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News > Latin America

UN Official: Institutional Racism Suppressing Afro-Brazilians

  • Security forces carry out an operation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Oct.1, 2018.

    Security forces carry out an operation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Oct.1, 2018. | Photo: Reuters FILE

Published 22 November 2018
Opinion

According to the Foro de Seguridad Publica, about afro-Brazilians, aged between 15 and 29, reportedly die every two hours.

During a commemoration of the Afro-Brazilian movements, representative of the United Nations (UN) Women in Brazil, Nadine Gasman, indicated that her organization would promote dialogue with municipal managers to confront violence against black youth.

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One such event, to push for better public policies, is "Black Lives: Dialogues on Governmental Actions to Combat Violence Against Youth", an event scheduled for Thursday and supported by the UN Women Brazil, the National Front of Mayors and the City Hall of Recife.

"Local actions to fight discrimination are important since insecurity is distributed, extremely unequally, by Brazilian municipalities,"  ‘Vidas Negras’, a UN-promoted campaign, declared, adding that "only 123 municipalities account for 50 percent of deaths throughout the country."

Every year, the 'Day of Black Consciousness' is celebrated to remember Zumbi dos Palmares' assassination in 1695. Palmares notably led the "Republic of Free Slaves" in the northeastern region of Brazil.

"The 20th of November commemorates this struggle of the Brazilian black movement and joins the objectives of the international decade of African descent to recognize and value people of African descent, to overcome discrimination and ensure the full participation of Afro-descendants," Gasman said, explaining that the celebration also aims "to overcome discrimination and ensure the full participation of Afro-descendants."

According to the Foro de Seguridad Publica, about 60,000 homicides are recorded in Brazil annually, and five afro-Brazilians, aged between 15 and 29, reportedly die every two hours.

Gasman mentioned that murders of black women, in Brazil, increased by 54 percent in the last decade; in contrast, murders of white women decreased by 10 percent.

"Mortality is the end of a series of human rights violations, ranging from differentiated access between blacks and non-blacks in education, in wages, in business, in the way that black people are treated in services public. It is institutional racism," stressed the UN official.

In 2017, current President-elect Jair Bolsonaro remarked that Brazilians of afro-descent 'are useless;' the comment effected a fine of US$16,000.

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