Between four and five of every ten children in Brazil are poor. 27.4 million children and adolescents belong to families whose per capita daily income is less than US$ 1.55 (4.33 reais). Among the adult population, the low income portion corresponds to three of every ten individuals.
One billion of the world’s 2.2 billion children live in poverty, according to a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report released last week, the 56th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Health, education, security, and leisure are the rights specified in the Declaration, as well as in Brazilian law, through the Statute on Children and Adolescents (ECA).
The acting sub-secretary responsible for the Promotion of the Rights of Children and Adolescents in the Special Secretariat of Human Rights (SEDH), Amarildo Baesso, emphasized that the problem in Brazil is not a dearth of laws.
“Brazil is considered one of the countries with the most advanced laws in the world, even serving as a parameter for other countries,” he affirmed.
Despite the problems, Brazil has made progress in guaranteeing the rights of children and adolescents. Among the advances, Baesso cited access to education and the programs to reduce infant mortality and transmission of the HIV virus. Advances recognized by UNICEF.
In the opinion of the deputy representative of UNICEF in Brazil, Manuel Buvenich, the country possesses a series of positive procedures for the protection and development of children, but they remain concentrated in a small number of localities.
“We have situations similar to the First World and others comparable to Africa,” he observed.
Agência Brasil
Translator: David Silberstein