Eng
On July 13, we celebrate the publication of the Statute of Children and Adolescents (ECA), the main milestone in protecting childhood and adolescence in Brazil. The ECA represents a collective commitment to recognizing children and adolescents as rights holders who need to be cared for in order to grow up with dignity. It sets out a series of rights that guarantee access to health, education, care, culture and opportunities for their full development.
Each chapter addresses an essential dimension of holistic care. Chapter III covers the right to family and community life that every child should have. At first, this seems to be a right common to much of the population: being part of a community and a family. But when we look more closely, we understand that it goes far beyond simply ensuring that a child has family members and other community ties.
Art. 19. Children and adolescents have the right to be raised and educated within their own family and, exceptionally, in a substitute family, with family and community life assured, in an environment that guarantees their holistic development.
What is the right to family life?
Essentially, it means ensuring that every child and adolescent can have a family to raise and educate them, whether their birth family, extended family or adoptive family. That is why Chapter III of the ECA addresses practical matters involving custody and adoption, for example.
But it doesn’t stop there. Franciele Fernandes, a social worker at Instituto C, says that, to fully guarantee this right, the ECA requires taking into account the quality of family relationships, offering an environment marked by respect, care, protection and the strengthening of emotional bonds.
In other words, the family needs to be a healthy space that supports the child’s development. “Likewise, situations of violence, neglect, abandonment or any form of rights violation require intervention by the protection network, always seeking to preserve family life whenever conditions allow,” Franciele adds.
Instituto C understands that the family is the primary space for a child’s holistic development and should receive support to fulfill its protective role. That is why our interventions seek to strengthen family bonds, identify possible gaps in access to public policies and coordinate the social assistance and intersectoral network,” says the social worker.
It is everyone’s duty
Lawyer Ana Claudia Cifali has been the legal manager at Instituto Alana for more than six years. In an interview with Instituto C, she goes further and says that guaranteeing this right is not the responsibility of families alone. “[The Statute] also seeks to strengthen and improve public policies that promote this kind of family and community life, in support of families,” she says. According to the lawyer, the State, organizations and society need to work together to bring this right to all families, especially the most vulnerable, preventing situations that put children at risk.
This caregiving role is not innate, so it is very important that the State and society support families in fulfilling what is expected of them. In this sense, the National Care Policy, which was developed by the Federal Government, is very important for ensuring support, especially for single mothers,” Ana Claudia comments.
And what is the right to community life?
It is a principle that recognizes the importance of children’s and adolescents’ participation in different social spaces, such as school, health services, cultural, sports and leisure activities, as well as spending time with neighbors and friends. “These spaces contribute to social and emotional development and to strengthening a sense of belonging to the community,” explains Franciele.
Like the right to access culture and leisure, community life is often downplayed when compared with more vital rights, such as access to health, housing and good nutrition. However, it is just as important for ensuring a child’s holistic development. “[This right] also encompasses other aspects, such as the possibility for children to experience their territory and live alongside their community free from violence,” highlights Ana Claudia. Hence the importance, for example, of having public leisure spaces, neighborhoods free from violence (whether territorial or police violence, for example) and cultural centers spread throughout the city.
National Plan for Family and Community Life
In 2025, the National Plan for Family and Community Life (PNCFC) was approved, created precisely to protect and uphold this right throughout Brazil. It is valid for ten years and sets out a series of guidelines to strengthen family and community life, prevent situations of vulnerability and social risk, improve foster care services, support family reintegration processes and ensure that decisions about adoption and substitute families are always guided by the best interests of the child and adolescent. In practice, the plan provides for:
- Expanding public policies that support families;
- Guaranteeing safe spaces to play and spend time together;
- Improving housing, health and mental health policies;
- Strengthening sports, culture, leisure and social participation.
The Plan reaffirms that no child grows up alone — and therefore no family should have to care for a child alone. After all, protecting childhood and adolescence is a responsibility shared among the State, society, social organizations and every space where life happens.
