MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Macaé Evaristo chosen to replace Brazil's disgraced human rights minister

Evaristo has been a teacher since the age of 19. She has a college degree in social work, plus a master's and a PhD in education

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced on Monday evening that he had chosen social worker and teacher Macaé Evaristo as the country's new human rights minister following the dismissal of Silvio Almeida, who was accused of sexual harassment.

 A current Minas Gerais State lawmaker and former Belo Horizonte councilwoman, Evaristo has been a teacher since the age of 19. She has a college degree in social work, plus a master's and a PhD in education. She has pioneered black women's access to key government positions at municipal and State levels, standing out for her activism as Belo Horizonte Education Secretary, among other roles, including the Integrated School Expansion program in elementary education, which was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

She was also pivotal in implementing key policies as Education Secretary for Minas Gerais and as Literacy, Diversity and Inclusion Secretary at the federal Education's Ministry, from where she promoted quotas for native Brazilians to have access to the “Indigenous Knowledge” program at federal universities.

“We need to get out of this mourning and get into the fight,” said Evaristo when confirming her appointment. She is expected to take the customary oath of office next week. She pledged to fight
sexual violence against children among her top priorities, in addition to guaranteeing the rights of the elderly and the homeless.

“Tackling sexual violence against children, the street population, the elderly: this ministry has policies that are very important. We need to get out of this mourning and get into the fight. There's a lot of work to be done,” said Evaristo as she toured her future office.

She will be taking a leave of absence as a Minas Gerais Congresswoman and flying back and forth in the coming days to finish off her current duties.

Evaristo also underlined the need to investigate the allegations against Almeida, who was sacked Friday. Among the outgoing official's alleged victims was Racial Equality Minister Anielle Franco.

“President Lula knows my work and his main concern is that we can strengthen the policies of this ministry, which are very important for society as a whole,” Evaristo was quoted by Agencia Brasil as saying.

“We're here in this transition phase, but we want to be able to carry out all the procedures. I think it's necessary to guarantee the rights of the people who make the accusations, to guarantee full and complete rights of defense. And something very important, that we guarantee the privacy and secrecy of the facts, especially of those people who will be harmed,” she added.