Two of the largest economies and democracies today reaffimed commitment to combat discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) status, to advance gender equality, to fight exploitative child and forced labor, and promote human rights.
President Obama and President Rousseff reaffirmed their commitment to cooperation with the U.S.-Brazilian Joint Action Plan to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Discrimination and Promote Equality, the first bilateral instrument that targets racism; and the U.S.-Brazil Memorandum of Understanding on the Advancement of Women.
Both countries have executed a robust series of activities and identified numerous ways to deepen and institutionalize our cooperation.
According to the US Department, the US government recognizes President Rousseff’s commitment to empowering Afro-Brazilians, women, indigenous populations, and other traditionally marginalized groups, and we encourage continued joint cooperation in these areas.
The US asserts that Social inclusion is of paramount importance to both of theirsocieties.
As populations and economies grow, and as they reap the rewards of our increased cooperation, both governments are committed to ensuring that benefits accrue to all sectors of society, including people of African descent; indigenous peoples; people with disabilities; and LGBT persons.
The United States and Brazil have established a deep partnerships to promote social inclusion throughout their policies and partnership.
The United States and Brazil work collaboratively within the Joint Action Plan to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Discrimination and Promote Equality, signed in 2008.
This Plan is a coordinated interagency initiative that leverages domestic policy expertise in education, health, labor, economic opportunity, and environmental justice within many domestic agencies.
On areas addressing, responding to, and preventing gender-ased violence (GBV), both countries work together to address the global scourge of GBV by strengthening the capacity of third countries to address the issue, strengthening and implementing existing laws, and cooperating through a working group on trafficking in persons.
In addition to the trafficking in persons working group in Brasilia, U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Thomas A. Shannon launched a new course at Guararapes College on Gender and Civic Participation in June 2011, bringing together community members from low-income neighborhoods surrounding the college campus, as well as students and teachers, to learn about women’s rights under Brazilian law.
On advancing women’s economic empowerment, the U.S.-Brazil partnership focuses on unlocking the full potential of women in Brazil and throughout the hemisphere.
On controversial areas on LGBT rights, the United States and Brazil have partnered together to promote and protect the human rights of LGBT individuals as a critical part of our human rights agenda through joint collaborated on LGBT issues in both the UN Human Rights Council and the Organization of American States (OAS).
