VULNERABLE GROUPS AND MINORITIES: IS THERE A TERMINOLOGICAL DISTINCTION IN THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION OF 1988 AND IN THE FEDERAL SUPREME COURT'S CASE LAW?

The study aims at identifying whether the Federal Constitution of 1988 and the Federal Supreme Court's case law - when referring to the rights to equality and non-discrimination - establish a terminological distinction between "minorities" and "vulnerable groups", identifying which groups are framed as minorities and vulnerable according to the case law of the highest judicial body in Brazil. For that, the deductive approach method and the analytical procedure method were used, aiming, at first, to elucidate in regard to the importance of a clear terminological distinction between "minorities" and "vulnerable groups", to provide an adequate protection for those groups. Next, to analyze how the notion of special protection of "vulnerable groups" is constructed and incorporated in the Federal Constitution of 1988, trying to identify whether in this text there is a terminological and methodological distinction between "minorities" and "vulnerable groups". The last aim was to verify whether it is possible to identify, in the Federal Supreme Court's case law constructions, a terminological distinction between the concepts of "minorities" and "vulnerable groups", as well as, from the case law analysis carried out, to identify which groups the Federal Supreme Court frames inside each concept. In a conclusive summary, it was observed that both the Federal Supreme Court and the 1988 Federal Constitution do not make a terminological distinction between both concepts, which can negatively impact the provision of fundamental rights for these groups, as it is not recognized that their demands for equality have their own characteristics.