Brazil is a developing country that has the eighth largest economy in the world, a developing industrial base and a Human Development Index (HDI) that varies between average and high. (Source: IMF, Emerging and Developing Economies, World Economic Outlook Database, April 2009). Given this scenario, some specialists state that Brazil is heading towards becoming the fifth largest economy in the world.
According to data from the IPEA (Institute of Applied Economic Research), the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) and the UNDP (United Nations Development Program), there is a large gap between the 10% most wealthy and the 10% most poor populations in Brazil, with high levels of inequality, which compels many people to poverty.
Comparatively, Brazil presents a high concentration of income and, consequently, a poor distribution of it. The region of Latin America and the Caribbean still has the highest levels of inequality on the planet. Among the 15 countries in the world, in which the distance between the rich and the poor is most noticeable, 10 are in Latin America and the Caribbean. The high level of inequality has a high cost: they increase poverty, make economic growth difficult and diminish its impacts on the reduction of poverty.
Fundação Abrinq – Save the Children, since it was founded in 1990, has been working to promote and defend the rights of children and adolescents of low income families, and we have already benefitted more than 6,700,000 children and adolescents through our actions. Our actions, programs and projects are based on the International Child Rights Convention (UNO, 1989), the Brazilian Federal Constitution (1988) and the Statute of the Child and Adolescent – ECA (1990).
After 21 years of the ECA’s existence, we have managed to move forward in the implementation of the directives proposed in the Statute, but we still face major challenges in the aspects of guaranteeing and defending the rights, especially of a significant part of the children and adolescents located throughout the Brazilian national territory, who are found in situations of big vulnerability, as a result of the regional, ethnic, racial and socioeconomic inequalities.
Recent History
The New Republic is the period that followed the military government, which was characterized by the political democratization and by the economic stabilization, from 1985 till today.
In 2002, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected The President of the Republic and reelected in 2006. On October 31, 2010, Brazilian voters chose Dilma Vana Rousseff (from the PT) to occupy the Presidency of the Republic. She was the first woman elected to hold the most important office of the Brazilian Executive Power. Dilma Rousseff garnered 55.43% of the valid votes in the second round of the elections, against 44.57% of the PSDB’s candidate, José Serra. In January 2011, she assumed office in Brasília, succeeding Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was in charge of the country for the previous eight years.
Source: http://www.brasil.gov.br
Political/Economic Situation
Brazil’s economy has a free and exporter market. Measured by the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), its Gross Domestic Product is approximately 2.5 trillion dollars (BRL 3,674,964 trillion), making it the ninth largest economy in the world in 2008, according to IMF (and the tenth largest economy according to the World Bank), making it the second largest American continent, just behind the USA.
Source: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economia_do_Brasil
Human Rights Issues
”Everyone was born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”. (The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1)
The theme Human Rights is present in almost every aspect of the public life; they nominate and protect values – and behaviors – and without them men and women could not live with dignity. They are universal, indivisible and interdependent.
We shall acknowledge the human rights for all the people, movements, organizations and public powers, which, historically, fought and fight for the valorization of the human being. These fights are currently reflected in the national and international legal protection of the Human Rights.
Source: http://www.direitoshumanos.gov.br
Update June 2011