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Article

20 Oct 2017

Author:
Alex Rodrigues, Agência Pública (Brazil)

Brazil: International Labor Organization says fight against slave labor in Brazil may face setback

"ILO: Fight against slave labor in Brazil may face setback", 19 October 2017
In a statement...[on 19 October]...the International Labor Organization (ILO) said that the Brazilian government's decision to change the definition of slave labor "interrupts a successful trajectory that turned Brazil into a role model and a global leader in the fight against slave labor." The organization also criticized the change in inspection rules and how blacklists with the names of criminal employers were released...[It]...argues that the new norm may undermine and restrain law enforcement efforts in labor, leaving "a portion of the Brazilian population even more fragile, unprotected, and vulnerable." Since...[16 October]...when it was made public, the law has met with criticism from trade organizations and social movements that believe the move violates both international conventions subscribed by the country and Brazil's own legislation...The new law, however, only regards as slavery the activities carried out under coercion or restriction of workers' liberty to come and go. These circumstances, ILO argued, could only be detected if monitoring agents found armed guards limiting the movement of workers or if they discovered that their documents were being confiscated by employers...[T]he possible developments of the new rule may be studied by an expert committee at the organization. Also mentioned was the risk that the changes may prevent Brazil from meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the eradication of slave-like labor by 2030...

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