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Global health faces a broad spectrum of old and new challenges. Besides epidemiological problems, political conflicts, economic crisis and austerity policies are jeopardizing progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC), affecting the most vulnerable populations. During the 22nd International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) World Conference on Health Promotion held in Curitiba, Brazil, in 2016, challenges and threats for global health, in addition to a wide range of innovative experiences in health promotion, were discussed with participants from 65 countries. At the end of the conference, a public statement was approved claiming for Democracy and Human Rights in all countries around the world as essential conditions for the promotion of health and equity. In this paper, we explore challenges, threats and innovations in global health promotion. We use scientific literature, analysis of the current situation of the Brazilian health system, and material presented during the 22nd IUHPE World Conference. Also, we discuss strategies to strengthen health systems, policies and practices through the approach of STI and illustrative local experiences presented at the congress mentioned above, including examples developed in the city of Curitiba. We conclude that STI is crucial to support strengthening local health systems, design effective intersectoral public policies, scaling up innovative initiates, and skilling staff in addressing the contemporary challenges. Finally, the Declaration of the 22nd World Conference on Health Promotion of the IUHPE is a fundamental policy statement based on the prioritization of democracy and human rights as essential conditions for the promotion of health and equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Rio de Janeiro, the laws of war have contributed to the transformation of symbolically and materially violent means and practices into an experience of everyday life. Political actors contribute to rationalizing violence in certain areas of Brazil, disregarding expectations related to citizenship and human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work in Brazil advocates a radical and critical model of social work theorisation and practice. This article explores the Brazilian theoretical and practice model, identifying the profession as being in the vortex of Covid-19, increasing state economic austerity, attacks on previously hard-won progressive social policy and increasing inequality and precarity. This provides a challenging practice environment. The professional re-conceptualisation model proposes that social work needs to fully theorise social difficulties to ensure that the profession intervenes to address the causes of the problems, rather than manifestations underlying them. This is undertaken through aligning itself with working-class conflicts, promoting rights and refusing to accept the rolling back of support already won. The Brazilian framework, located within its social realities, offers an opportunity for social work globally to consider what lessons can be learnt, to recognise the uniqueness of its perspectives and provide solidarity through its recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the criticisms against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or 2030 Agenda is how they are decontextualized from national realities. To verify this, we worked to identify possible interfaces between the deliberations that took place at Brazilian national conferences and the 2030 Agenda, in the context of urban territories. A qualitative study was conducted using thematic analysis of the final documents produced by the national conferences on health, food and nutrition security, environment and solidarity economy (2013–2015). The study considered all 17 SDGs and the results are presented in the five Ps categories. (i) People: discussions related to this category presented more convergences than any other. (ii) Planet: water was discussed in terms of its rational use and preservation, and as a right. Patterns of consumption, production and climate change were linked to the debate on food. (iii) Partnerships: varying views were presented, some regarding them as a threat against guaranteed rights and others as a way to strengthen the national agenda. (iv) Prosperity: discussions focused on economic growth and industrialization associated to the redistribution of wealth and overcoming inequities. Cities were considered strategic in rural–urban relations. (v) Peace: the term was absent, but 'justice' was discussed in terms of rights, fair taxation and the inclusion of people in vulnerable situations. Our results demonstrated that the 2030 Agenda clearly converges with Brazil's social demands. They enabled contextualizing the SDGs and qualified the debates on their implementation, which indicate the adherence to principles of the health promotion field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2010, the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal, or STF) controversially decided to uphold the country's amnesty law, which currently prevents prosecutions for violations of human rights committed during the military dictatorship. However, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights immediately followed with an opposing view in the Araguaia case, declaring that the amnesty law lacks effect under the American Convention on Human Rights. Brazilian society now faces an unprecedented challenge: can it expect its domestic courts to implement such international obligations? Drawing upon the prospects that a renewed STF may revisit the case in response to the mounting pressures of Araguaia, this article examines the complex legal issues that remain around the enforceability of international justice under Brazil's constitutional framework. The analysis suggests that different judicial strategies could still be explored in order to shift the STF's stance towards a more consistent application of international human rights principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of astonishingly high rates of violence, massive public works projects, and repeated natural disasters, surprisingly little is known about the scope and scale of displacement in Brazil. There is a silence in both discourse and practice. The true magnitude of Brazil's multiple and interlocking displacement crises is still largely invisible. Part of the challenge is that understandings and responses to displacement continue to be segmented, divided between different public entities, non-governmental agencies and advocacy groups. In order to overcome this state of affairs, the article introduces a basic typology to conceptualize various types of internal displacement in the country, highlighting the intersections between them. Drawing on a review of the literature and empirical research in selected Brazilian cities, the author shows how an underlying characteristic of forced migration in Brazil is vulnerability and resilience. The article finds that the dynamics of displacement in Brazil are similar to other middle- and lower-income settings affected by comparatively high rates of insecurity and socio-economic transformation. It also demonstrates the many opportunities to engage more proactively with preventing and minimizing displacement in Brazil, especially through a human rights paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using more than 2,100 slave runaway announcements from across the Brazilian Empire (1822-1889), this article argues that the typical runaway was an atypical slave. Specifically, runaways were overwhelmingly male and of a limited range of age, worked outdoors and itinerant jobs, and possessed outward (e.g., clothing) and inward (e.g., language and literacy skills) characteristics. This unusual combination put a small minority of bonds-people into a position to flee, while flight remained unthinkable or far too dangerous to the vast majority, even at a point that slavery was presumed to be ending. This finding matters because for more than a half a century, historians have commonly used the runaway slave as the quintessential example of slave resistance. But this interpretation may transform the runaway into an unrepresentative symbol and divert our attention from the many ways that oppression within slavery was, by definition, the lack of opportunities to resist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies of truth commissions assert their positive role in improving human rights. A first wave of research made these claims based on qualitative analysis of a single truth commission or a small number of cases. Thirty years of experience with truth commissions and dozens of examples allow cross-national statistical studies to assess these findings. Two recent studies undertake that project. Their findings, which are summarized in this article, challenge the prevailing view that truth commissions foster human rights, showing instead that commissions, when used alone, tend to have a negative impact on human rights. Truth commissions have a positive impact, however, when used in combination with trials and amnesties. This article extends the question of whether truth commissions improve human rights to how, when and why they succeed or fail in doing so. It presents a ‘justice balance’ explanation, whereby commissions, incapable of promoting stability and accountability on their own, contribute to human rights improvements when they complement and enhance amnesties and prosecutions. The article draws on experiences in Brazil, Chile, Nepal, South Korea and South Africa to illustrate the central argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]