Lula institutes racial quotas in public positions of trust – 03/21/2023 – Market

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) signed, this Tuesday (21), a decree that establishes a quota for black people in at least 30% of commissioned and trusted positions in the federal government. The measure is part of a package announced during a ceremony at the Planalto Palace on the occasion of the 20 years of racial equality policies.

According to the Presidency’s Communication Secretariat (Secom), the criterion will be the self-declaration of blacks and browns, according to the color or race item used by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics Foundation (IBGE) and who have phenotypic traits that characterize them as black or brown in color.

The text establishes a schedule so that, until December 31, 2025, 30% of the Executive Commissioned Positions (CCE) and Executive Commissioned Functions (FCE) in the direct Federal Public Administration, autarchic and foundational, are occupied by black people.

Minister Anielle Franco (Racial Equality) said that today the level is below 5%. Her portfolio, together with the Ministry of Management, will establish intermediate targets year by year until 2025.

“We set a target of 30%, because we know and think it is achievable. We are still preparing all the additions to the decree, but we haven’t talked about it yet [como fiscalizar o cumprimento]”, he told journalists after the event.

The percentage will be for all FCE and CCE positions, not by ministry or agency. In addition, the text will deal with the effective filling of vacancies, to avoid booking, but not filling, as in other cases of quotas.

The decree also determines, according to Secom, that, in the event of a complaint or suspicion of irregularity in the self-declaration, a commission will be set up to investigate the facts.

For the purposes of the provisions of the norm, black people are those who declare themselves black and brown, according to the color or race item used by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics Foundation (IBGE) and who have phenotypic traits that characterize them as black. or brown.

Data from the Atlas of the Brazilian State, from Ipea (Institute of Applied Economic Research), show that, until 2013, blacks and browns represented a maximum of 32.3% of new civil servants each year. The percentage rose to 37.5% in 2015, shortly after the enactment of the quota law, and reached 43.5% in 2020, the most recent data available.

As shown by Sheet, the government is also discussing an expanded version of the law of quotas in civil servants, which expires in June 2024 under the diagnosis that its effects were less than expected. The intention is to promote a transformation of the federal public service, which today is still made up of a white majority —especially in higher-paying positions.

Also announced this Tuesday was the granting of five land titles to three quilombola communities, such as Sheet had anticipated.

The beneficiary communities have been waiting for more than a decade for progress in their titling: Brejo dos Crioulos, in Minas Gerais, and Lagoa dos Campinhos and Serra da Guia, in Sergipe. Members of these groups will be in Planalto to participate in the ceremony.

In the first year of Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) government, only three communities received titles – he was critical of quilombos and promised in his campaign not to demarcate a centimeter of land. Between 2020 and 2022, five more communities were contemplated, according to data from Incra (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform) updated at the end of the mandate.

In addition, the decree that reissues Brasil Quilombo, from the second Lula government, as Aquilombola Brasil was also signed. The program will now have a National Land Title Plan and will seek to strengthen quilombola family farming.

The creation of four working groups was also announced: that of affirmative actions; the Viva Black Youth; the structuring of the Valongo wharf; and the fight against religious racism.