Brasília - Combatting discrimination is one of the goals of the Tripartite Commission on Equal Opportunities for Gender and Race in the Workplace, created by the Secretariat of Women's Policies, informed the organ's Subsecretary in charge of Planning and Budget, Ângela Fontes. She said that gender and race discrimination has existed in Brazil for 500 years, and, consequently, any attempt to oppose it is difficult.

"Discrimination is a cultural problem we shall have to fight. The installation of this commission is important, because all the Southern Cone countries had already installed their commissions on equality and opportunity of gender and race in the last decade, and we only got around to this now," she affirmed.

According to the Subsecretary, the commission's task is to accompany work opportunities in companies, the government, and the formal and informal labor markets. "This means that we must concern ourselves with how people are being selected, job opportunities, the selection process," she pointed out. The commission is tripartite, with representatives of the government, workers, and employers.

Agência Brasil
Translator: David Silberstein
08/26/2004