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Anti-Slavery International last drew the Working Group on Contemporary
Forms of Slavery's attention to the problem of forced labour in
Brazil during its 23rd session in 1998. Since this time, the Brazilian
Government has passed Act No. 9777 (29 December 1998) which increases
the penalties for those found guilty of using forced labour by amending
sections 132, 203 and 207 of the Penal Code. This Act increases
penalties for anyone who:
1. Endangers the life or health of a worker while illegally transporting
them in order to exploit them for their labour (now punishable by
imprisonment for between three months and one year);
2. Obliges workers to purchase products from a specific establishment
in order to force them into debt bondage (now punishable by imprisonment
for between one and two years);
3. Fraudulently recruits workers, exacts payment from the workers
or fails to provide for their return to their place of origin (now
punishable by imprisonment for between one and three years).
The 1998 Act strengthens existing legislation and is intended to
facilitate the prosecution of those involved in the recruitment,
transportation and use of forced labourers. This is a welcome advance,
particularly as the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) has noted that
estate owners have recognised that gunmen are not always necessary
to maintain a system of forced labour. Increasingly, owners are
relying on debt, a remote location, the confiscation of identity
documents and the threat of departing without money to ensure that
workers cannot leave. Workers are frequently told that they owe
money for transport, food, accommodation or tools and their wages
are illegally withheld until this "debt" is repaid. This ensures
that even when workers are not intimidated by threats of violence
it is virtually impossible for them to leave the estate as they
have no money and no access to transport.
Act No.9777 has now been in force for nearly 18 months. However,
information received by Anti-Slavery from CPT indicates that the
new law is not being properly enforced and that the Special Group
for Mobile Inspection's (Grupo Especial de Fiscalização Móvil)
operations are failing to result in the prosecution of those people
guilty of using forced or bonded labour. According to statistics
produced by the Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego, only four people
were imprisoned for using forced labour between 1996 and 1999. This
is despite the fact that 1266 workers were released from conditions
of forced labour in approximately 25 different raids carried out
by the Special Group for Mobile Inspection during this period.
One factor which may contribute to the low prosecution rates is
the fact that, when Ministry of Labour inspectors find evidence
of forced labour being used, they can only bring administrative
sanctions against the perpetrators. They are not authorised to initiate
criminal proceedings against those using forced labour. Even though
Federal Police accompany labour inspectors on raids, they generally
confine themselves to providing protection to Ministry of Labour
personnel and do not investigate the case with a view to bringing
criminal charges. In order to prosecute individuals for a penal
offence, officials for the Ministry of Labour have to transmit the
information to the Federal Procurator's Office which then investigates
to see if charges should be brought. There are reports that the
Ministry of Justice recently turned down a suggestion that the Federal
Police should play a more pro-active role in detecting cases of
forced labour, on the grounds that it was not a 'national priority'
for the police.
Clearly this process results in considerable delays which can seriously
undermine the chances of a successful prosecution. Workers who have
been released from conditions of forced labour will generally leave
the area to find another source of work or to return to their homes,
making it difficult to locate witnesses at a later date.
Furthermore, unless protection is immediately afforded to workers
who have experienced forced labour, they may be subject to intimidation
and threats which dissuade them from giving evidence at a trial.
The failure to resolve high profile cases, such as the murder of
the President of the Rural Workers' Union, João Canuto, in
Rio Maria, Pará State, in 1985, further undermines confidence in
the judicial process. In 1998, the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights criticised the Federal Government for failing to prosecute
this crime. Although the Mayor of Rio Maria has been charged for
the murder, Canuto's daughter, Luzia Canuto, has received death
threats as a result of the case, demonstrating the danger to which
potential witnesses are exposed.
Speeding up criminal proceedings and securing successful prosecutions
is of primary importance if progress is to be made in eliminating
forced labour in Brazil. Anti-Slavery supports the recommendation
made in this year¹s report by the ILO Committee of Experts which
urges the Brazilian Government to consider adopting:
"specific and consolidated legislation on forced labour establishing
both civil and criminal responsibility in such cases and giving
the labour prosecutors the necessary competence to bring criminal
cases against persons who subject others to forced labour practices".
If the Government were to bring forward consolidated legislation,
this would offer an excellent opportunity to amend the current system
of 'disappropriation' or compulsory purchasing under which estate
owners found guilty of using forced labour on their land, sometimes
have to sell their land back to the Government. This system is entirely
inadequate as it does not punish individuals who use forced labour
and in some circumstances estate owners actually profit from the
process. The most famous example of this is the case of the Flora
da Mata farm where the Mobile Group confirmed that slave labour
was being practised and freed 220 individuals. Only a small part
of the property was purchased, and an over-evaluation of the land
price saw the owner, Luiz Pires, make a profit from the Government's
payment, which was reportedly 25 times the initial price he paid
for it.
Anti-Slavery believes that estate owners who use forced labour should
have their land expropriated or confiscated (ie, seized without
any payment being made to the owner). The current system of compulsory
purchase actually sees some individuals profit from the very practice
for which they are supposed to be punished. This is clearly not
an effective deterrent against using forced labour.
The relative impunity currently enjoyed by estate owners who exploit
forced labour is not only due to delays in prosecutions and the
Government's inability to confiscate their estates, but also to
other penalties which remain derisory and almost certainly need
increasing.
Victims of forced labour practices have recently been detected on
or near a number of estates where forced labour has been discovered
in the past and prosecutions have already been initiated. This indicates
that the threat of prosecution and prescribed penalties are not
sufficient deterrents.
During 1999, the Special Group for Mobile Inspection freed 639 people
from conditions of forced labour, compared to only 119 in the year
before. The number of workers released from conditions of forced
labour in 1999 surpassed the total for the previous three years
combined. Despite this, only two individuals were imprisoned that
year for using forced labour. Anti-Slavery believes the impunity
which individuals who use forced labour enjoy, is a major factor
in explaining this high incidence of forced labour.
The increase recorded last year could also be partly explained by
improvements in the way the Special Group for Mobile Inspection
is operating. However, secrecy around raids continues to be a problem.
This was demonstrated by the fact that, while the Group's operations
depend on nobody in the area having prior knowledge of their arrival,
the Jornal do Pará published information in February 2000 about
an inspection planned for the following month. It would appear that
the Special Group could make even greater progress in identifying
and freeing forced labourers if its raids were kept completely secret
and if it were given the resources to expand its operations.
In conclusion, Anti-Slavery would strongly endorse the following
conclusion of this year's report from the ILO Committee of Experts
as being pivotal to tackling the problem of forced labour in Brazil:
"'the failure to apply effective sanctions, the impunity enjoyed
by those responsible, the slowness of judicial processes and the
lack of co-ordination among the various governmental bodies in
the campaign against those responsible for exacting forced labour
hinder the effective eradication in a reasonable time of this
scourge".
In view of the above, Anti-Slavery recommends that:
1. The Brazilian Government take immediate and urgent action to
ensure quick prosecutions against all those using forced labour
with punishments commensurate with the crime committed. Specifically,
Anti-Slavery would propose the introduction of consolidated legislation
on forced labour which would:
(a) Give labour prosecutors the necessary competence to bring criminal
cases against persons who subject others to forced labour practices.
(b) Replace the current practice of compulsory purchase with expropriation
for those found guilty of using forced labour. 2. That the Brazilian
Government should provide the Working Group's 26th session with
details of the number of people prosecuted, including the sentences
passed, for using forced labour. This report should include an appraisal
of how successful the amendments to sections 132, 203, 149 and 207
of the Penal Code have been.
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