Prostitution itself (exchanging sex for money) in Brazil is legal, as there are no laws forbidding adult prostitution,[1] but it is illegal to operate a brothel or to employ prostitutes in any other way.[2]
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Recent reliable estimates on the total number of prostitutes are not available.
In the late 1990s, the International Encyclopedia of Sexuality quoted police estimates putting the total number of prostitutes in Brazil at about 1,000,000.[3]
The Federal Police estimates that upward of 250,000 children are involved in prostitution.[4] According to the recently released Protection Project report, various official sources agree that from 250,000 to 500,000 children live as child prostitutes. Other sources in Brazil put the number at up to 2,000,000 children.[5]
In 2002, pressure by the sex worker organization Davida contributed to the Brazilian Ministry of Labor adding "sex worker" to an official list of occupations. [6] Prostitution is not regulated in any way (no mandatory health checks, no licenses are issued etc.), but street prostitutes and call girls can contribute to the official government pension fund and receive benefits when they retire. [7]
The government's website on prostitution Brazil’s Labor and Employment Ministry Primer on Sex Professional, offering advise for those who wish to became prostitutes, has been the source of controversy, with some accusing the government of encouraging prostitution.[8][9] The site, among others, teaches prostitutes how to "get an encounter", advising them to "become visually appealing; wait in place (to wait for someone who didn't promise to come); seduce with the look; approach the customer; charm with the voice; seduce with affectionate nicknames; conquer with the touch; involve with perfume; offer the customer specialties; recognize the customer's potential; dance for the customer; dance with the customer; satisfy the customer's ego; praise the customer"
The press reported at the end of 2008 that a government official has announced that the site would be "toned down", following criticism by the media.[9] The law professor Luiz Flavio Gomes has told the O Globo newspaper in its online edition that "What is on the site gives the impression of an apology for sexual exploitation." [10]
The job of a prostitute is called "Professional of sex" and is described as follows: "They [the prostitutes] work on their own initiative, in the street, in bars, night-clubs, hotels, harbor, highways and in garimpos (gold prospecting places). They act in different environments: open air, closed places and inside vehicles, in irregular schedules. In the exercise of some of their activities they can be exposed to vehicles gases, to bad weather, to sound pollution and to social discrimination. There are still risks of getting STD infections, bad-treatment, street violence and death."
It is also stated that: "For the exercise of the profession is required that the workers take part in workshops on safe sex, offered by the category associations. Other complementary courses of professional formation, such as, beauty courses, personal care, budget planning, as well as vocational courses for alternative sources of income also are offered by the associations, in several states. Access to the career is open to those who are 18 or older; the average education is between fourth and seventh grade. Full performance of activities occurs after two years of experience."
One of the most famous brothels in Rio de Janeiro was the Casa Rosa, which some have advocated being made a national landmark or museum. [11]
64% of the population (according to a 1998 poll) think prostitution is immoral and should be made illegal, 29% see it as a job as any other. Fifty nine percent (64% of women) believe that prostitutes do what they do because they like it. [12]
Fernando Gabeira founder of the Green Party has been a strong voice for sex workers' rights in Brazil and introduced legislation in Congress to recognise prostitution as a profession. The bill was defeated in 2007. [13]
Brazilian sex workers have campaigned for the repeal of laws criminalising the maintenance of whorehouses and pimping. Those offenses carry sentences from two to five years in prison. They demanded that they should pay social benefits and get all the privileges like any other worker. The National Network of Sex Professionals (Rede Brasileira de Prostitutas) [14] was angry at the Beijing's (4th) International Conference on Women for their condemnation of prostitution. Their leader, ex-prostitute and sociologist Gabriela da Silva Leite, said that she had classes with sociologist Fernando Henrique Cardoso at Universidade de Săo Paulo, who later became Brazil's president. [15]
In 2003, it was estimated that about 6% of Brazilian prostitutes were infected with HIV. Gabriela Silva Leite, the executive director of Prostitution Civil Rights, says that because of information campaigns, condom use among prostitutes is high.[2]
The Brazilian government turned down $40 million in U.S. anti-HIV/AIDS funding in 2005, because the U.S. government required all recipients to sign an anti-prostitution pledge. The Brazilian anti-AIDS program employs prostitutes to hand out information and free condoms; Brazil's AIDS commissioner Pedro Chequer was quoted as saying "Sex workers are part of implementing our AIDS policy and deciding how to promote it. They are our partners. How could we ask prostitutes to take a position against themselves?" [16] A Washington Post article stated that the Brazilian anti-AIDS program is considered by the United Nations to be the most successful in the developing world.[17]
Child prostitution in Brazil is widespread and a serious problem. Brazil is considered to have the worst child sex trafficking record after Thailand .[5] The phenomenon is closely related with high levels of poverty and inequality in the country.[18]
The Brazilian government is increasingly frustrated with the fact that a number of foreign tourists travel to Brazil for sex tourism, [19] including child prostitution.[20] The government of Brazil is working stringently to clamp down particularly at child prostitution.[21][22]
High numbers of Brazilian prostitutes are found in some regions of the United States and Western Europe, including Portugal, Spain, Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Sex tourism exists throughout the country, but it is most apparent in coastal resort towns in the Northeast, South, and Southeast, and in major tourist destinations such as Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza, Ceara, as well as in the wildlife tourist areas of the Pantanal and Amazon.
A 2006 University of Brasilia study found that approximately one-fourth of the 1,514 tourist destinations frequented by citizens had an active sexual commercial market for children and adolescents and also found, in combination with the SEDH and the UN Children's Fund, commercial sex involving children and adolescents in approximately one-sixth of the country's 5,561 municipalities.[4]
Women are trafficked from all parts of the country. The government reported that trafficking routes existed in all states and the Federal District. The National Research on Trafficking in Women, Children, and Adolescents for Sexual Exploitation Purposes identified 241 international and national trafficking routes. Persons exploited in trafficking schemes typically come from low-income families and usually have not finished high school.[23]
It is estimated that Brazil is responsible for 15% of women trafficked in South America, a great majority being from the North and the Northeast.[24]
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