MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union
MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union
MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union
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THEME 4<br />
BOX 13 INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE AND GUN CONTROL IN BRAZIL:<br />
EXAMPLES OF PARLIAMENTARIANS CONNECTING THE DOTS<br />
Guns play a significant role in intimate partner and family violence in Brazil.<br />
It is estimated that every 15 seconds, a woman suffers violence in the home.<br />
The 2003 study by the Perseu Abramo Foundation indicates that 2.1 million<br />
Brazilian women suffer from domestic violence (beatings, spankings, physical<br />
torture, rape) each year. The presence of a gun in the home heightens<br />
the probability of a lethal outcome. This is particularly troubling as Brazil<br />
has some 17 million guns in circulation.<br />
Brazil is the only country in Latin America that does not have specific<br />
legislation to deal with this problem. Under current legislation, such violence<br />
is considered a misdemeanor, tried in small claims courts together<br />
with traffic disputes, rather than as a human rights violation. Ninety percent<br />
of the cases end in “conciliation,” rather than prosecution, with the<br />
offender paying a very small fine as the only “punitive” measure.<br />
Following the adoption of the Disarmament Statute in 2003, any police<br />
officer convicted of violence against women will have their gun license<br />
suspended, and the offender’s superiors are responsible for ensuring they<br />
cannot carry out armed functions for the duration of the suspension. Unfortunately,<br />
the general prohibition on the carrying of guns by the civilian<br />
population does not fully protect women from gun violence in the home,<br />
as restricting licenses to carry guns only impedes people from taking guns<br />
into the street.<br />
In 2002, a group of women’s rights organisations came together to propose<br />
Brazil’s first legislation on domestic violence against women. A provision<br />
has been incorporated in the proposed domestic violence legislation to<br />
better protect women from guns, supported by the lobbying efforts of NGOs<br />
and parliamentarians across the country. Whilst previous attempts to include<br />
spousal consent in the 2003 gun laws failed, an opportunity to close that<br />
legal loophole was presented in the context of the domestic legislation.<br />
Gaps however remain to be closed: the legislation uses the term ‘carry’ but<br />
not ‘own’ (in Portuguese, the terms are quite close: porte and posse, respectively).<br />
Thus, as it stands, the legislation restricts convicted abusers’ rights<br />
to carry a gun but not to own one.<br />
4. Building gender-aware programmes<br />
“There is a need to pay greater attention to the needs of our women<br />
and children, who have been the most affected by gun violence. At<br />
the same time, equal if not more attention needs to be paid to young<br />
men who in most cases are often both the victims and perpetrators of<br />
violence through the use of small arms. There is need in this connection<br />
to pursue the strengthening of national and regional programmes<br />
that address youth crime.”<br />
—Jamaican statement at the UN Review Conference, 26 June 2006<br />
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