DIALOGICAL ACTIVISM AND DATA MONITORING AS A CONFLICT-HANDLING DEVICE

THE EXPERIENCE OF THE BRAZILIAN JUDICIARY IN THE CASE OF EMERGENCY AID

Abstract

Object: The research focuses on the legal disputes surrounding socioeconomic rights constitutionally designed to combat extreme poverty and reduce inequalities in the Brazilian Judiciary.Initial hypothesis: The current legal framework in brazilian dispute resolution model is insufficient in ensuring equal socioeconomic rights. To test this hypothesis, I am conducting a case study on the legal cases arising from the distribution of emergency aid, a temporary financial assistance program created to support low-income individuals during the Covid-19 pandemic. This has led to numerous individual lawsuits, many of which are still ongoing. Medodology: My case study includes individual and class actions, as well as initiatives by the National Council of Justice (CNJ) in 2020. I have already examined data, reports, and official papers. I´ve identified the participants of the meetings. I am currently working in semi-structured interviews. In the initial findings, two key elements were identified: the use of collective consensual solutions and the use of dispute perspective theory for data monitoring. Data monitoring involves tracking the stages before legal action, specifically focusing on the underlying public policy, and identifying gaps and critical points. It also consists in recognizing new and suitable approaches for addressing recurring legal disputes arising from public policies, and the necessity for structural interventions. Justification: The study explores the impact of using the judiciary to enforce sociorights measures with a focus on the specific circumstances of the Global South, influenced by colonialism, slavery, late modernity, and an underdeveloped Welfare State. It argues that the effectiveness of tools for implementing socioeconomic rights plays a crucial role in the interaction between judicial practices and social change, especially in terms of reducing poverty and inequalities. The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 was designed to advance democracy and protect human dignity. However, the abundance of social rights has transformed the Brazilian Judiciary into an alternative arena of the political process, hindering the realization of rights for more marginalized groups. This points to the significant issue of implementing socioeconomic rights, directly related to the reduction of extreme poverty in Brazil: The inefficiency of the Brazilian model is evident as more than 1.7 million people are awaiting the assessment of their social security and assistance benefit requests, leading to a backlog. This widened the gap between access to justice and the realization of socioeconomic rights.This injustice leads to intersecting violations related to class, gender, and race, and the lack of effective tools hinders the exercise of these rights. Goals: My research argues that the successful response to emergency aid case demonstrates the potential for collective solutions based on data monitoring and activism. This should be further explored with theoretical contributions connecting human rights and legal procedures. Therefore, the research advocates for a rethinking of the current model, emphasizing the need to unlock real access to justice as a human right issue.