Development & Aid, Economy & Trade, Headlines, Human Rights, Labour, Latin America & the Caribbean

HUMAN RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Wanted – More Convinced Supporters

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 11 2006 (IPS) - About 20,000 slave labourers have been freed in Brazil since 1995. Estimates published in the last decade said there were 25,000 people living under such conditions. If these figures are correct, it would seem that the slavery problem is close to being solved.

The figure of 25,000 slave labourers was mere supposition, Brazil’s special secretary for Human Rights, Paulo Vannuchi, said at a press conference with foreign journalists to announce details about the celebrations for the 58th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, taking place in Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo from Dec. 1-17.

The guesstimate, which lacks any concrete statistical basis, was made by the Pastoral Land Commission, an organ of the Catholic Church that works against modern-day slavery, conceived of as work in inhuman conditions combined with deprivation of freedom.

This is an example of how the struggle for human rights still depends on the quality of available information, and on winning the support of sectors of society unaffected by the problem, who, in some cases, even accuse activists of “defending good-for-nothings.”

Vannuchi, who has ministerial rank and reports directly to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, announced that his Secretariat plans to arrive at a precise figure for the number of slaves, and their geographical distribution in the states where the practice is most prevalent, in the Amazon jungle and surrounding regions.

Only then will it be possible to “set deadlines for its eradication,” by stepping up the operations of the “mobile group” made up of agents of the Labour Ministry, the office of the public prosecutor, and the police. According to Vannuchi, the mobile group is in the vanguard of the crusade against such violations of workers’ rights.

The abolition effort is ongoing on two further fronts. The first is securing approval of a constitutional amendment to allow expropriation, without compensation, of properties where the practice of slavery has been proven. These lands would be handed over to the government’s agrarian reform programme.

The second is agreement on a national business pact to boycott ingredients and services from companies that use slave or child labour.

Non-governmental organisations proposed the pact, which advocates that industry and supermarket chains, for example, refuse to buy raw materials from charcoal producers or cattle ranchers who treat their workers as slaves. This year’s celebrations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights include an exhibition on Film and Human Rights in South America: 28 films from every country in the region except Guyana and Suriname will be screened in four Brazilian state capitals.

Slave or child labour, political repression, discrimination against women, blacks or homosexuals, human trafficking and sexual exploitation are some of the focuses of the documentaries and fiction films that will be shown in an effort to stimulate reflection on human rights, Vannuchi said.

But the biggest crowds were drawn in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, where a number of concerts were held.

The defence of human rights “cannot be undertaken only by small groups, but must spread throughout society, even among the police who still identify activism with defending good-for-nothings, and see torture as an efficient means of extracting information to fight crime,” the secretary said.

Torture has been part of “national culture” as a disciplinary measure in Brazil for centuries. It became institutionalised during the two dictatorships of the 20th century. Today, torture is formally outlawed, but is practised systematically in police stations, Vannuchi admitted.

The official also acknowledged that government policy-making must take human rights questions into greater consideration.

The expansion of soybean production, for instance, which causes deforestation in Amazonia, is good for the economy because it boosts production and exports, but it endangers the environment and encroaches upon indigenous people’s lands.

Similarly, building around a hundred hydroelectric power stations is considered to be necessary for generating enough energy to support economic growth over the next 10 years. But they will cause flooding of large areas of land, and force farmers and indigenous people to move, changing their way of life.

“Human rights depend on a balance of forces in order to progress,” said Vannuchi.

In regard to trade agreements, some players like the European Union (EU) are debating whether to impose environmental and social conditions in return for opening their markets. Vannuchi held that these requirements are “positive,” but he said the EU should also consider the damaging effects of its agricultural subsidies, which impoverish farmers in the countries of the developing South.