BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS / Šturma, Mozetic (eds)

The Brazilian National Council of Justice recommended the creation of special courts specifically designed to deal with domestic violence against women in 2006, an attempt to investigate these cases more effectively. 56 The law 11.770, created in 2010, extended maternity leave to 180 days (it was one hundred and twenty), assured them the right to their incomes while taking care of their new-born children (even if adopted ones). The mentioned actions show the government is aware of the gender discrimination in the country and reveal the rise of an important movement towards women protection through affirmative action measures. 5. Gender Affirmative Action Measures’ Results in Brazil: Rights’ Effectiveness or Privileges? The amount of affirmative action measures the Brazilian government has adopted so far, mainly those after the 1988 Constitution promulgation, indicate the country has acknowledged there are discriminatory acts regarding gender. However, the affirmative action measures implementation has led to controversial aspects, since many people consider those measures are unreasonable to the country’s reality. 57 They sustain the measures favour some groups in detriment of the rest of the population, rejecting meritocracy, creating privileges, confronting the right to equal treatment. 58 As a result, the favoured people would be considered unable to achieve their results, remaining inferior and stereotyped. Nevertheless, these comments against the measures do not sustain themselves accordingly to the right of equal treatment, because according to Aristotle, “the worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal”, therefore, we must treat unequal people differently to achieve full equality. 59 Thus, positive discrimination measures play an important role in correcting historically rooted social distortions, since society is unable to solve and overcome them. An important aspect to consider is the actions are temporary and shall disappear when they achieve full equality, therefore the argument they create privileges does not prevail. The affirmative action measures are temporary, but a fundamental step to apply the equality principle in a better way. To those who do not trust in affirmative action measures, there is a question: how is it possible to guarantee equal access and conditions in labour market to women in Brazil? The society impede those minorities to have equal access to their rights. Thus, there is no other way to achieve them than through positive discrimination actions, favouring unequal people to become equal to the other members of their society. 56 CRUZ, Á. R. S. O direito à diferença . Belo Horizonte: Arraes Editores, 2009, p. 189. 57 FRY, P; MAGGIE, Y. Cotas raciais: construindo um país dividido? Econômica: Revista da Pós-Graduação em Economia da UFF . Niterói, v. 6, n. 1, jun. 2004, p. 156. 58 MOEHLECKE, S. Ação Afirmativa: história e debates no Brasil. Cadernos de Pesquisa , n. 117, novembro/2002, p. 210. 59 AZEVEDO, M. L. N.. Igualdade e equidade: qual é a medida da justiça social? Revista Avaliação (Campinas), Sorocaba, v. 18, n. 1, Mar. 2013, p. 129.

148