1995 |
Recognition of the existence of contemporary slave labor by the Brazilian government before the United Nations. Creation of the Special Mobile Inspection Group of the Ministry of Labor and Employment, coordinated by fiscal labor auditors, responsible for inspecting working conditions on the properties and for releasing enslaved workers. Since then, it has been responsible for freeing some 50 thousand workers throughout Brazil. |
1997 |
Creation of the campaigns to fight slave labor of the Comissão Pastoral da Terra and of the Centro de Defesa da Vida e dos Direitos Humanos de Açailândia (MA) |
2001 |
Implantation of the International Labor Organization (ILO) project to fight slave labor in Brazil. The non-governmental organization Repórter Brasil began an investigation of productive chains of people and companies caught with slave labor and denounced those who benefitted from this crime. |
2002 |
Creation of unemployment insurance for workers released from slave labor. |
2003 |
Launching of the 1st National Plan to Eradicate Slave Labor, which calls for prevention actions, assistance for freed workers and repression of the crime of slave labor to eradicate the problem in the country. Creation of the National Commission for the Eradication of Slave Labor (CONATRAE), linked to the Secretariat of Human Rights of the Presidency of the Republic and composed of actors from civil society and government. It is responsible for proposing, monitoring and evaluating the implementation of actions called for in the National Plan to Eradicate Slave Labor. Reformulation of article 149 of the Penal Code of 1940, which came to include the elements, forced labor, debt servitude, exhaustive work shifts and degrading working conditions. Creation of the registration of employers found with slave labor, the so-called “Dirty List”, of the Ministry of Labor and Employment. The document presented a list of employers caught with slave labor and who had an opportunity to defend themselves at two administrative levels. |
2004 |
The massacre at Unaí: the assassination of a driver and three labor inspectors during an inspection operation in Unaí (MG). The farm Castanhal Cabaceiras, in Marabá (PA) was appropriated for having used slave labor. Institution of the program “Escravo, nem Pensar!”, by Repórter Brasil, the first national education program dedicated to fighting slave labor by means of prevention actions. |
2005 |
Creation of the National Pact to Eradicate Slave Labor, under which Brazilian companies and multinationals made a commitment to not purchase raw materials from suppliers who had used slave labor for their production. |
2006 |
The Federal Supreme Court determined that the federal courts could judge the crimes of slave labor, which led to an increase in charges brought by the Federal Public Ministry (Attorney General’s office). |
2007 |
First four states create State Commissions for the Eradication of Slave Labor (Maranhão, Pará, Tocantins and Mato Grosso). Mato Grosso do Sul and Piauí already had similar entities. |
2008 |
Launching the 2nd National Plan to Eradicate Slave Labor, with the revision and updating of the first by CONATRAE. |
2010 |
National Monetary Council decides to prohibit financial institutions from providing rural credit to those who have used slave labor. This reinforces the action of government and private banks that have adopted the measure. |
2011 |
Inspection action frees immigrants in sewing workshops that produce for the Zara clothes brand in São Paulo. The case gave national and international visibility to the exploitation of Latin Americans in the Brazilian textile sector. |
2012 |
The state legislative assembly of São Paulo approves a law that calls for canceling the legal incorporation of a company that has used slave labor in the state and prevents partners in the company from opening a company in the same sector for ten years. |
2013 |
For the first time, the number of workers freed from urban activities is higher than those in rural activities due to the releases in civil construction. |
2014 |
Approval of Constitutional Amendment 81, which calls for confiscation of rural and urban properties on which slave labor is found and their use for agrarian reform or urban housing programs. At the end of the year, the Federal Supreme Court suspended, through an injunction, the publication of the Dirty List after the Brazilian Association of Real Estate Developers (ABRAINC) filed suit, alleging the supposed unconstitutionality of the list. |
2015 |
The Ministry of Labor and Employment and the Secretary of Human Rights of the Presidency of the Republic published a new norm with rules for registering employers to comply with the Law for Access to Information. Mobilization against the approval of three projects being considered in the National Congress that propose limiting the concept of slave labor: Project for regulation of Amendment 81, presented by Senator Romero Jucá (PMDB/RR), amendments to the proposed law for revising the Penal Code, presented by Senators Blairo Maggi (PR/MT) and Luiz Henrique da Silveira (PMDB/SC) and a proposal by federal deputy Moreira Mendes (PSD/RO). |