| Total
Child Labour |
NATIONAL STATISTICS
* More than
2.9 million children under the age of 15 continued to work in 1999.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)
* For the year 2000,
the ILO projects that there will be 2,450,000 economically active children
886,000 girls and 1,563,000 boys between the ages of 10-14, representing
14.43% of this age group. (ILO, International Labour Office - Bureau of Statistics, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, STAT Working Paper, ILO 1997)
* 2,885,676 children
between 10-14 and 8,804,272 between 15-19 years are economically active.
(ILO, Yearbook of Labour Statistics, 1999)
*
More than 2.9 million children aged 14 and under continue to work; 583,000
of whom are between the ages of 5 and 9. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* The document
named "Child Labour in Brazil", presented by la Central
Unica de las Trabajadores in the colloquium, indicates that children
less than 10 years old who work (1.5 million) receive a half of
the minimum wage and work on average 48 hrs per week (the maximum
authorized by the federal constitution is 44 hrs per week). (ILO-IPEC,
Taller Latinoamericano para la formación de estadísticos
y diseño de encuestas sobre trabajo infantil, Colombia, julio
de 1998)
*
Official figures state that 3 million 10-14 year olds are employed,
accounting for 4.6% of the work force.
(US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
* More than 3.8 million
children, between the age of 10-14 years, fail to get an education and must
work. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)
*
In 1995, there were 2,822,000 economically active children between the
ages of 10-14, representing 16.15% of this age group. Of these, 925,000
were girls and 1,897,000 were boys. (ILO, International Labour Office - Bureau of Statistics, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, STAT Working Paper, ILO 1997)
*
According to government figures released in April 1999, the number of child
labourers has decreased by over 26% since 1996. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* The Brazilian Institute
of Geography and Statistics estimates that child workers between 11-14 make
up 11.6% of Brazil's labour force. Of those, 3.5 million are under 14 years.
(UNICEF, State of the World's Children, 1996,
citing Washington Post, 18 November 1996)
* Workers between 10-17
years are 7.5 million, of which 2 million are under 14 years. (ILO-IPEC,
Implementation Report, 1992-1995)
* 7.5 million children
between 10-17 years, work in Brazil, of which 2 million are under 14 years.
(ILO-IPEC, Implementation Report, 1992-1993)
*
2 million children or 14.3% of children between 10 and 13 years of age
are working. (US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994, citing IBGE, 1994)
*
47.4% of child workers in the 10-14 age group are paid workers.
(ILO,
Child Labour: What Is To Be Done?, June 1996, citing Brazilian Institute
of Geography and Statistics Indicadores Sociais, 1992)
GENERAL NOTES AND
OBSERVATIONS
*
According
to the most recent government figures released in November 1999 and confirmed
by UNICEF, the number of children working has decreased steadily since
1993, while the number of children attending school has increased. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001 citing government figures and
UNICEF)
*
The overall level of child labour remained roughly the same between
1998 and 1999. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)
*
According to government figures, the number of working children
fell by nearly 24% between 1995 and 1999. The rate of participation
in the work force of children from the ages of 5 to 14 dropped from
11 to 9%. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)
|
| Child
Slavery |
NATIONAL
STATISTICS
* In March the ILO
reported that observers have cited over 3,000 girls who were subject to
debt servitude and forced into prostitution in the state of Rondonia. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001, citing ILO)
* Although the
MLE found no children working as forced labourers during the year,
in 1999 the Pastoral Land Commission reported 25 children under
the age of 16 found working in conditions of forced labour. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)
* 22% of child labourers
are working in slavery-like conditions. (ILO,
Targeting the Intolerable, November 1996)
LOCAL STATISTICS
* Before 1997, 2,500
children were in charcoal-making in Mato Grosso do Sul, mostly as slave
labour. (SEJUP website, citing Folha de Sao
Paulo)
ADULT STATISTICS
* There were
an estimated 19,940 slave labourers in 1993, which increased to
25,193 in 1994. (ILO-IPEC,
Mainstreaming Gender in IPEC Activities, 1999)
* Over 10-20 million
people are subjected to debt bondage largely in India, Bolivia, Brazil,
Peru and Philippines. (Debt
Bondage: The Challenge for the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery,
submission to the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, June
1996)
GENERAL NOTES AND
OBSERVATIONS
* A considerable number
of children work under conditions approximating forced labour or debt bondage
in the mining industry and the plantations. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)
* The Committee expressed
concern about the widespread problem of forced labour and debt bondage,
especially in rural areas. (UN Human Rights
Committee, Comments on Brazil, 1996)
* In Amazonia the
type of forced child prostitution meets every criteria of slavery. (US
Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996)
* There is forced
child labour/debt-bonded child labour in the charcoal industry. (US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994, citing Anti-Slavery International,
Alison Sulton, Slavery in Brazil, 1994)
|
| Child
Trafficking |
ADULT STATISTICS
* An international
trafficking network was broken up in Spain and 15 people arrested for allegedly
trafficking dozens of women from the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Columbia,
Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria to Spain, forcing them into prostitution.
(CATW
Fact Book, citing "Spanish Prostitution Ring Busted", AP, 18 April 1998)
* 100 women were trafficked
for prostitution from remote villages in Brazil to London over the last
five-year period. The women were held under debt bondage. (CATW
Fact Book, citing Michael Hoskins "Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation",
Metropolitan Police Service, June 1996)
* Of the total 751
trafficking victims found from January 1994 to June 1995 in Austria, 18
were from Brazil. (CATW
Fact Book, citing IOM Report 1996)
GENERAL NOTES AND
OBSERVATIONS
* Brazil is
a source country for victims of both domestic and international
trafficking. (US
Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001)
* The majority
of Brazilian trafficking victims are women and girls who are trafficked
for the purpose of sexual exploitation to Europe, Japan, Israel,
and the United States. (US
Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001)
* Several clubs in
the capital are known for recruiting women from Brazil and the Caribbean.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* The second largest
migrant group of women in prostitution, in Germany, is from Latin America,
mostly from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil.
(CATW
Fact Book, citing Licia Brussa, "Transnational AIDS Prevention Among Migrant
Prostitutes in Europe", TAMPEP, 1996)
* Foreign women in
"call girl" prostitution in Italy are from Poland, Russia, Colombia and
Argentina, and to a lesser extent from Brazil, Hungary, Romania and the
Philippines. (CATW
Fact Book, citing Migrant Information Programme, "Trafficking in Women
for Sexual Exploitation to Italy", IOM, June 1996)
* Young girls are brought
to the mines in Rondonia from Rio Branco and are auctioned for as much as
$4,000 each. (CATW, The Fact Book on Global Sexual Exploitation, 1999)
* In Brazil, the trafficking
of girl prostitutes is a well-organised business. (Jose
Steinsleger, En el reino de Herodes, 1996)
|
| Child
Prostitution and
Pornography |
NATIONAL
STATISTICS
*
In Brazil, an estimated 1 million children are believed to enter the multi-billion
dollar sex market each year. (Child
Prostitution, ECPAT Bulletin, Vol. 4/1, 1996-97)
* In Brazil alone,
NGOs estimate that every year between 500,000 and two million children
are forced into prostitution. ("Experts meet
in Brazil to fight Child Sex Slavery", Bangkok Post, 18 April 1996)
* According to the
Brazilian Institute of Social Action and Education, the number of girl
prostitutes has risen to half a million in the whole country. (Jose
Steinsleger, En el reino de Herodes, 1996)
* 200,000 children
are engaged in prostitution. (World
Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation, August 1996)
LOCAL
STATISTICS
*
In March the ILO reported that observers have cited over 3,000 girls who
were subject to debt servitude and forced into prostitution in the state
of Rondonia. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001, citing ILO)
* In the Araras mine
in Rondonia, 150 child prostitutes were found. (CATW, The Fact Book on Global Sexual Exploitation, 1999)
* In Porto Murtinho,
a town of 11 thousand, there are six locations of prostitution. In Coruma,
(pop. 87.8 thousand) 16 prostitution establishments were found. In Campo
Grande, (pop. 600 thousand) there are 12 prostitution establishments where
over 100 young girls from Sao Paulo, Goias, Parana, Minas Gerais, Paraguay
and Chile are prostituted in sex tourism. This practice also occurs in
the municipality of Coxim where tourists staying in fishing encampments
hire young girls. (CATW
Fact Book, citing "Child prostitutes used in 'sex tourism' in Pantannal",
SEJUP, 17 September 1997)
* There are 200,000 children
and adolescent prostitutes, 25,000 in the mining towns and 5,000 in the
town of Belem. (US
Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996)
* There are an estimated
10,000 child prostitutes in Amazonia. (CATW, The Fact Book on Global Sexual Exploitation, 1999)
* There are more than
3,000 child prostitutes in the state capital of Rio Branco. (SEJUP
website)
* 92 teenaged girls
and 30 children between 8 and 12 forced into prostitution were removed
from the mining area near Madeira river in Western Rondonia. (SEJUP
website)
* Nearly 1,000 girls
between 8 and 15 are in prostitution in the northeastern state of Rio Grande
do Norte. (SEJUP website, citing Brazilian
Center for Social Health Information and Orientation, CEBRAIOS)
* 6,000 of the 10,000
prostitutes in Santos, a port town, are children between 10 and 16. (SEJUP
website, citing Catholic University of Santos Study)
GENERAL NOTES AND
OBSERVATIONS
*
Approximately 85% were victims of commercial sexual exploitation and ranged
from 12 to 17 years of age. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)
*
In the northern Amazonian region, sexual exploitation of children centres
around brothels that cater to mining settlements. In the large urban centres,
children, principally girls, who leave home because of abuse or sexual
exploitation often prostitute themselves on the streets in order to survive.
In the cities along the northeast coast, sex tourism exploiting children
is prevalent, and involves a network of travel agents, hotel workers, taxi
drivers, and others who actively recruit children, and even traffic them
outside the country. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* Child prostitution
is a significant problem throughout the country, but is severe in
major coastal tourist cities. (US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children: Efforts to Eliminate
Child Labour, 1998)
* In Amazonia, the
type of forced child prostitution meets every criteria of slavery. (US
Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996)
* A 1998 report
notes a significant increase in prostitution among children under
14, and it was identified that the situation was worse in 30 municipalities.
(ECPAT
International)
*
In 1998, the economic and environmental crises has led children into prostitution
for their families' survival. (CATW
Fact Book, citing Phil Stewart, "Brazil drought spurs child prostitution",
Reuters, 23 June 1998)
* A recent survey
identified 65 localities of prostitution in six cities in the Pantannal
region. Many of the prostitutes are young girls.
(CATW
Fact Book, citing "Child prostitutes used in 'sex tourism' in Pantannal",
SEJUP, 17 September, 1997, citing a survey by the Ministry of Justice)
* The grave problems
of child prostitution were matters of deep concern for the Committee.
(UN Human Rights Committee, Comments on Brazil,
1996)
*
In Brazil, the trafficking of girl prostitutes is a well-organised business.
(Jose Steinsleger, En el reino de Herodes,
1996)
* Brazil has
one of the worst child prostitution problems in the world, and is
a favoured destination for paedophile sex tourists from Europe and
the US. The poverty experienced by more than 40 million needy or
abandoned children and adolescents increases the number of sexually
exploited children every day. (ECPAT
International)
|
| Children
in Crime |
GENERAL
JUVENILE CRIME STATISTICS
* In 1996, 3,318 offences practiced by children under 18 were registered
in Rio. In 1997, this number rose by 50%, reaching 5,011. The situation
peaked in 1998 with 6,004 cases and fell nearly 10% in 1999. In
the year 2000, the number rose slightly to 5.898 cases. (ILO-IPEC,
Dr. Jailson de Souza e Silva et all, Brazil Children in Drug Trafficking:
A Rapid Assessment, No. 12, Geneva, February 2002)
* In 1998, the
specific offences involving juveniles were: 348 cases of murder (1.02%
of all murders), 15,690 cases of serious assault (3.80% of all cases),
2,008 cases of drug offences (3.75% of all cases).
(INTERPOL, International Crime Statistics
for 1998, citing National
Statistics)
LOCAL STATISTICS
* In 2000, 55%
of the adolescents arrested in Rio de Janeiro were involved in trafficking
of drugs as against 11% in 1996. (O
Popular, 10 April 2000)
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* The data on
infractions committed by children and adolescents from Rio de Janeiro
during the past years shows an increase in misdemeanors committed
by the under aged during the 1990s, in which drug abuse and trafficking
are the most expressive. (ILO-IPEC,
Dr. Jailson de Souza e Silva et all, Brazil Children in Drug Trafficking:
A Rapid Assessment, No. 12, Geneva, February 2002)
* A decrease
in the age of entry into drug trafficking is also worth stressing.
The average fell from between 15 and 16 years in the beginning of
the 1990s to between 12 and 13 in the year 2000. (ILO-IPEC,
Dr. Jailson de Souza e Silva et all, Brazil Children in Drug Trafficking:
A Rapid Assessment, No. 12, Geneva, February 2002)
* The culture
of the 'street' involves the children in drug use, assault, robberies,
homicide and prostitution.
(EI,
EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector,
1998)
|
| Child
Soldiers |
RECRUITMENT
LAWS AND REGULATIONS
* The minimum
age for conscription is 19 years. (Guy Goodwin-Gill and Ilene Cohn, Child Soldiers, The Role of Children in Armed Conflicts, A Study on Behalf of the Henry Dunant Institute, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994)
NOTES ON GOVERNMENT FORCES
* There are indications of under-18s in government armed forces
as the minimum age of voluntary recruitment is 17. (CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001, 12 June 2001)
|
| Domestic
Child Servants |
NATIONAL
STATISTICS
* According
to the Government's Institute for Applied Economic Research, in
1998 there were approximately 800,000 girls between the ages of
10 and 17 working as domestic servants. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2001,
March 2002)
* 20% of girls
between the age of 10 and 14 work as domestics and the percentages
rise to 35.6% in rural areas. (ILO-IPEC,
Mainstreaming Gender in IPEC Activities, 1999)
* There are
an estimated 260,000 domestic workers between 10 and 14 years of
age. (ILO-IPEC,
Mainstreaming Gender in IPEC Activities, 1999)
* There are
an estimated 1 million child domestics. (US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children: Efforts to Eliminate
Child Labour, 1998)
* 22% of the
working children are in domestic service. (ILO,
Targeting the Intolerable, November 1996)
|
Other
Hazardous
Child Labour |
ASSORTED
STATISTICS
* The government estimates
that 60,000 children work in unhealthy conditions.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* About 7,860 children
and adolescents in eight cities in Rio de Janeiro are working in painful
and unhealthy conditions according to ILO. (Child
Labour in Brazil, 10 August 1998)
GENERAL NOTES AND
OBSERVATIONS
* Many children are forced
by economic necessity to work alongside their parents in cane fields, cutting
hemp, or feeding wood into charcoal ovens; frequent accidents, unhealthy
working conditions, and squalor are common in these cases.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* Children work in
industries, like leather processing, gold and tin mining, distilleries,
plastics, and on tea plantations. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)
* Child labour
exists in wood pulp, handicrafts, electronic, leather processing
and gold mining industries. (US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994)
SPECIFIC
SECTORS
* Begging - Many
children beg on the streets of cities.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* Charcoal Production
- There is forced child labour/debt-bonded child labour in the charcoal
industry. (US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994, citing Anti-Slavery
International, Alison Sulton, Slavery in Brazil, 1994)
* Commercial
Agriculture - Sugar cane growers illegally employ children and adolescents
ranging from 7 to 17 years of age, many cutting cane with machetes.
The charcoal industry, hemp cultivators in the northeast, and orange
growers are using illegal child labour. Children also perform various
tasks in the mining and logging industries in the Amazon region.
In addition, although both the Government and the industry have
made strong efforts to eliminate it, there is still some child labour
in the shoe industry.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* Commercial
Agriculture - In Brazil's tea plantations, children can be found
working from the age of seven. (ABC-CLIO,
Sandy Hobbs et al, Child Labor: A World History Companion, 1999)
* Commercial
Agriculture - Considerable numbers of children work under conditions
approximating forced labour or debt-bondage on plantations. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)
* Commercial
Agriculture - A report published by the Sergipe state government
in 1997 stated that 10,000 children and adolescents between the
age of 6 and 18 were part of the labour force in the orange-growing
region, with 54 % between the ages of 7 and 14.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* Commercial
Agriculture - An estimated 3 million children are engaged in the
plantations. (US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children: Agricultural Imports
& Forced and Bonded Child Labour, 1995)
* Commercial
Agriculture - 10% of 15,000 are under 18 in the municipality of
Sertaozinho in the Sugar Cane Plantations. (ICFTU,
No Time to Play, 1996)
* Commercial
Agriculture - In the state of Pernambuco, nearly 54,000 children
between 7 and 13 work in sugar cane fields. (SEJUP
website, citing Folha de Sao Paulo)
* Commercial Agriculture
- 150,000 children are employed in orange harvesting.
(US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children: Efforts to Eliminate Child
Labour, 1998)
* Footwear Manufacturing
- Of the 7,000 persons working in the sub-contracting of shoe parts,
1,300 were children under the legal age of 14. (US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994, citing CIA, World
Fact Book, 1993)
* Footwear Manufacturing
- Child Labour is rampant in home-based and sub-contracting operations
in Brazil's two major footwear producing regions.
(US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children: Consumer Labels and Child
Labor, 1997)
* Garment Manufacturing
- More than half of the children under the age of 14 are employed
in the clothing and textile industry as weavers who sometimes operate
heavy industrial machinery. (US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994, citing "Child labour
accounts for 18% of work force", AP, 2 January 1994)
* Mining and
Quarrying - Considerable numbers of children work under conditions
approximating forced labour or debt-bondage in the mining industry.
(EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)
*
Mining and Quarrying - Of the 3,500 people working in tin-ore mine
in the state of Rondonia States, 600 were children. (US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994, citing report by
the Brazilian National Department for Mineral Production)
* Scavenging
- UNICEF estimates that 50,000 children pick through trash dumps
to generate income for their families. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2001,
March 2002)
*
Street Children
- There are no reliable figures on the number of street children
and child beggars nationwide, but a conservative estimate states
that there are 30,000 in Rio de Janeiro and 12,000 in Sao Paulo.
(EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)
* Street Children
- In Sao Paulo, NGOs aiding street children estimated that some
12,000 children roam the streets by day, and about 3,000 to 5,000
of them live permanently on the streets.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
|
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