The Senate approved today (10) the bill establishing the August Lilac campaign, which aims to combat violence against women. The campaign, which will take place throughout the month of August, expects the government to promote actions to raise awareness of society about different forms of violence against women, with the inclusion of activities to prevent and combat this type of violence. The project goes to presidential sanction.
“It is with immense civic shame that we see that Brazil is still one of the countries with the highest rates of femicide and rape”, lamented the project’s rapporteur, Senator Nilda Gondim (MDB-PB), in her opinion.
“Violence against women is not a private matter. The pact of silence, connivance and blaming the victim maintain a certain invisibility about these crimes, which, unfortunately, are still, in the midst of the 21st century, acceptable and justifiable for part of our society,” she said.
Among the actions foreseen in the campaign are the support of the Union and states to activities organized and developed by society to prevent and combat violence against women. Society’s awareness of the prevention and confrontation of violence against women should also be stimulated by lighting public buildings in lilac.
The government should also promote debates and other events on public policies for comprehensive care for women in situations of violence, in addition to running media campaigns and providing information to the population on the different forms of violence against women and on prevention mechanisms. .
Data released by the Brazilian Public Security Forum, exposed in the Gondim report, show that, last year, a woman was a victim of femicide every 7 hours, on average. Reports of rape of women and girls reached 56,098 cases.
The approval of the project takes place on a day reserved for voting on projects aimed at women’s interests and rights. Today was chosen to commemorate the 16th anniversary of the Maria da Penha Law, completed on August 7th.
