MISSING CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS IN PORTO VELHO (RONDÔNIA, BRAZIL): DYNAMICS AND STATISTICS OF A SILENT AND SILENCED PHENOMENON – 2019 TO 2022.
Children, Adolescents, Missing Persons, State, Accountability
The disappearance of people continues to be a dilemma in Brazil. It is perpetuated from the perspective of the historical-political agenda that resurges from narratives of the worst moments of the Brazilian dictatorship, especially those that concern the uncertain fate of bodies of those who disappeared during military campaigns. On the other hand, forced disappearances in the democratic period, considering social and economic distortions, are the subject of continuous efforts to deconstruct public complaints. Amidst the process of political denial regarding responsibilities for disappearances, whether forced or voluntary, one of the main justifications is the absence of a clear concept in relation to what the disappearance of people actually means in legal terms, since the phenomenon is elusive. In this context, the disappearance of children and adolescents assumes important relevance, because even though there is an expressive regulatory framework in Brazil, the State is not always able to be effective in fully protecting this population, transferring responsibilities in relation to the disappearance to the family itself. The Brazilian Public Security Forum estimates that between 2019 and 2022 more than two hundred and fifty thousand people disappeared in Brazil, and of these, 30% would be children and adolescents, making it the population group that disappears most in the country. Given the lack of accurate data in relation to small and medium-sized Brazilian cities, this research is dedicated to studying the topic in a municipality in the North of Brazil: Porto Velho, capital of the State of Rondônia. The approach method will be bibliographic and documentary research with a qualitative focus, based on the main descriptors associated with disappearances and which are often overlapped with socially known factors such as intra-family, sexual and gender-based violence. In addition to this aspect, the research is also dedicated to evaluating the existing domestic and international legal framework that supports state obligations on the matter. From the first data obtained in the research, it appears that the Brazilian State does not meet the expectations of full protection for children and adolescents, especially in the case of disappearances, demonstrating the fragile network of protection for the rights of boys and girls, whether in Porto Velho or in Brazil, configuring a type of institutional violence that leads the country to become a serious violator of human rights.