Brazil is well-known for its amazing beaches, historical architecture, the Amazon Rainforest and the Amazon River, and some of the most famous soccer players. 

Over 217 million people call Brazil their home, making it the seventh most populated nation. At 8.5 million square kilometers, Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world. 

But amidst the colorful cities and raving festivals in Brazil, many suffer in silence due to barbaric traditions, unspeakable violations, and illegal activities. Today, we’ll go into a number of Brazil’s problems, including those that affect girls, women, and gender-fluid persons. 

Among them are: 

• Forced Labor And Sexual Exploitation
• Patriarchal Influences And Pressure
• Eradication Of Indigenous People
• Forced Domestic Labor 
• High HIV/ AIDS Rate
• Colorism In Brazil 
• Forced Marriages
• Organ Trafficking
• Sexual Violence 
• High Poverty
• Slave Trade

Colorism and its Origins in Brazil

The colonization of Brazil was different in that its Portuguese colonizers were strictly majority men with no female partners. These men would assault indigenous and mulatto women quite often. The result of these atrocities was a highly mixed populace in Brazil.

In 2000, 54 percent of Brazil’s population was white, 40 percent brown or mixed, and 5 percent black. Only 1% of the population is Asian or indigenous, which we’ll get into later.

Discrimination in Brazil based on color is rampant. Those considered black or brown endure employment disparities, receive wages that are sometimes half that of whites, and they suffer from higher rates of abuse.

Not all of it is explicit. Like in many countries, veiled acts of racism are common. 

However, much of the discrimination is undisguised. The glass ceiling which exists for black Brazilians shows unambiguously when we see how the vast majority of the educated are white or lighter skilled. There is a starkly lower socio-economic status of black and brown Brazilians.

Other overt expressions of racism show up in the media, institutional practices, and in police violence towards black and brown Brazilian citizens.

Brazil’s Shrinking Number of Indigenous People

In 1498, Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese sailor, landed in Brazil. Classic historical reports claim the Portuguese initially intended only to convert the natives to Christianity before they later justified slavery by saying the locals practiced ritualist cannibalism. Those claims were never proven. 

Over time, violence and disease contributed to the eradication of 80% of Brazil’s native people. Enslaved Africans were used to replace them for labor. Now, a mere 900,000 indigenous Brazilians remain.

Indigenous Brazilians are part of the country’s 305 defined tribes and make up a mere 0.4% of the population. The government recognizes 13% of Brazil’s existing land mass as owned by its indigenous people. 

The Guarani tribe is the largest, with over 51,000 people, but they have little land. The Yanomami, numbering 19,000, own the most land with 9.4 million hectares. Many tribes number less than a thousand, and there is one tribe consisting of only one man, whose name, tribe name, and language are unknown.

Many indigenous people have been driven out of the land now being used for sugar cane plantations, cattle ranches, and soya fields. Displaced from their homelands, they now find themselves living near highways under tarpaulins, or on overcrowded reserves. 

While there are laws in place to protect their way of living and give them ownership of “traditional lands,” these people still struggle to survive, as they battle against Amazonian Rainforest mining, logging, and cattle ranching from their own government and fellow citizens. 

The COVID-19 epidemic was another major threat to the existence of Brazil’s indigenous population.

In 2017, 96 invasions of indigenous lands in Brazil were recorded — up from 59 in 2016. In addition to financial gain for outsiders, illegal encroachment on the indigenous people’s lands often leads to violent showdowns with criminal gangs or concealed spread of illnesses. 

As a result, tribes remain at risk of modern day genocide. Land grabbers and the government’s policies sometimes further enable illegal activities for short-term economic gain.

But who exactly is gaining? 

Brazil’s Excessive Poverty And Inherent Patriarchal Influences

In 2021, women, especially black Brazilian women, saw unemployment rates increase to 13.9 and 16.6% respectively. It followed a decrease in their poverty rates to 18.7% in 2020, the year COVID reared its head. 

Unfortunately, this decrease was a result of a cash transfer program the government implemented. And the quick return to high poverty levels was only exacerbated by the increased rate of inflation at 9.2% in 2021.

The poverty level of Brazil is now higher than pre-Covid years.

In addition to the disproportionate poverty statistics, the highly patriarchal society of Brazil further underlines the difficult situation for women and Afro-Brazilians in the country.

White and mixed male Brazilians regarded as “higher class” hold vast control in both the private and public sectors, and fill the most powerful positions. 

In the home, Brazilian women are expected to regard their husbands as the head of the household whether or not the wife holds an occupation. 

Not long ago, Brazil even allowed men to physically discipline their wives. 

Nowadays, women in Brazil are pushing back with increased employment, but as we’ll see, an absurd amount of shocking practices that deter women’s rights and stunt development still remain.

Sexual Violence Against Children In Brazil

There is a high rate of violence against children in Brazil. Like poverty, it is also disproportionate to black Brazilian children. 

According to UNICEF, black children aged between 0 and 4 account for 58% of the victims, between 5 and 9 it is 68%, and violated minors over 10 years old are 80% black. 

Sadly, the rate of violent deaths of children has only gone up in recent times – between 2016 and 2020 – by 27%, for the youngest of these age brackets.

Meanwhile, an untenable number – 179,277 – of rape cases occurred between 2017 and 2020, averaging 45,000 cases per year. A third of these assaults, or 62,000, were suffered by children under 10 years old. 

Not shockingly, 80% of sexually abused victims were young girls typically around 13 years old. In considering those over 15 years, young girls made up 90% of the abuse victims. Boys who endured these horrendous acts were typically between 3 and 9 years old.

High Rates of HIV and AIDS

As children suffer, so do the general population and the LGBTI community of Brazil, due to HIV/AIDS. In 2018, an estimated 900,000 people in the country were said to have contracted HIV. 

Ongoing campaigns for HIV prevention are widespread, especially among the LGBTI population. HIV numbers disproportionately affect trans people (30%) and gay men (18.3%).

A new study in August 2022 explored the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic among “women who have sex with women,” mostly in Brazil’s South region.

One reason attributed to the soaring rates of HIV/AIDS in Brazil is their relation to South Africa, which lies along the same line of the equator as Brazil, where there are regular travel and trade exchanges between nations.

Both Brazil and South Africa were among the first to experience an HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, with South Africa receiving condemnation for its poor response to the situation. The country still has high rates of HIV/AIDS today, and Brazil remains one of its priority markets when it comes to air travel. As a result, Brazil, which has the highest number of AIDS-related deaths in Latin America, continues to be plagued by the disease. 

Slavery in Brazil

Brazil was the last country to abolish slavery. Over a period spanning more than 350 years, slavery fueled the Brazilian economy. One historian, Emilia Viotti da Costa, claims 40% of the 10 million African slaves brought to the “New World” landed in Brazil. 

As the heart of the economy, Brazil’s slave trade meant white Brazilians did practically no physical labor, yet enjoyed all the wealth of the country. Slave labor was further used to construct the first American penitentiary in Rio for punishing enslaved persons. Slaves also built museums, universities, and other traditional institutions which are not readily associated with slavery. 

When Great Britain outlawed the practice of slavery in 1807, Brazil took strides to modernize agriculture and move people from rural areas to cities. However, efforts dragged along for 70 years, with institutions, like the Catholic Church, still supporting slavery.

In 1871, children born to slave women were declared free. But they would have to wait until they were considered adults to enjoy their so-called freedom so as to “compensate” the slave owners. 

On May 10, 1888, the Golden Law (Lei Áurea) abolished slavery in Brazil. 700,000 slaves were free. Yet their situation during post-abolition times differed little from the days before – previously enslaved typically remained with their ‘former’ owners, bound under informal agreements.

The struggle endures and the fight against illegal slavery in Brazil continues. In 2005, Brazil launched the National Pact for the Eradication of Slave Labour, and two years prior in 2003, a name and shame initiative called the “Slave Labour Dirty List” was introduced to call out companies who benefit from slavery.

So, how bad is it?

As noted above, black Brazilians are at a significant disadvantage, women are treated unfairly, and indigenous people are barely surviving. 

All these factors play into the prevailing higher risk of fraudulent recruitment and exploitation for the vulnerable. 

In addition, illegal immigrants who find themselves indebted for transportation to Belize, in particular Bolivians, Bangladeshi, Ecuadorans, Peruvians, Nigerians, Pakistanis, Senegalese, Dominicans, and Sri Lankans, become subject to inhumane conditions and often have their papers taken away.

To sum up in numbers, 369,000 people in Brazil were living in modern slavery conditions as of 2016. These instances are mostly found in rural areas where logging and cattle ranching — the very same illegal activities enacted on the Amazon, as mentioned earlier — coffee and charcoal production, and forestry is carried out. 

Brazil is seeing devastation within both its environment and its people. 

Most slave workers are found to be between 15 and 30 years old. However, in 2015, a rescue of coffee plantation slaves saw six children and teenagers among them. 

One 2020 report showed that child labor in Brazil, often from human trafficking, was of the worst form, and included sexual exploitation. Data was not easy to collect on child sexual exploitation, but the situation was noticeably exacerbated during and after COVID. 

Rescue raids for slaves in 2016 revealed putrid conditions such as a lack of drinking water, no toilets, and no shelter.

Forced Domestic Labor and Forced Marriage

In regards to forced domestic labor in Brazil, most victims are women. Other victims include indigenous persons and Africans. However, children also end up working under slavery conditions (one survey roughly estimated 174,000 of them in 2014), as well as often working without pay. 

These children endure sexual and physical abuse. Among adults and children, many do not even realize the extent of their exploitation, making it more difficult to conduct rescues.

Data on forced marriage and sexual exploitation in Brazil is even more difficult to properly retrieve. 

However, a UNICEF report in 2006 revealed that 877,000 women between 20 and 24 years of age said they had been married on or before the age of 15. One survey reported that 36% of girls in Brazil marry before the age of 18.

Sadly, many of these incidents are considered “consensual.” Most men are older than the girls by nine years. The families involved informally agree to this child marriage for reasons like security, health, education, and to avoid “risky sexual behaviors.”

As a result, teen pregnancy is common. And only in 2019 did Brazil ban child marriage for under 16-year-olds. On top of that, abortion is illegal in Brazil except in three cases. One of these cases is sexual violence. 

Despite that, genuine efforts for advocacy, and positive changes for girls’ rights in Brazil are only now getting underway.

The patriarchal society that endures in Brazil does little to help. Nor does the poverty rates, the influx of migrant males for major infrastructure projects, the lack of government enforcement, and limited implementation of much-needed, properly conducted interference in familial matters. 

Horrific Organ and Human Trafficking In Brazil 

Among Brazil’s more unspeakable human rights abuse practices is the existence of operations that profit from human and organ trafficking.

Modern video journalism is finally bringing light to the horrific atrocities going on in the country.

While data for organ trafficking remains obscure, it’s now known that human traffickers target transgender women in large numbers. Poverty and unemployment are primary contributors to victims’ situations.

So, What Can You Do To Help Change Brazil’s Discrimination and Oppression?

Brazil may appear luscious and its culture exotic, but behind the scenes is gloom and hardship that many of us simply can’t imagine. 

If you’re interested in helping young girls, indigenous people, and gender-fluid people enduring extreme adversity in Brazil, get involved by working with Global Foundation for Girls.

You can make a difference in the lives of so many by making a donation, or contacting us to find out about other ways you can help.