Brazil's Post Office to assist in human rights work

Brazil’s Post and Telegraph Company (ECT) has signed up to work more closely with government agencies and nonprofit groups promoting equality and human rights in Brazil. At a human rights forum on Tuesday, ECT president Wagner Pinheiro de Oliveira signed cooperation agreements with the government’s Department for Human Rights (SDH) and with the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

Under the deal with the SDH, Brazil’s post offices will be used to display pictures of missing children, mail carriers will be mobilised as “agents of citizenship”, while ECT will also work to ensure social benefits are equal for employees in stable relationships whatever their sexuality.

Cooperation with UNIFEM will see ECT supporting the Women’s Empowerment Principles – Equality Means Business initiative, which promotes gender equality in the workplace and business in general.

Pinheiro said ECT was investing heavily in inclusion within its workforce, since Brazil has a highly multicultural nature as a country, with all races, creeds and cultures represented.

He said: “Our agencies, our uniforms, our stamps, our infrastructure, our campaigns – all of them are new tools available to the federal government to implement policies for the promotion of human rights, racial and gender equality, to combat all forms of prejudice and discrimination.”

Tuesday’s forum was also supported by two other government departments, the Department for the Promotion of Racial Equality and the Department for Women’s Policies.

Maria del Rosario, minister for SDH, said signing the deal with the Post Office would help the entire population access rights that have been traditionally denied.

For example, plans are to ensure the 8% of Brazil’s population who do not have their births officially recorded can do so.

“We want to make use of the blue-and-yellow uniform of the Post to get to places where there is no notary, where there is no constituted authorities, in isolated and indigenous communities in Brazil’s interior,” said del Rosario.