THE SECRET AGENT AND HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION: THE ROLE OF THE MARANHÃO HUMAN RIGHTS SOCIETY IN THE POLICY OF PROTECTING THREATENED PERSONS

Abstract

This article analyzes the film *The Secret Agent* as a narrative about state repression, surveillance, and political persecution, relating it to the pedagogy of protection developed within the Maranhão Society for Human Rights and in the implementation of policies for the protection of threatened individuals in Maranhão. Based on the theoretical reflections of Paulo César Carbonari and Joisiane Gamba and the perspective of "protecting those who care," the centrality of threatened individuals as subjects under protection and protagonists of protective action is discussed, as well as the challenges of institutionalizing a state protection system in a context of structural violence, selective prosecution, and a scarcity of public policies. It concludes that the SMDH's experience within the PROVITA program materializes, in practical terms, a human rights protection that seeks to articulate security, care, and social reintegration, breaking with merely security-based models and affirming protection as a political-pedagogical project of emancipation.