Admissions Team at Brazil's Foreign Office Re-accepts Candidacies of 25 Self-Defined Black Individuals Who Were Initially Excluded from Application Process

09/14/2016 - 11h22

Of the 47 candidates who self-defined as black during the application process for a career in Brazil's diplomatic service and who were initially rejected, 25 went on to be re-accepted.

This has caused great controversy, as many protest that they have not been eliminated from the selection process merely owing to reasons of race.

In particular, the provisory list revealed by the Rio Branco Institute, upset many existing diplomats as well as other hopeful candidates applying for jobs with the Foreign Office.

There were complaints that the panel of judges had excluded mixed-race people from the selection.

Some of the critics had themselves been part of the Programme of Affirmative Action organised by the Rio Branco Institute.

According to the Foreign Office, this project, which offered grants of R$25,000 (US$ 7,500) to people who self-defined as black and who were verified as such by the panel's objective process, used different criteria to determine the outcome of these decisions.

The funding was decided by a new panel composed of three people: two black ambassadors - Silvio Albuquerque and Benedito Fonseca - and a human rights specialist - Vanessa Dolci.

Inside the Itamaraty Palace, the headquarters of the Brazilian Foreign Office, many felt that that the judging committee had been too harsh in the first instance, and that the recent acceptance of the candidacies was necessary to make up for this.

Translated by GILLIAN SOPHIE HARRIS

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