discrimination to the equal protection of the law." In addition, the Convention against Discrimination in Education prohibits:
Consistent with these nondiscrimination provisions, when a state provides education to its children it may not arbitrarily deny an education to particular groups of children. The state may make distinctions among groups of individuals only to the extent that those distinctions are based on reasonable and objective criteria.16 International standards clarify that detention status is not a permissible basis for the denial of education to children. As reaffirmed in the U.N. Rules for the Protection of Juveniles, youths do not lose their right to an education when they are confined. "Every juvenile of compulsory school age" who is deprived of his or her liberty "has the right to an education suited to his or her needs and abilities," education which should be "designed to prepare him or her for return to society."17 The Beijing Rules call upon government officials to ensure that children deprived of their liberty "do not leave the institution at an educational disadvantage."18 The right to education is a right of progressive implementation, meaning that implementation may take place over a period of time, subject to limits on available resources. A state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights agrees "to take steps . . . to the maximum of its available resources" to the full realization of the right to education.19 But as the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has stated, the prohibition on discrimination "is subject to neither progressive realization nor the availability of resources; it applies fully and immediately to all aspects of education and encompasses all internationally prohibited grounds of discrimination."20 253 See Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil, arts. 205-13, 227; Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente, article 124(XI) ("São direitos do adolescente privado de libertade, entre outros, os seguintes: . . . . receber escolarização e profissionalização . . . .") The statute also provides, "During the period of internment, including temporary internment, pedagogical activities will be obligatory." Ibid., art. 123, sole para. ("Durante o periodo de internação, inclusive provisória, serão obligatórias atividades pedagógicas."). 254 Human Rights Watch interview, Casa do Adolescente, Porto Velho, Rondônia, April 24, 2002. 255 Human Rights Watch interview, Centro de Internação Espaço Recomeço, Ananideua, Pará, April 8, 2002. 0 Human Rights Watch interview, Centro de Internação Espaço Recomeço annex, Ananideua, Pará, April 8, 2002. 1 Human Rights Watch interviews, Centro de Internação Espaço Recomeço, Ananideua, Pará, April 8, 2002. 2 Human Rights Watch interview with Mário Rebelo, April 23, 2002. 3 "Com certeza ao principio de maio será funcionado." Human Rights Watch interview with Raimundo José Pereira Barbosa, Escola Estadual Josephina de Melo, Manaus, Amazônas, April 23, 2002. 4 Human Rights Watch interview, Centro Sócio-Educativo Senador Raimundo Parente, Manaus, Amazônas, April 23, 2002. 5 Human Rights Watch interview, Centro de Internação de Adolescentes Masculino, Ananideua, Pará, April 9, 2002. 6 Human Rights Watch interview, Centro Juvenil Masculino, Ananideua, Pará, April 10, 2002. 7 Human Rights Watch interview with Loide Gomes, April 18, 2002. 8 Human Rights Watch interview, Santana, Amapá, April 16, 2002. 9 Human Rights Watch interview, Centro Sócio-Educativo Masculino, Ananideua, Pará, April 12, 2002. 10 Human Rights Watch interview with Francisco Lemos, April 18, 2002. 11 Human Rights Watch interview with Loide Gomes, April 18, 2002. 12 Human Rights Watch interview with Francisco Lemos, April 18, 2002. 13 The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights provides that primary education "shall be available to all" and that secondary education "shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means." International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted December 16, 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3 (entered into force January 2, 1976, and ratified by Brazil on January 24, 1992), art. 13. Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes "the right of the child to education"; states party undertake to make secondary education "available and accessible to every child." The Protocol of San Salvador contains similar provisions. See Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights ("Protocol of San Salvador"), adopted November 17, 1988, O.A.S.T.S. No. 69 (entered into force November 16, 1999), art. 13(3). Brazil acceded to the protocol on August 8, 1996. 14 See ICCPR, art. 24; U.N. Human Rights Committee, General Comment 17, para. 3. 15 Convention against Discrimination in Education, adopted December 14, 1960, 429 U.N.T.S. 93 (entered into force May 22, 1962), art. 1. Brazil ratified the convention on April 19, 1968. 16 See Human Rights Committee, General Comment 18, Non-Discrimination, 37th sess., November 10, 1989, para. 13. 17 U.N. Rules for the Protection of Juveniles, art. 38. 19 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art. 2(1). See also Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 28. Nevertheless, "[t]he realization of the right to education over time, that is `progressively,' should not be interpreted as depriving States parties' obligations of all meaningful content. Progressive realization means that States parties have a specific and continuing obligation `to move as expeditiously and effectively as possible' towards the full realization of article 13" of the covenant. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 13, The Right to Education, para. 44. 20 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 13, para. 31. More generally, the committee has stated that the obligation to guarantee the exercise of rights in the covenant without discrimination is "of immediate effect." Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 3, The Nature of States Parties' Obligations, para. 2.
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