Human Rights in Brazil - Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence

Brazil has a sad record of domestic violence, both against children and women. The main causes of domestic violence are agreed to be alcohol addiction or drug use, but low literacy, social tension and poverty also play an important role in it.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a new law on Domestic and family violence against women on 7 August 2006 in Brasília.. The law is the result of an extensive process of consultation and discussion, in which key women's organizations played a crucial role. The process was promoted by the State Secretariat of Policies for Women and supported by UNIFEM. The law changes the Penal Code, allowing an aggressor to be arrested not only in the act of committing an offence, but also preventively, if the aggressor's freedom is determined to be a threat to a victim's life. The law also provides for gender-based crimes against women to be judged in special courts. The law's enactment fulfills a commitment made by Brazil when it signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The new legislation provides for unprecedented measures to protect women in situations of violence or under risk of death. Depending on the case, a perpetrator can be prevented from approaching the woman and her children. A victim may also recover property and cancel a power of attorney held by the aggressor. In detention cases, penalties have tripled: jail time, which used to be six months to one year, has increased to up to three years. Pecuniary penalties, that is, small fines used to punish perpetrators, have been eliminated.

The law is not limited to making penalties more severe, however. It also establishes social measures to assist women. For example, those at risk may be included in government welfare programmes, and the law provides for the inclusion of basic information on violence against women in school materials. A particularly innovative aspect of the law is that it provides protection for domestic workers from physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Domestic workers are the labour force category employing the largest number of women in Brazil, consisting of approximately 6.5 million women in the country, 500,000 of them less than 18 years old.

Brazilians are bound by law to ensure certain basic rights for their children. Article 277 of Brazil's Constitution states: "It is the duty of the family, of society, and the state to ensure to children and adolescents, with absolute priority, the right to life, health, food, education, leisure, professional training, culture, dignity, respect, family and community life, as well as to protect them from all forms of neglect, discrimination, exploitation, violence, cruelty and oppression." There are several other legal (and constitutional) provisions in Brazil related to protection of children against all forms of abuse, violence, and sexual exploitation. Some lawyers hail the country's constitutional and statutory protections to be a model to the world in all it says about children's rights. UNICEF, for instance, describes Brazil's Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA), a legislation created to implement constitutional provisions regarding the protection of children's rights, as one of the most advanced in the world. However, the United Nations estimates that no less than 500,000 children in Brazil are victims of sexual exploitation. The U.N. also reveals that in some parts of the country, particularly in the northern and northeastern regions, "most sexual crimes against children and adolescents are not investigated, and in some cases representatives of the judiciary are involved in those cases."