The National Congress projected, early in the evening of this Wednesday (7), videos of the campaign for zero feminicide, launched today, a date that marks 18 years of existence of the Maria da Penha Law. 
The federal mobilization – by the Ministry of Women, in partnership with the Secretariat of Social Communication of the Presidency of the Republic – is part of Purple August, a month dedicated to raising awareness for the end of violence against women, which aims to give visibility to the issue and expand the dissemination of the rights of women in situations of violence, in addition to specialized services for reception, guidance and reporting.
The Minister of Women, Cida Gonçalves, said in the morning that everyone needs to join the action. “We need to ensure that not only institutions, not only the government, not only committed people and activists get involved, and that every citizen of this country can say they are outraged and do not accept violence against women, do not accept femicide. We need to have a people who get involved in fights between husbands and wives and do something about it.”
Biopharmacist Maria da Penha, who gives her name to the law, highlighted the consequences of preventable deaths of women. She was the target of two attempted femicides in 1983 by her husband Marco Antonio Heredia Viveros.
“I thought about the orphans who are victims of domestic violence. I myself would have left three children in orphanhood. I also thought about the mothers and fathers who saw their daughters murdered because they wanted to get out of a relationship, because they wanted to break the cycle of violence.”
Femicide
Since 2015, the Law No. 13,104/2015 typifies the crime of homicide and also includes femicide in the list of heinous crimes.
The legislation increased the sentence of the convicted aggressor by one third to one half if the crime is committed: during pregnancy or in the three months after childbirth; against a person under 14 years of age; over 60 years of age; against a person with a disability; and if it occurs in the presence of a descendant or ascendant of the victim.
Campaign
The campaign has started on the social networks from the Ministry of Women.
The dissemination strategy will also involve influencers such as actresses, athletes, ministers and parliamentarians who will publish videos on the topic of violence against women and in support of #FeminicidioZero.
Advertising pieces involve digital materials for social networks, as well as graphic materials such as stickers, folders and posters.
The public will be able to watch a 30-second film and three 15-second films that portray three different situations of violence against women.
The film promotes Ligue 180 – Women’s Support Center, a channel for help, information and registration of reports of violence by the victim, family members and witnesses.
According to the Ministry of Women, violence can begin silently, but feminicide can be prevented by supporting women, seeking information, reporting threats and physical aggression, even when the violence is not physical.
Other federal government ministries and public bodies will also join the campaign.
Violence
The 18th Brazilian Public Security Yearbook, organized by the Brazilian Public Security Forum, reports that 1,467 women died as victims of femicide in 2023. Assaults resulting from domestic violence increased by 9.8%, totaling 258,941 cases.
There was also an increase in attempted femicide (7.2%, reaching 2,797 victims) and attempted homicide against women (8,372 cases in total, an increase of 9.2%), in addition to records of threats (16.5%), stalking (34.5%), psychological violence (33.8%) and rape (6.5%).
Brazil also recorded one rape every six minutes last year. There were 83,988 victims and a rate of 41.4 per 100,000 women, an annual growth of 6.5%. Other crimes with rising rates are sexual harassment (48.7%), sexual harassment (28.5%) and disclosure of rape/sex/pornography scenes (47.8%).
“We cannot accept that every six hours a woman dies from femicide. Worse still, a preventable death. We cannot accept that this is a country where every three or four minutes a woman suffers sexual violence, especially children aged 0 to 13,” condemned the Minister of Women.
The National Articulation for Zero Feminicide, coordinated by the ministry, is planning an event in Brasília to sign a Manifesto for Zero Feminicide, in which each partner of the initiative commits to acting, such as football clubs and evangelical churches.
