Education for Human Rights, it's needed
Date
2019
Embargo
Advisor
Coadvisor
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
IATED
Language
English
Alternative Title
Abstract
The main objective of this study is to analyse the perceptions of the law students on the human rights,
specifically their knowledge and sensitivity regarding to the purposes of penalties. The application of
criminal sanctions aims the protection of juridical assets and the reintegration of the agent into the
society, with useful purposes, to safeguard legal peace in society and to avoid in the future the
committing of other crimes by the condemned. In this sense, the execution of penalties should be
oriented to promote that the condemned, after serving the sentence, be prepared to live responsibly in
the community. Considering the constitutional principle of human dignity, it should be left to the
condemned, as far as possible, during the execution of the sentence, his self-determination for his future
resocialization. The application of penalties for purely retributive purposes is excluded and whenever
possible, because of short prison sentences have been viewed negatively for having a stigmatizing
character and criminogenic effects, it is planned to replace them with other non-custodial alternative
sentences (such as fines penalties and community work consented by the condemned).Due to the
constitutional principle of human dignity, the death penalty, the penalty of life imprisonment, the forced
labour and corporal punishment are prohibited. Contrary to the humanist characteristic of the
Portuguese Penal Code there is a popular tendency that defends heavier penalties, criminal sentences
that are less respectful to the human dignity and the punishment of the condemned justified only by the
punishment itself. In this research it was intended in particular to know how the students of the 2nd year
of the Law Course from Oporto Portucalense University, in the academic year 2018-19, face the function
of criminal penalties, after having learned Political Science and Constitutional Law in the 1st year and
before being taught the program content of the curricular unit of Criminal Law. To achieve this goal,
surveys were developed and then answered by 90 students. The results show that students need to be
sensitized to the human rights dimension, since they have a vision that does not coincide with the one
that is legally established and far from constitutional rights and guarantees. It was concluded that the
majority adheres to the populist tendencies of the Criminal Law, being essential and necessary in the
Academy an education more accentuated and effective for the human rights dimension.
Keywords
Education for human rights, Purposes of penalties, Principle of human dignity, Criminal law
Document Type
conferenceObject
Publisher Version
10.21125/inted.2019.1683
Dataset
Citation
Guimarães, A. P., & Rebelo, F. (2019). Education for Human Rights, it’s needed. In 13th Annual International Technology, Education and Development Conference INTED2019 Proceedings (pp. 6950-6956), Valencia, Spain, 11th-13th Mar.2019. doi: 10.21125/inted.2019.1683. Disponível no Repositório UPT, http://hdl.handle.net/11328/2652
Identifiers
TID
Designation
Access Type
Embargoed Access