Lula expands Brazil's quota for affirmative action to indigenous and black communities
São Paulo (AP) – Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lulada Silva signed a new law on Tuesday to expand the country's affirmative action policy, thereby increasing the quota for government work reserved for blacks, from 20% to 30%, and increasing indigenous people of the African-American-Brazil community and adding good people.
These changes apply to candidates who apply for permanent and public employment positions in mixed capital companies operating in the Brazilian federal government, institutions, public foundations, public companies and states. As approved by Congress, the quota will be revised in 2035.
“It is important to allow this country to reflect a society in its public office, the prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the attorney's office, the office of the attorney general, the internal tax office of the internal tax office,” Lula said in the presidential palace in the capital Brasilia. “We still have very few women, very few black people, and few indigenous people.”
The then-President Dilma Rousseff approved Brazil's first law on racial quotas for government work in 2014 and extended it to public administration positions, the position was an affirmative action policy that had been applied to obtaining state-owned universities.
The Brazilian government said in a statement that black and mixed races had 25% of senior government jobs in 2014, a figure that rose to 36% in 2024.
“Nevertheless, blacks are underrepresented in public services and hold low-paying positions,” the government added.
Esther Dweck, Minister of Management and Innovation, said that new laws are needed as the current decade (at the time quota) have opened up new laws among candidates over the past decade.
“We cannot reverse the situation of minorities (ethnic minorities) in public services,” Dweck said in a speech Tuesday.
Brazilian government says 55% of the country's population is composed of black or mixed race people. It added that more than 70% of Brazilians living below the poverty line are also black or mixed races, while only 1% of these races are in the private sector.
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