Complementing these trafficking provisions, Article 244A of the Statute on Children and Adolescents prohibits the subjection of children and adolescents to prostitution and sexual exploitation (regardless of whether or not they have been trafficked) while Article 251 considers the act of promoting or facilitating the entrance into or exit out of the country of children and adolescents (regardless of intent or purpose) an administrative violation if it does not comply with the provisions set forth under Articles 83, 84 and 85 (complying with requirements for travel authorization, for example).
In recent years, international law has increasingly begun to
address trafficking. This presents some interesting questions as to what
affect they may have in Brazil. Under Brazil law, international law (in
terms of treaties, etc.) is inferior to the constitution. This raises
questions as to whether or not a treaty is self implementing within
Brazil.
The answer may turn on whether trafficking is considered a
violation of human rights - or a criminal infraction. According to some
authorities, human rights treaties are an exception because, upon
ratification, they become part of the fundamental rights protected by the
Brazilian constitution.
With respect to the primary treaty on trafficking, the first
Additional Protocol to the International Convention Against
Transnational Organized Crime,40 the question recently took on
renewed importance when Brazil ratified both the International
Convention and the first Additional Protocol on Jan 29th 2004.
Advocates against trafficking must consider the affects of this
ratification and whether recent implementing legislation will be
effective. In making this assessment, it must be stressed that
interpretation of the current statute suggests that the object of the law is
to protect the public sexual morality of society - not the trafficked
person. Hence, it is not treated as a human right that, under Brazilian
law, would have received automatic and probably greater protection
than that provided under other categories of law.
In contrast, the situation with respect to children appears to
treat the issue of protecting children as a human rights issue, with the
Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs analyzing the trafficking in
children and adolescents from the point of view of international
agreements signed by Brazil indicating broad coverage for this
protected group.
The country is a party to the Protocol on the Sale of
Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, which considers
the sale of a child "any transaction act in which a child is transferred to
another person or group of people upon payment or any other form of
compensation". Brazil has also signed and ratified the "Convention
on Protection of Children and Cooperation in respect of Inter country
Adoption" and the "Convention on the Civil Aspects of International
Child Abduction", two of the most advanced judicial texts for
combating child trafficking.
Finally, under the Tenth Ibero American
Commission held in Panama in 2000, participating countries agreed to
include a clause in their final document related to child trafficking.
Item 10, letter "C", states that the presidents and governments of the 21
participating countries agree to encourage legislative actions and adopt
severe measures to punish those who participate or collaborate in
trafficking, abduction, sales of body organs, commercial sexual
exploitation of children and adolescents and/or any other unlawful
activity that may harm the dignity of human beings or make them
vulnerable.