HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE FIGHT AGAINST SLAVE LABOR IN BRAZIL
Prof. Pietro Nardella-Dellova, PhD
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we are here today to point out and discuss certain aspects of a profound human rights violation: the exploitation of labor under conditions that are slave-like, or similar and analogous to slavery. Despite the passage of many generations and formal abolitions, this reality persists in a hateful and perverse manner, especially in Latin and South America, with particular emphasis on Brazil—one of the foremost regional and global economic powers.
A major economic power, but not necessarily a legitimate one! We must ask a question: a great economic power, but at what cost? Both the question and the answer are easily understandable, since any economy that bases its economic progress on the detriment of human welfare and dignity deserves sharp criticism and change.
Slave labor, in any form, is far more than the mere exploitation of a workforce. It is the utter destruction of the human being, of human freedom, and dignity. It is a destructive force acting upon the whole human person—body, soul, intellect, and social relationships. It dismantles the identity of a person, destroys their history, and shatters their future prospects!
Slave labor is, at all times, absolute injustice and the ultimate denial of the human being as a subject of rights and, above all, a denial of the rights of personality.
In the case of Brazil, as its history demonstrates, there is an enslaving praxis and mentality—or, at the very least, an exploitative attitude that permeates every relation of production and trade, with profound repercussions on the social, familial, and educational spheres of society.
The process of enslavement was, and still is, multifaceted. It began with the attempt to subdue the indigenous peoples, the original inhabitants of the land, and later evolved into the trafficking of Black people from Africa to South America—a process that was initially institutionalized by law and, subsequently, carried out illegally.
Driven by international pressure in the late nineteenth century, Brazil—the last country in the world (and São Paulo, the last province) to abolish slavery—launched a campaign in Europe, focusing on a recently unified Italy, to recruit labor for its coffee plantations. The objective, in this instance, was to replace Black labor with Italian workers.
Facing difficulties in maintaining this oppression over the Italians and their children, the second half of the twentieth century witnessed a shift. Especially with the installation of the automobile industry in the ABC region of São Paulo, a new campaign was launched—this time domestically—to secure a workforce from the Northeastern region of Brazil: the so-called “nordestinos”!
Finally, at the end of the twentieth century, with the exploitation of natural resources, this workforce was redirected toward the Midwest, the Amazon rainforest, and the North to serve the interests of the agribusiness sector.
According to the 2005 ILO (International Labor Organization) report, A GLOBAL ALLIANCE AGAINST FORCED LABOR, 12.3 million people suffer from the exploitation of slave labor; of this total, 1.3 million are located in Latin America.
Currently, although progress has been made in combating the practice of exploitative slave labor—as recognized by the UN and the ILO itself—this reality, unfortunately, still persists in Brazil.
Slave labor is primarily utilized in two productive sectors of the Brazilian economy: rural slave labor within agribusiness, and urban slave labor, particularly in the garment manufacturing and major retail clothing sectors. There is, furthermore, a third dimension of forced labor involving sexual exploitation, driven by the recruitment and trafficking of women—many of whom are minors—who are uprooted from distant regions to be subjugated in Brazilian capital cities. Others are transferred to Europe, stripped of their ability to return, and barred from communicating with their families. However, the issue of forced labor stemming from prostitution will be deferred to a future opportunity, as our focus today remains centered on labor within the economic sector, principally the rural one.
In the countryside, these enslaved workers are recruited in their home towns, and are often Northeasterners (coming from the states of Ceará, Piauí, Maranhão, Pernambuco, Bahia, Alagoas, Sergipe, and Rio Grande do Norte, among others). Such people, being unemployed and in a state of poverty—or, worse, absolute misery—believe in the promises of these labor traffickers and are taken to farms in remote places, commonly in the Amazon region. Upon arrival, they are forced to contract debts for tools and food, and are prevented from leaving, as they are under the constant guard of armed foremen. They work both in agriculture and livestock, destitute of minimum conditions or labor rights. Since 1995, approximately 39,000 individuals have been rescued in these regions.
Brazil has 27 states, of which 19 have been identified as areas where the exploitation of slave labor occurs within the agribusiness sector.
In urban areas, the recruitment of labor also occurs among Northeasterners and individuals from neighboring countries, utilizing advertisements in newspapers and on the radio that promise economic success. These recruiters operate much like the labor agents did in Europe, especially in Italy, during the late nineteenth century. Just as they did in that era, the recruiters portray Brazil as a country of opportunities, easy enrichment, and a welcoming social structure. Currently, Bolivia contributes a large contingent of workers to Brazil.
In 2011, the UN denounced Brazil in its report, indicating the presence of 100,000 Bolivians in the state of São Paulo—the richest region in Brazil—of which half were undocumented and, thus, suffering some kind of abuse and exploitation. There is also the recruitment of Paraguayan women, in this case, for unregulated and illegal domestic service.
The most serious situation refers to the Bolivians who are brought illegally (through human trafficking) and taken to the central areas of the city of São Paulo, where they live in small, overcrowded rooms with many other people, including women and children. They work continuous shifts in the garment manufacturing sector, providing products indirectly for large clothing retail chains. Upon arrival, the recruiters confiscate their documents; stripped of their identification, they live in a constant state of threat and fear. These people cannot leave the premises or move about without constant and hostile supervision.
The Brazilian authorities are on constant alert and are continuously curbing such practices; however, as occurs in other sectors, this exploitation resists, persists, and deepens.
The government—through the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE), the Secretariat of Labor Inspection (SIT), and the Federal Police (PF), alongside state-level rural inspection groups and the Labor Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPT)—has opened multiple fronts in this battle. These range from formal complaints filed directly with ministries and prosecutors to direct-action operations conducted by Mobile Labor Inspection Groups in cooperation with the Federal Police.
There is also a National Register for the Eradication of Slave Labor, which maintains an updated blacklist of exploiters in order to block any type of public or private financing.
On the legislative front, Congress created the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee (CPI) on Slave Labor in order to map this reality, hold perpetrators accountable, and examine the mechanisms through which slave labor takes root in Brazil.
Since 1995, the Secretariat of Labor Inspection, with the support of the Federal Police and the active participation of the Labor Public Prosecutor’s Office, has rescued 39,000 rural workers from conditions of slavery. In order to support those rescued, the 10,608/2002 Act was passed, which provides a special unemployment benefit and financial resources to facilitate their return to their cities of origin.
The Brazilian Judiciary has actively adjudicated these cases based on Article 149 of the current Criminal Code of 1940, which was amended and expanded by Law 10,803/2003. This article criminalizes reducing a person to a condition analogous to slavery in its various forms, prescribing a prison sentence of 2 to 8 years and a fine. The penalty is heightened if the victim is a child or adolescent, or if the crime is motivated by prejudice against race, ethnicity, color, religion, or origin.
In cases of conviction, in addition to the application of criminal penalties, the courts have imposed fines reaching millions of dollars, with these funds being directed to the Worker Support Fund (FAT).
It was found that, in the case of urban slave labor—especially regarding the thousands of clothing workshops operating illegally in central areas—there is a phenomenon that favors the recruitment of labor and complicates accountability. This phenomenon is outsourcing. Large retailers outsource their garment production, which in turn fractures into countless manufacturing units operating on an illegal footing. Because these involve thousands of small businesses operating on a microcosmic scale, it is highly challenging for prosecutors to dismantle these networks and hold perpetrators accountable. Consequently, current enforcement strategies are targeting major retail chains, calling them to respond effectively and to account for the products displayed in their shop windows.
These actions have been relentless, but the results still leave much to be desired.
Hoping to impose harsher penalties, a Proposed Constitutional Amendment (PEC) was introduced in 1995 to punish the exploiters of slave labor more severely. However, this proposal—numbered PEC 232/95—failed to succeed and was blocked in the National Congress, where many representatives and senators are either large landowners themselves or represent their interests. In either case, they comprise the powerful agribusiness caucus (“Bancada Ruralista”), which presents the greatest resistance to penalizing slave labor.
Another Constitutional Amendment Bill regarding slave labor was introduced in 1999; it was admitted for consideration but faced resistance from the same agribusiness caucus. It became PEC 438/2001, which provides for the amendment of Article 243 of the Federal Constitution, thereby expanding its scope and application. Currently, under this constitutional provision, it is possible to expropriate land without any compensation from those who grow illegal plants, especially psychotropic substances.
With PEC 438/2001, this provision would also be applied against those who exploit slave labor, with the same consequences: namely, the expropriation of land without compensation, which would then be confiscated to serve family settlement programs and agrarian reform.
However, although accepted and passed by the Federal Senate in 2001, PEC 438 stalled in the House of Representatives, where the agribusiness caucus managed to keep it, as the colloquialism goes in Brazil, “in the drawer” (shelved). But on January 28, 2004, a horrific massacre occurred in the city of Unaí, Minas Gerais, in which four labor inspection officials conducting an operation against slave labor were assassinated. Driven by the immense public outrage triggered by this massacre, the House of Representatives quickly passed PEC 438 in its first reading. Around the same time, Law 12,064 was enacted, establishing the day of the massacre, January 28, as THE NATIONAL DAY TO COMBAT SLAVE LABOR. Because it is a Constitutional Amendment, PEC 438 remained stalled since 2004, awaiting a second-round vote, which was continuously blocked by members of the House.
However, in June 2007, a new event gave fresh momentum to PEC 438: the Mobile Inspection Group—linked to the Ministry of Labor and Employment—rescued 1,064 individuals from the Pragisa Farm. Concurrently, a group of senators aligned with agricultural producers bitterly criticized the inspectors’ operations, characterizing their enforcement actions as overly aggressive toward landowners. In light of these criticisms, civil society and proactive legislators mobilized to approve PEC 438 in its second reading and enact this constitutional reform.
In the domestic context, various groups and institutions—such as the CUT (Central Workers’ Union), multiple programs at Federal Universities, and the AJD (Association of Judges for Democracy)—alongside international bodies like the ILO (International Labor Organization) and the UN, declared their support for the final approval of the bill, pressuring the House of Representatives to bring it to a vote.
Since then, labor unions have campaigned intensely among their grassroots members for the approval of the PEC. The AJD opened its platform and communication channels to discuss the issue with experts and professors, ultimately gathering signatures on a petition—predominantly from magistrates dedicated to the emancipation of workers—to be submitted to the Supreme Federal Court (STF).
In southern Brazil, a movement known particularly as the Alternative Law movement has, since the early 1990s, waged a powerful battle against unjust practices, including slave labor.
After the official data released in 2011 revealed 230 instances of slave labor across 19 Brazilian states, with approximately 4,000 individuals rescued, pressure intensified on the representatives—this time actively engaging law students, professors, and the Association of Judges for Democracy (AJD), among others.
Consequently, after 12 years of being stalled and blocked in Congress, PEC 438 was finally approved in May 2012. This milestone paved the way for the Constitutional Amendment designed to penalize the exploitation of slave labor with far greater stringency, while preserving existing administrative and criminal sanctions. It was a major defeat for the agribusiness caucus, which lost its momentum in the face of widespread social and civil rights movements mobilized in favor of PEC 438.
Yet, much remains to be done. The greatest battle, as announced by the theme of this Conference, centers on reshaping an “Ethos”—a deeply rooted way of thinking and acting in Brazil regarding the exploitation of, and profiting from, slave labor in any of its manifestations.
Therefore, while upholding criminal and administrative laws, sustaining the relentless work of the relevant ministries, and celebrating the approval of the Constitutional Amendment, it is imperative to strike at the root of the problem. To this end, university movements—specifically within Federal Universities—are uniting efforts to foster a new awareness and an educational praxis. This transformation must begin with students—not only in law schools, but across all other disciplines, especially within the humanities.
A further dimension of this effort lies in the formation of a consumer awareness front, teaching individuals to verify the origin of the goods they purchase. As Zino Zini demonstrated in his 1907 book GIUSTIZIA, it is possible to actively resist by refusing to buy goods whose production was the result of slave or unjust labor.
Regarding human rights, which are flagrantly violated by this crime and perversity, we are also reminded of the teachings of Norberto Bobbio in L’ETÀ DEI DIRITTI (1990), for whom it is not enough simply to declare Human Rights or to possess a Declaration of Human Rights; rather, it is now imperative to implement them. Today, the monumental struggle centers on the enforcement and realization of these rights, rather than their mere proclamation.
Therefore, with the approval of PEC 438, the mobilization must continue—shifting its focus toward education, information, awareness, and continuous debate. There will always be someone seeking to exploit, just as there will always be someone exploitable due to vulnerability and systemic necessity. Consequently, there must permanently be governmental, academic, national, and international working groups dedicated, on one hand, to resisting and preventing exploitation and, on the other, to educating and shedding light on a future defined by an enlightened and, above all, emancipated society.
There is today, in Brazil, a concentrated effort by the judiciary—especially the AJD (Association of Judges for Democracy)—alongside Federal Universities’ law schools, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Labor and Employment, and a large segment of organized civil society, in order to enforce the laws against slave labor, as well as the provisions of PEC 438.
However, there is a consensus among those who work in the fight against slave labor that merely changing the legislation is insufficient. Slave labor today is sustained by four core elements: the legal, the economic, the educational, and the environmental. Poverty (the economic factor) is the main source of this crime; given this fact, the Brazilian government has, over the last fifteen years, addressed this area with specific programs to combat destitution, such as the Solidarity Community, Zero Hunger, and Poverty Eradication programs (from 1994 to 2012), which have reached significant levels of success and international recognition. Conversely, the spheres of education and the environment are still without proper attention, which remains highly regrettable.
With sincere gratitude, I commend this program at St. Thomas University and extend my regards to those responsible for organizing this profoundly important conference. The battle against human trafficking demands vigilance forever—every day, every hour, and every minute!
Lecture delivered at the St. Thomas University School of Law, Miami, USA.
St. Thomas University, July 20, 2012.
© Pietro Nardella-Dellova, PhD