Slave Labor
- An estimated 40,000 Brazilians are working under slave labor conditions with no real wages at work camps or on large farms -- recruit below the poverty line by making false promises of job recruiters and opportunities to make money for food.
"Poverty fuels slave labor."
- Last year, a special government task force free more than 4,500 workers in 133 raids on large farms and businesses. Government officials are aggressively trying to eradicate slave labor within the country.
- The slaves living in these work camps live in wooden shacks with no electricity, no toilets or plumbing, no shoes or the proper tools for work. The "slaves" are drinking unsanitary water. They live within dangerous jungle conditions and are so far removed from their homes, that without proper transportation, they are basically trapped.
Police Violence
- hrw.org - Human Rights Watch published an April 2008 Universal Periodic Review of Brazil. These were some of the findings:
- Police tend to pursue abusive practices instead of following sound policing policies. Brazil experiences 50,000 murders per year. Much of this is due to violence among gangs and impoverished areas within the country. The police contribute to this death toll as well -- in many cases, "resistance followed by death." Furthermore, there are various reports of Brazilian police and prisons using torture for coercing confessions.
- There are countless reports on inhumane prison conditions due to violence and overcrowding. There are hundreds of deaths per year within the prison system. Last year, capacity was reportedly exceeded by 200,000 inmates. Prisoners and delinquents live in rat-infested conditions, with a lack of medication, poor water quality, and diseased pigeons.
In 2004, the Brazilian government made a constitutional amendment stating that human rights crimes are now federal offenses!
