Sofrimento e saber espírita: subsídios para um observatório de direitos humanos em diálogo com o pensamento de León Denis

Abstract

Human dignity is an inherent right to life, cements social relations and sustains fundamental human rights. Both structural and relational violence entail multiple suffering, as it affects human dignity, restricts rights, impedes development of potentialities and, often, make the subject invisible to the entire social body. Based on this context, the following problem was formulated: What are the guidelines that could guide the constitution of a human rights observatory to be installed in the physical structure of a spiritist center? Thus, the general objective of this research was to analyze the main lines of reflection about suffering and spiritist knowledge, hearing the voice of the research subjects and aiming to identify guidelines for the establishment of a Human Rights Observatory, having as a founding reference the thoughts of Léon Denis. For the theoretical support of the research, we bring the main works of Allan Kardec and Léon Denis about the principles of spiritism, and in the field of human rights, the works by Herrera Flores and Flávia Piovesan. The first part of the research took place with a bibliographic-documentary survey on the history of the Álvaro Weyne neighborhood and exploratory interviews aiming to research the founding of the André Luiz Spiritist Center. The second part, of an exploratory type, was carried out based on interviews with subjects linked to the Spiritist Center André Luiz, located in the Álvaro Weyne neighborhood in the city of Fortaleza, state of Ceará. Data collection was carried out using the technique of narrative interviews and observation of the participants, with records in a field diary and photographs. The search results pointed out suffering resulting from material deprivation, structural machismo, structural racism, exorbitant public power in the private sphere of the subjects (state excess), prejudice against sexual diversity, disrespect for the rights of children and adolescents, sexual crime against children and child labor. It was concluded that the observatory, which will provide broad access to all social actors, regardless of religious aspects or for those without any belief, could be a vector to raise awareness of respect for human rights and for a more peaceful and supportive society, comprising three guidelines: observation (of the rights that are mitigated to actors of social services), referral (for appropriate bodies pursue these rights) and informal education through popular legal education (basic instruction on rights to exercise citizenship).