Global Issues

Brazil

• Estimated more than 250,000 children were involved in prostitution.

• In São Paulo, Brazil, a woman is assaulted every 15 seconds.

• Male prison officers abused and extorted women prisoners for sexual favors.

• Source country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking within the country and abroad.

• Brazilian women and children are found in sex trafficking abroad, often in European countries, including Spain, Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Germany, Norway, and Luxembourg, the United States, and Japan. • Brazilian women and children also are subjected to sex trafficking in Suriname, French Guiana, Guyana, and Venezuela.

• Women from neighboring countries have been identified in sexual servitude in Brazil.

• Brazilian transsexuals forced into prostitution.

• Brazilian men and transsexuals were forced into prostitution in Spain and Italy.

• 33.8% of women in Brazilian provinces reported intimate partner physical violence in their lifetime.

• 14.3% report sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime.

• 38.8% of women report intimate partner and/or non-intimate-partner sexual and/or violence in their lifetime.

• 4.3% reported forced first sex

• 11.1% reported abuse during pregnancy

 

Advocacy:

• Rede Brasileira de Prostitutas (Network of Brazilian Prostitutes) assists formation and training of associations of prostitutes, supports and promotes events and meetings of the class formulates policies in partnership with government and struggle to obtain legal recognition of the profession.

• French Dominican friar  Brother Xavier Plassat coordinates CPT’s National Campaign Against Slave Labor.

 

Sources: United Nations Development Fund for Women; UN Women Violence against Women Prevalence Data: Surveys by Country 2011; U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2010; Sex Work Activists, Allies, and You