BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS / Šturma, Mozetic (eds)

other Branches’ political decisions. 23 In this case, judicial measures that determine positive discriminatory actions work as redistributive, repairing or restoring policies. 24 The security rights to same-gender couple civil partnerships, upheld at the highest level, the Federal Supreme Court, was the leading case. After these considerations regarding positive discriminations in Brazil, in this paper, the expression “affirmative action measures” shall represent the temporary tools to promote social inclusion, 25 whether from the private or public initiative, to compensate those in unequal situations by providing them unequal and even preferential treatment, to guarantee full equality among all. 3. Brazilian Constitutions and Affirmative Action Measures Brazilian constitutionalism has always focused on formal equality, 26 which is possible to perceive by briefly reading the seven constitutions in its history. The monarchic constitution of 1824, granted by a slavery society, has established the Civil Code and the Criminal Code both based on equality. 27 The 1891 Constitution (the one that has established a Republic in Brazil) assured everyone is equal before the law , 28 due to the bourgeois revolution idea, but did not add elements in this sense. 29 The 1934 Constitution allowed women to vote and changed the democratic system, by substituting liberal democracy for social democracy, an important advance regarding equality. Legislators kept the equality before the law, but inserted in the legal text there would be no distinction or privileges in treatment caused by birth, race, gender, people’s profession or their parents’ occupation, social position, wealth, religious belief or political preferences. 30 23 MELLO, M. A. M F. Ótica Constitucional – a Igualdade e as Ações Afirmativas. Discriminação e Sistema Legal Brasileiro - Seminário Nacional em comemoração do Dia do Zumbi dos Palmares . Anais Tribunal Superior do Trabalho: Brasília, 2001, p. 27-28. 24 GOMES, J. B B. Ação afirmativa e princípio constitucional da igualdade. O direito como instrumento de transformação social. A experiência dos EUA . Rio de Janeiro: Renovar, 2001, p. 32. 25 PIOVESAN, F. Ações Afirmativas da Perspectiva dos Direitos Humanos. Cadernos de Pesquisa , v. 35, n. 124, p. 49, jan./abr. 2005. 26 KAUFMANN, R. F. M. Ações Afirmativas à brasileira: necessidade ou mito? uma análise histórico-jurídico- comparativa do negro nos Estados Unidos da América e no Brasil . Porto Alegre: Livraria do advogado, 2007, p. 233. 27 Article 179. The Brazilian citizens’ civil and political rights’ inviolability, based on freedom, individual security and property, is guaranteed by the Imperial Constitution as follows: XVIII: It shall be organized the Civil and Criminal Codes, both based on justice and equality. BRASIL. Constituição Federal de 1824 . Available at: http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/constituicao/constituicao24.htm. 28 ISHAY, M. The history of human rights: from ancient times to the globalization era. California: University of California Press, 2004, p. 114. 29 Article 72. The Constitution assures all Brazilians and foreign residents the inviolability of the rights of freedom, individual security and property, as follows: Paragraph 2. Everyone is equal under the law. BRASIL. Constituição Federal de 1824 . Available at: http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/constituicao/ constituicao24.htm. 30 Article 113. The Constitution assures all Brazilians and foreign residents the inviolability of the rights of freedom, subsistence, individual security and property, as follows: 1) everyone is equal under the law. There shall not be privileges or distinctions based on birth, gender, race, profession (own or the parents’)

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