UN lists Brazil's achievements after child and adolescent statute

A report released today (Jul 13) by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reveals that, ever since the Statute of the Child and the Adolescent (known in the original Portuguese as ECA) was introduced, Brazil managed to lower children and adolescents' school dropout rate by 64% in the first nine grades, going from 19.6% of students enrolled, in 1990, to 7% in 2013.

The country also reduced illiteracy by 88.8% among 10- to 18-year-olds—from 1990's 12.5% to 1.4% in 2013.

“Brazil made the right decision 25 years ago: a piece of legislation that brought the nation in line with the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child,” said Gary Stahl, Brazil's UNICEF representative.

As for child mortality, the effects of ECA brought to the country figures higher than those reported both in Brazil's neighbors and in developed countries. Statistics reach even higher than the world average. Whereas Brazil went from 51.4 deaths among children under one year of age for every thousand births to 12.3, Latin American countries saw a plunge from 42.7 to 15.2, developing countries from 68.9 to 36.8, and the world 62.7 to 33.6.

This decline, UNICEF says, comes mostly as a result of the increase in the number of prenatal tests following the introduction of ECA. If, in 1995, 10.9% of pregnant women had no access to prenatal care, in 2011 this figure dropped to 2.7%. The percentage of pregnant women who had seven or more prenatal consultations surged from 49% to 61.8% in the same period.

Another achievement made possible by the statute, according to the document, was the fight against child labor. From 1992 to 2013, the number of 5- to 15-year-olds involved in some kind of work fell from 5.4 million to 1.3 million, or 73.9%.

“ECA covers everything, from pregnancy all the way to a child's 18th birthday. We mustn't mistake ECA—and all the good it's been done—for Brazil's overall environment [regarding violence concerns]. Brazil takes good care of its children, but the country's facing a serious violence situation, which needs to be addressed,” Stahl noted.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira