Human Rights

New ILO initiative to develop professional skills and promote rights, equity and inclusion of transgender people in the world of work

Launched during the national month of Trans Visibility in Brazil, the PRIDE project will train 300 people in several locations of the country. It will be developed in partnership with CUT and LGBTQIA+ civil society organizations.

Notícias | 27 de Janeiro de 2022


Brasilia – Through the development of professional and socio-emotional skills, a new initiative implemented by the ILO Office in Brazil will promote inclusion and decent work for LGBTQIA+ 300 people, in particular transgender people in Brazil.

“PRIDE: Promoting Rights, Diversity and Equality in the world of work” will be implemented by the ILO together with Instituto +Diversidade, Casa Neon Cunha and Central Única dos Trabalhadores e das Trabalhadoras (CUT). The new initiative is also aimed at promoting non-discrimination and decent work policies through strengthening social dialogue with engagement of governments, employers' and workers' organizations, civil society and the private sector.

Stigma, prejudice, and employability


Historically, Brazil has played an important role in championing the rights and needs of its diverse population through global commitments that provides a legal framework that recognises and provides protection to LGBTQIA+ people, such as the ratification of the ILO Convention 111 on “Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation.” In 2018, the Brazilian Supreme Court recognised that trans people had the right to claim their gender identity through civil registration rather than having to apply through courts or qualify based on medical reassignment.

However, institutional gaps persist, and rates of discrimination remain high. There is limited official data on discrimination and bias against LGBTQIA+ individuals, but the rates of hate crime indicate a significant problem. According to the Observatory of Diversity and Equal Opportunities at Work, developed by the ILO and the Labour Prosecution Service (MPT) only 49 of the 5,570 Brazilian municipalities had a municipal council for the rights of LGBTQIA+ people in 2019.

Pervasive discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) plays a central role. LGBTQIA+ people consequently have fewer opportunities and basic rights. Transgender people in particular face aggravated social, economic, and cultural barriers to access formal employment, exposing trans people to the risk of exploitative and dangerous forms of informal, forced labour and trafficking.

“We live in a society with many prejudices, and most families don't know how to deal with a transgender person. They often resort to informal activities that are very aggressive, such as prostitution”, explains Symmy Larrat, project coordinator at Casa Neon Cunha and president of ABGLT (LGBT Brazilian Association).

Even with a high education LGBTIQ+ people struggle to access work, hold a job and progress in a career, proving that education solely does not provide sufficient conditions for vulnerable groups to access decent work.

“We saw that profound and structural social inequalities, manifested in the world of work, were aggravated with the COVID-19 pandemic. We must guarantee a fully inclusive and human-centred recovery, to improve living conditions and decent work for people in most the vulnerable situations, especially transgender people”, highlights Camila Almeida, national project coordinator of PRIDE project at ILO Office in Brazil.

"PRIDE project recognizes discrimination as the root cause that leads to fewer opportunities, and consequently the absence of decent work for LGBTQIA+ people in vulnerable situations. Decent work can only be achieved in a society where all people are free to exist in all their diversity, identity and potential”, Camilla adds.

Successful experience


PRIDE project takes advantage and expands on Kitchen&Voice’s (K&V) good practices and lessons learned to promote inclusion of people in vulnerable situations in the world of work.

Since 2017, K&V has trained more than 494 people from different target vulnerable groups in seven Brazilian states. The program, funded through a partnership with the Labour Prosecution Office, has involved important national and local stakeholders throughout the project cycle, which has contributed towards sustainability. Targeting discrimination and its pervasive effects on how vulnerable people deal with different aspects of life and areas of social inclusion, the K&V program brought together a professional skills training (kitchen component) with a socio-emotional, expression and communication training (voice component). The kitchen component was developed by the chef Paola Carosella; and the voice component by poets and actresses Elisa Lucinda and Geovana Pires, from Casa Poema.

“We found an opportunity to join efforts to promote and expand K&V program, now within the scope of PRIDE”, said João Torres, executive president from Instituto +Diversidade.

Starting this year, PRIDE will directly benefit 300 people, in different locations in the country, beyond encouraging policies to promote decent work aimed at LGBTQIA+ populations, through dialogue and engagement with governments, workers and employers’ organizations, civil society, and the private sector.

PRIDE addresses three key issues:
  • Ensuring that a successful approach, such as K&V, to employment training for the most vulnerable lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people is standardized and more widely available both in terms of potential trainees and in occupations covered.
  • Building the capacity of government, employers’, workers’, civil society and LGBTQIA+ organizations to realize the objectives of the Brazilian National Action Plan on LGBTQIA+ employment; and
  • Disseminating models, methodologies, strategies and the lessons learned and for replication in other countries.

According to the national secretary of social policies and human rights of CUT, Jandhyra Uehara, it is crucial to involve and engage trans people in social dialogue.

“We need to include trans people in trade unions agendas, clauses and collective agreements to achieve sustainable and inclusive changes in the world of work.”, she explains.

Violence and harassment in the world of work disproportionately affects LGBTQIA+ people, in particular trans people. ILO Convention 190 on Violence and Harassment establishes the adoption of an inclusive, integrated and necessarily gender-sensitive approach to guaranteeing the right to equal opportunities and non-discrimination, with special attention to groups in situations of vulnerability.

During the national month of Trans Visibility in Brazil, ILO reiterates its global campaign to end violence at work and ratify Convention 190.

#RatifyC190 #TransVisibility