Motion Of Support For The Transformation Of The Former Political And Social Order Department (Dops) Building In To A Memory Space Of Resistance And Human Rights Memory Space In Rio De Janeiro
- Target:
- Rio de Janeiro State Government - Governor Luiz Fernando Pezão
- Region:
- GLOBAL
- Website:
- www.facebook.com
The building that housed the former Political and Social Order Department, inaugurated in 1910, in the centre of Rio de Janeiro, was built to be the headquarters of the Central Police of the Brazilian Republic. This institution’s main objectives were the pursuit of “vagrancy”, the criminalization of capoeira and Afro-Brazilian religious worship. Over the years, the building housed different political police responsible for repressing the activities of different social groups that could supposedly compromise “public order”, especially during the dictatorship periods. From 1962, the Political and Social Order Department of Rio de Janeiro (DOPS-RJ), one of the main organs of political persecution, torture, and the death or forced disappearance of people during the last civil-military dictatorship.
The building is listed by the State Institute of Cultural Patrimony (INEPAC) but the building is still under the administration of the Civil Police, and is in an awful state of conservation, with deteriorating archives proving the destruction and abandon by the public authorities of historical patrimony. Furthermore, there is evidence that currently the Government’s intention is to create a Museum of the Police and an arcade of shops in the premises, disregarding the former Governor, Sérgio Cabral’s promise, who on the 8th May 2013, during the inauguration of Rio de Janeiro’s Truth Commission, committed to transform the building into a memory site.
It has become more urgent, with Brazil’s undeniable setback in the Transitional Justice process, the destination of this building, by the state governor, to construct a space committed with the memory of resistance and social struggles, which makes the relation between the violations carried out by the State in the past and the present explicit, stimulating measures which prevent the repetition of such practices. The transformation of this building as a whole into a space aimed to promote human rights policies, in a dynamic way, bringing together production, safekeeping, and circulation of information, documentation, archives, projects and proposals about the right to memory, truth and justice is fundamental. For this to be possible different social movements must play a central role in the construction and management of this space, with effective decision-making powers.
The reparation of the damage caused by the impact of State violence on society is achieved through concrete measures, like the creation of memory supports, or in other words, the implementation of tools which demand the recognition of a past that has been deliberately buried, forgotten and silenced by the official versions of history, and contribute to the production of ethical principals which hopes to promote the democratic construction of the present and the future. The Brazilian State and the government of Rio de Janeiro have this outstanding historical debt.
We, governmental institutions, non-governmental organisations and international networks, committed to the struggle for memory, truth and justice in various different countries, as listed below, SUPPORT the “OCCUPY DOPS: Occupy memory to not forget our history” campaign, Rio de Janeiro´s Truth Commission (CEV-Rio) and other social movements in their demand to transform the building where the former DOPS (Political and Social Order Department) was located, recognized as of the most active centres in persecution, imprisonment, torture, forced disappearance and death of political militants during the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-85) besides other victims and different historical periods of the Brazilian Republic, into a Memory Space which celebrates resistance and social struggles.
We SUPPORT the project, developed collaboratively by the DOPS Working Group (created within Rio de Janeiro’s Truth Commission mandate) which aims to promote the creation Memory Space of both resistance and human rights, an important step in the strengthening of democracy in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and for Brazil and Latin American region, with its demand for “Never Again”.
We AFFIRM that granting full participation of social movements and human rights organizations in the construction and management of this Memory Space is fundamental, considering absolutely admissible the division of the building with the Rio de Janeiro’s Civil Police, an institution which was active in the authoritarian period and that has never dedicated in its museum, space to human rights or past of human rights violations. The participation of organized civil society in each stage for many Memory Space experiences, that now belong to Latin American Network of Memory Spaces and the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, has shown itself as good practice.
Therefore, with Brazil’s delay in regards to Transitional Justice and with the promise of the former Governor of Rio de Janeiro, Sérgio Cabral, to determine the building as a space for human rights policies, we ENDORSE the Occupy DOPS and CEV-Rio’s demand directed to the current Governor of Rio de Janeiro, Luiz Fernando Pezão, from the same political party, for the immediate transferal of the building’s administration to the State Culture Department and the State Human Rights Department, and also for the creation of a Public Call for conception projects for the Memory Space of Resistance, with the supervision of the Brazilian Architects Institutions.
We MAINTAIN that the commitment of the Rio de Janeiro State Government to transform the ex-DOPS’ building into a reference for the memory of resistance and for human rights policies would demonstrate respect for democracy, and would be celebrated as another important step for the people of our continent and, above all, for Rio de Janeiro’s population, in this encounter with their history.
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The Motion Of Support For The Transformation Of The Former Political And Social Order Department (Dops) Building In To A Memory Space Of Resistance And Human Rights Memory Space In Rio De Janeiro petition to Rio de Janeiro State Government - Governor Luiz Fernando Pezão was written by OCCUPY DOPS: Occupy memory to not forget our history and is in the category Human Rights at GoPetition.