The Senate approved today (8) several projects for the benefit of women. Most of the voting agenda was dedicated to guaranteeing economic and social rights for women and they were all voted on this Tuesday in honor of International Women’s Day.
Among others approved today, the proposals guarantee priority in the care of women victims of domestic violence; they increase the penalty for crimes against honor committed against women and create the typification of institutional violence crime, aimed at public agents who act to intimidate or omit themselves in the face of intimidation of a woman.
All these projects still need to be analyzed in the Chamber of Deputies.
projects
PL 3.048/2021 increases by one third the penalty for crimes against honor committed against women. The bill amends the Penal Code and increases the penalties for crimes against honor (slander, defamation and slander). According to the project’s rapporteur, Senator Zenaide Maia (Pros-RN), the project highlights the so-called “moral violence”. This type of violence, according to the Maria da Penha Law, means “any conduct that constitutes slander, defamation or injury”.
Project 3.717/2021, on the other hand, creates the Law of the Rights of the Solo Mother. The project conceptualizes a “solo mother” as a woman providing a single parent family registered in the Cadastro Único para Programas Sociais (CadÚnico) with a per capita family income of less than half a minimum wage and dependents up to 14 years of age.
The law proposed by the PL provides for social assistance actions. Among them, the receipt of a double quota on any assistance benefit intended for families with children and adolescents. In addition, the text establishes the priority of the single mother in public policies of labor intermediation and professional qualification. There is also a forecast of priority for the children of a single mother in filling vacancies in the public early childhood education school.
PL 5.091/2020, also approved today, creates the classification of institutional violence as a crime. This crime would be characterized by the practice of public agents in the performance of their function and who, by commissive or omissive acts, intimidate the victim directly and also when the public agent allows a third party to intimidate him. The text was amended by the Senate rapporteur, Rose de Freitas (MDB-ES), and returned to the Chamber, House of origin.
The project was inspired by the case of the digital influencer Mariana Ferrer. The young woman accused a businessman of rape but, during the trial, Mariana was exposed to suffering and humiliation. In the end, the accused ended up acquitted in a trial that, by its content and outcome, became investigation target of the National Council of Justice.
Another approved project was the Senate Bill (PLS) 47/2012. This project, which will still be analyzed by the Chamber, grants priority assistance to women in situations of domestic and family violence. According to the text, women in this profile should receive priority treatment in organs and institutions that are part of the protection network, such as police and health care.
Senators also approved PL 3.342/2020, which creates a special credit line for women entrepreneurs in the area of beauty, aesthetics, cosmetics, clothing, trade in women’s articles, food, among others, who act as an individual. The funding limit is up to BRL 20,000 and the contracting must take place while the Public Health Emergency of National Importance (ESPIN), declared as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, and for a period of up to two years after the end of the health emergency.
Finally, the senators approved PL 2,889/2021, which imposes a fine on health plans that refuse, without justification, the offer of scientifically accepted methods and techniques of conception and contraception. The project aims to clarify the limits of a 1996 rule, which requires the prior authorization of the spouse to perform voluntary surgical sterilization procedures, such as vasectomy and tubal ligation.
According to the author of the project, Senator Nilda Gondim, the press reported that health plan operators have not authorized the insertion of intrauterine devices (IUDs), an option that is exclusively up to women, based on this rule, which refers to definitive sterilization, and not contraception.
Outside the women’s agenda, the Senate also approved this Tuesday a bill of conversion arising from the Provisional Measure (MP) 1.072/2021. This article proposes a new formula for charging the inspection fee for securities markets regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM). The text goes to presidential sanction.
