O ACESSO AO ENSINO SUPERIOR PARA REFUGIADOS NO BRASIL: UM ESTUDO À LUZ DO DIREITO INTERNACIONAL DOS DIREITOS HUMANOS

Abstract

Higher education is an universal human right for everyone, including refugees in foreign countries. Even so, it is often difficult to verify the presence of refugees in undergraduate and graduate courses, as it happens in Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB) and other institutions. Based on this observation, this current study proposes to analyze the issue of access to higher education for refugees. To do so, it is based on international instruments regarding the right to education, which encourage such access, to then understand whether Brazil is fulfilling its obligations by implementing affirmative action, in order to overcome legal and factual obstacles faced by refugees when entering higher education institutions. Given these difficulties, the Cátedra Sérgio Vieira de Mello Project (CSVM) is examined as a possible good practice to critically analyze the situation at UFPB. In view of this, using the deductive method, national initiatives to implement the international obligation to guarantee access to higher education for refugees were verified which even recognizing the efforts made, still seem insufficient in light of the existing demand. The UFPB itself carries out actions that enable the adoption of affirmative policies that can be more inclusive in the institution, such as joining the CSVM Project. The analysis of the data obtained showed the need for more democratics policies on a national level. It is considered that the results obtained can be useful for reflection on the proposed theme, bringing contribution and development in public policies adopted for refugees regarding higher education.