THE LIMITS OF AN ABSTRACT DISCOURSE: PUBLIC POLICY, HOMELESS PEOPLE AND HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN BRAZIL

Abstract

In December 2014, the National Policy for the Homeless Population will complete five years. Established and regulated by Decree 7053/2009, after extensive mobilization and popular pressure and identified by many as a milestone in the transition of the homeless population from welfare fetishism to ‘collective subject of rights’, the National Policy reaches its fifth birthday without meet most of the objectives proposed in its Article 7. Taking as a starting point, the signing of Decree 7053/2009 and the increase in institutional and movementists narratives that recognize that the homeless population as ‘subject of rights’, our article, inspired by the critique of human rights as cultural products, aims to interrogate and reflect on the tensions and disputes that inform the discourses and actions regarding ‘humanrights of the homeless people’.  Keywords: Homeless population in Brazil; Human Rights; Critical Theory of Human Rights; National Policy for Homeless Population; Intersectoral Committee for Monitoring.