Structural and intersectional discrimination in Brazil

an analysis of the case “Employees of the Santo Antônio de Jesus Factory and their Family vs. Brasil”

Abstract

https://doi.org/10.1590/2179-8966/2025/80270

What are the impacts of structural and intersectional discrimination on Brazilian labor relations? The present work aims to answer the question through the analysis of a Brazilian conviction by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: the Case “Employees of the Fábrica de Fogos de Santo Antônio de Jesus and their Family Members vs. Brazil". The deductive method, bibliographic-documentary research and judicial decision analysis are adopted, with a qualitative approach. It is concluded that the victims in the case in question were affected by structural and intersectional discrimination, due to poverty, race and gender. This discrimination affected not only the harmful working conditions in which the victims found themselves, but also their own subsistence. It is therefore necessary for the Brazilian State to adopt measures capable of preventing new violations of the fundamental and human rights of historically marginalized groups, which involves, to a large extent, the modification of public policies and the complete restructuring of the reality in which individuals inserted in the cycle of poverty are inserted.