Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

Equality of Treatment (Social Security) Convention, 1962 (No. 118) - Brazil (Ratification: 1969)

For more than 30 years the Committee has been pointing out the need to incorporate into the Brazilian legislation a provision guaranteeing the payment abroad of long-term social security benefits foreseen in Article 5 of the Convention. The Government’s report of 2007 once again stated that there has been no change in the situation since 2001: section 312 of the Social Security Regulations, approved by Decree No. 3048 of 6 May 1999, continues to subject the payment of benefits abroad to the existence of the corresponding bilateral agreement with the country of residence of the beneficiary in question or, in the absence of such an agreement, to the adoption of the corresponding instructions by the Ministry of Insurance and Social Assistance (MPAS). However, benefits are not paid, even to countries with which Brazil has bilateral agreements (Argentina, Cape Verde, Chile, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Uruguay), except to beneficiaries resident in some of these countries, namely in Spain, Greece and Portugal. According to the report, a tender process is in progress to contract a bank to pay benefits to beneficiaries resident in countries with which Brazil has bilateral agreements, subsequently it is foreseen to extend the same system of payment to beneficiaries resident in other countries.

Judging by the fact that the tender process mentioned in the report is “in progress” since 2000 without result and that, in the meantime, no instructions foreseen by section 312 of the Social Security Regulations have been issued by the MPAS, the Committee cannot but conclude that there is no political will to institute an effective system of the transfer of social security benefits abroad, not even within the framework of bilateral social security agreements specifically establishing such mechanisms. In this regrettable situation, it is the role of the supervisory system to alert the Government, as well as other States parties to the Convention, to the fact that Brazil is in breach of its international obligation under Article 5 of the Convention to guarantee the payment of benefits to Brazilian nationals and to the nationals of any other state which has accepted the obligations of the Convention for the same branch, as well as to refugees and stateless persons, in case of their residence abroad, irrespective of the country of residence and even in the absence of any bilateral social security agreements with the country of nationality or the country of residence of the beneficiary concerned. In doing so, the Committee strongly urges Brazil, while further developing its network of bilateral agreements, to take unilateral measures, for example by issuing the ministerial instructions envisaged by the abovementioned section 312 of the Social Security Regulations, to guarantee in law and in practice the provision of the benefits abroad whatever the place of residence of the beneficiary concerned.