Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2018, published 108th ILC session (2019)

Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) - Brazil (Ratification: 2000)

Article 7(2) of the Convention. Effective and time-bound measures. Clauses (a) and (b). Preventing the engagement of children in the worst forms of child labour and assistance for their removal from the worst forms of child labour and for their rehabilitation and social integration. Trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children. The Committee previously noted the Government’s information that the Ministry of Social Development and Fight Against Hunger had integrated within the National Plan for Combating Sexual Violence against Children, 2013, preventive and protective measures for child victims of sexual exploitation. The Government also indicated that the Inter-sectorial Commission for Combating Sexual Violence against Children and Adolescents continued to work systematically on simultaneous fronts of protection, justice and support to children and adolescents.

The Committee notes the Government’s information in its report that a Committee on Combating the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents under the Ministry of Justice implements accountability initiatives through a network. The National Department of Children’s and Adolescents’ Rights, which operates under the Ministry of Human Rights, also supports various awareness-raising activities in this regard with a focus on major public festivals, sport events and major development projects. Moreover, the ViraVida programme, sponsored by the Industrial Social Services under the National Confederation of Industry and launched in 2008, continues to provide vocational training to young victims of sexual violence above 16 years of age. Currently, over 5,000 young persons are included in the programme. The Government also indicates that, from 2015 to 2017, labour inspectors carried out 23 inspections and removed 24 adolescents from commercial sexual exploitation. While noting this information, the Committee also notes that, in its concluding observations of 2015, the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) expressed its serious concern about the high and increasing numbers of children involved in prostitution or trafficking for that purpose, as well as the involvement of tourism agencies, hotels and taxi drivers in child sex tourism, particularly in areas where large development projects are being implemented, in the north and north-east of the State party, and in connection with the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. The CRC also noted the short-term approach towards the problem of child prostitution, evidenced by the expulsion of child sex workers from tourist areas, their temporary placement in shelters during the Confederations Cup in 2013 and the abrupt cessation of support for these shelters after the event. There was a lack of shelters for child victims of sexual exploitation (CRC/C/BRA/CO/2-4, paragraph 41). The Committee therefore urges the Government to continue to take the necessary measures to ensure that child victims of commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking are removed from these worst forms of child labour and rehabilitated, including the establishment of shelters to provide rehabilitation and social integration services. It also requests the Government to provide information on the results achieved in this regard. The Committee finally requests the Government to provide information on the impact of the measures taken by the relevant governmental agencies and programmes mentioned above, including the labour inspectorate, in preventing and combating the commercial sexual exploitation of children and trafficking of children for that purpose, with a focus on areas where major events or development projects have taken place.

Clause (d). Identifying and reaching out to children at special risk. Child domestic workers. The Committee previously noted that the List of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (Decree No. 6481 of 12 June 2008) included child domestic work as one of the types of activities prohibited to any person under 18 years of age. The Committee noted from the ILO–IPEC publication entitled “Ending child labour in domestic work and protecting young workers from abusive working conditions”, 2013, that according to the 2011 Brazilian household survey, more than 250,000 children are involved in domestic work in third-party households, including 67,000 children in the 10–14 age group and 190,000 children in the 15–17 age group.

The Committee notes the Government’s information that, although it is difficult to access private households, the number of child domestic workers has decreased. According to the national household sample survey transmitted by the Government, between 2014 and 2015, the number of child domestic workers above the age of 15 fell by 2.5 per cent in Brazil. The Committee observes that the number of children engaged in domestic work which is prohibited for young persons under 18 in Brazil remains significant. The Committee requests the Government to continue to make every effort to ensure that persons under the age of 18 years are not involved in domestic work, in conformity with Decree No. 6481 of 2008. It once again requests the Government to provide concrete information on the measures taken in this regard and on the results achieved, including the number of child domestic workers identified and those who have been removed from this type of work and rehabilitated.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.