Ten Years of the Implementation of Affirmative Action Law for Black Students in Higher Education Institutions: Challenges and Strategies Related to the SDG

This chapter analyzes the main challenges faced evaluating the Law 12,711/2012, which made the adoption of affirmative action mandatory for public school students and Black students in higher education institutions in Brazil. In the last 10 years, the proportion of Black students in federal higher education institutions increased. Regarding the implementation of the Law, the hetero-identification commissions were the solution found to ensure that people socially recognized as Black occupy reserved vacancies and fulfill the objectives of representativeness and diversity. However, the commissions still do not work in all selection processes of higher education institutions. The 10-year evaluation foreseen in the Law was not performed due to the omission of the Ministry of Education, Seppir, and the Congress. However, academia, Black organizations, and independent agencies made efforts to have evaluations on the policy. One important example was the partnership between the Federal Public Defender’s Office and the Brazilian Association of Black Researchers (ABPN) that elaborated the most comprehensive evaluation about the Law implementation. Finally, other important challenges to improve the performance of the policy are highlighted such as the expansion of student assistance policies, the monitoring of filling vacancies by Black students per course, and the transparency of the institutions’ data.