Reflexões sobre a atuação do Conselho Municipal dos Direitos da Criança e do Adolescente de Umuarama – PR

Abstract

In the present work we do a reflection on the performance of Children and Adolescents' Rights of the Municipal Council (CMDCA) of Umuarama County, state of Paraná. The process of councilors’ effective participation is related to the concept of democracy, especially to participatory representative democracy. Participation is a right and is given by the set of individuals and social groups, whose diversity of interests and projects integrates citizenship and disputes with equal legitimacy, space and care by the state apparatus. As instances of participation, the Councils were built in the midst of several reforms of the state under a strong and organized popular pressure. The formation of these councils allows the establishment of new forms of democratic participation, making government and civil society to participate equally in public policies. In relation to Children and Adolescents' rights, the CMDCA was created meaning a more democratic division in deliberations on public resources intended to the area, such as to improve public policies. It is a representative body, deliberator, formulator and controller, designed to influence constitutively at normative will of State, it is a legitimate space and lawful, besides being a victory for the exercise of citizenship. Despite the support found by the Municipal Law, the CMDCA of Umuarama County has showed, in the questionnaire applied to the counselors hold and the heads of institutions, that there are some gaps that need to be supplemented, for the purpose of becoming a council more participatory and more democratic.