EIRENÈ

The Sérgio Vieira de Mello Chair (CSVM) is an initiative of the UNHCR (the UN High Commissioner for Refugees) and the National Committee for Refugees (CONCARE) and with the objective to promote research and outreach activities related to International Refugee Law.

According to the UNHCR, “over the years, the Chair has proved to be a key player in ensuring that refugees and refugee seekers have access to rights and services in Brazil offering valuable support to the local integration process.”

UFSC and UNHCR celebrated an agreement that includes three lines of action: teaching, research, and outreach. “In addition to disseminating university teaching on topics related to refuge, the Chair also aims to promote the academic formation and training of teachers and students on this topic. Direct work with refugees in community projects is also a high priority.

The importance of this initiative was recognized through the Declaration and Action Plan of Mexico to Strengthen the International Protection of Refugees in Latin America, signed in 2004 by 20 countries in the region and which recommends the interdisciplinary investigation of the promotion and the formation of international refugee law.

The Chair, as its name indicates, honors the Brazilian Sérgio Vieira de Mello, who died in Iraq in that same year and dedicated a great part of his professional career at the UN to work with refugees, as an UNHCR official.

At UFSC, the outreach activities are developed with the Center of Information and Assistance for Immigrants and Refugees of Santa Catarina (CRAI) through the NAIR Project/Eirene – Center of Support for Immigrants and Refugees.

Professor Karine de Souza Silva is the CSVM holder at UFSC

The initiative aims to provide an open, extracurricular space to foster educational practices related to peace, tolerance, and multiculturalism, considered to be values fundamental to the formation of the university community, especially for students of International Relations and Law.

The current project is part of the Sérgio Vieira de Mello Chair UN/UNHCR and includes actions of research and outreach – in the areas of International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights, Refugee Law, Diplomatic and Consular Law – aimed at promoting concrete actions for the integration of immigrants and refugees in UFSC and in Florianopolis.

Description: NAIR promotes its activities together with the Center of Information and Assistance for Immigrants and Refugees (CRAI), an entity established through the Social Action of the Archdiocese (ASA)

Activities:

• Attend to immigrants and refugees daily at the CRAI SC headquarters
• Advise CRAI on International Humanitarian Law (DIH), and on other legal, consular, and diplomatic matters
• Promote courses and lectures about Migration, Refugees, International Humanitarian Law, Consular and Diplomatic Law
• Create a data bank about migrants and refugees in Florianopolis
• Perform concrete actions in the areas of Protection and Integration of immigrants and refugees
• Act in concert with GAIRF and the Working Group on Migration of the Legislative Assembly of Santa Catarina to lobby municipal and state politicians
• Implement actions planned by the Sérgio Vieira de Mello Chair/UN
• Prepare the Information Booklet on Human Rights and Diplomatic and Consular Law
• Execute campaigns collecting clothes and hygienic products for immigrants in vulnerable situations

EIRENÈ is a member of the Support Group for Immigrants and Refugees of Florianopolis and Surrounding areas (GARIF) and participates in the Working Group on Migrants of the Legislative Assembly of Santa Catarina