Popular University Legal Advisory on the combat against violations of rights in prison during the COVID-19 pandemic

the experience of “Law out of paper” workshops

Abstract

This article exposes the discussions, research, and joint work carried out by the AJUP-UFMG (Popular University Legal Advisory of the Federal University of Minas Gerais). Based on a critical perspective of Law, with a focus on popular struggle, the mobilization of human rights, and popular education, the actions developed in the project are guided by demands of movements that remain in constant dialogue with the extension agents. In this sense, during 2022, AJUP elaborated the “Direito Fora do Papel” workshops, based on claims raised by the group of relatives of imprisoned people called “Grupo de Amigos e Familiares”. Such workshops emerged as a necessity in defiance of the worsening violations of the rights of the prison population during the Covid-19 pandemic, in which the group, due to the lack of knowledge of the minutiae of technical-legal terms, did not fully understand the context in which their loved ones were submitted. In this regard, the workshops aim to bring these terms closer to the reality of the group, in order to contribute to a more popular law. In addition, it aims to fulfill the extensionist pillar of the public university of a dialogic relationship with society and academia.