Guardianship council and “tragic choices”: accounts of councilors in Montes Claros, MG

Abstract

In this article, we focus on how children and youths are treated by Guardianship Councils. The Guardianship Council (CT) is one of the most important institutional tools for implementing the system of guarantees of children’s and adolescents’ rights. Our general goal is to analyze, according to the perception of guardianship councilors in Montes Claros, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, how the agency operates in this municipality. To that end, we conducted a qualitative study to understand the meanings perceived by the actors involved. We interviewed five of the eight councilors in the city of Montes Claros. We found that, in the case under analysis, a notorious lack of conditions leads to situations of "tragic choices": for every child in a "priority" situation who is quickly helped, some other children in non-priority situations remain subjected to risk, the effects of which are unpredictable in the long run. Priority cases are subjectively defined because of a system that imposes on the counselor the paradox to, as a government agent, feel able to intervene with some situations, and unable to help in other cases of extreme vulnerability. To some extent, this situation creates in the councilor the perception that it is up to him to decide "which life to save".