GUARDANDO VIDAS, FORTALECENDO LAÇOS: O PROGRAMA DE GUARDA SUBSIDIADA DE JOÃO PESSOA E O PRINCÍPIO DO MELHOR INTERESSE

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the impacts of João Pessoa Municipal Law No. 14,309/2021 in the light of the principles of integral protection and the best interests of children and adolescents, seeking to analyze its relationship with the right to family life. As a result of exposure to risk situations and rights violations in Brazil, there is a high rate of children and adolescents being removed from their families of origin, violating their right to family and community life, pushing them into family or institutional foster care. As an alternative to this reality, Subsidized Guardianship programs have emerged, with the aim of providing children and adolescents with family life with people with whom they have a bond, seeking to enable their development in a family environment full of affection. It is against this backdrop that this law established the João Pessoa Subsidized Guardianship Program. With this in mind, this study analyzed this law in terms of its elements and provisions, tracing the profile of the beneficiaries and guardian families enrolled between 2022 and 2023, verifying socio-economic criteria and rights violations. In order to make it easier to understand the subject, a historical and sociological overview of the rights of children and adolescents was created. The paper also presented concepts related to the subject, such as the definition of extended and extended family. Finally, we analyzed the procedural flow in João Pessoa's 1st Child and Youth Court, in order to see if the start of the subsidized guardianship program led to an increase in the placement of children and adolescents in substitute families in the form of guardianship; however, there was no significant increase during the years 2022 and 2023 compared to the previous two years.