Lead Researchers: Cecilia Sardenberg , Silvia de Aquino
Researchers: Marcia Gomes , Marcia Tavares , Candida Ribeiro Santos
This project investigated women's struggles and pathways for the implementation and monitoring of public policies addressing violence against women in Brazil. The project was launched with the creation of the Maria da Penha Law Observatory Consortium, under the national coordination of NEIM. The Observatory monitors the implementation of the Maria da Penha Law in all 27 Brazilian states.
This article looks at the issue of domestic violence from the perspective of African experience, and examines the impact of attempts to address it by legal means. It poses three questions: 1) what are the similarities and differences in the experiences of African countries that have attempted to pass domestic-violence legislation; 2) what lessons have been learned in the process; and 3) how do attempts to pass such laws connect to the lived realities of ordinary women? …
This article by Cecilia Sardenberg focuses on the case of Eliza Samudio who was brutally murdered and it is believed her body was dismembered, although it has never been found. The perpetrator of the crime is believed to have been a famous footballer. This was a particularly shocking crime, but what is also shocking is the numerous other women who have also suffered this level of brutality but whose stories don't reach the press because their cases don't have the same high profile nature which the famous footballer provided. Cecilia discusses how this case demonstrates how violence against women in Brazil is still sadly trivialised. …
This report focuses on the application of the Maria Da Penha Law within the legal framework and structures put in place in Brazil, such as the Special Women's Police Stations (DEAMS) and the federal and district level domestic violence family courts, following the law's implementation in 2006. …
This is a preliminary report of research on domestic violence and women’s access to justice in Brazil conducted under the coordination of NEIM - the Nucleus of Interdisciplinary Women’s Studies of the Federal University of Bahia, in partnership with OBSERVE-the Observatory for Monitoring the Application of Maria da Penha Law, and the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment Research Program Consortium. The study is intended to provide subsidies as a country case study to UNIFEM’s Progress of the World’s Women and Access to Justice Report. It focuses primarily on specialized police stations for women in Brazil as a means of access to justice for women in situations of domestic violence. …
This is the preliminary research report from the Maria Da Penha Law Observatory which monitors the implementation and application of the Maria Da Penha on violence against women in Brazil. …
This paper presented to the 'Pathways: What are we Learning?' Conference held in Cairo from 20-24 January 2009, aims at identifying and analysing pathways/conditions/possibilities of women’s empowerment related to the application of Maria da Penha Law (Law no. 11. 340/2006), the first Brazilian federal law to combat domestic violence against women. Maria da Penha Law rises from thirty years of struggles led by Brazilian women and feminist movements. …
Domestic violence against women has gained worldwide attention as a form of discrimination as well as a violation of women’s human rights. An estimated one in three women in the world is affected, independent of their social standing and cultural background. In many countries around the world, laws are now in place making domestic violence against women a crime. Yet implementation often lags behind legal reforms. …