MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union

THEME 4
BOX 13 INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE AND GUN CONTROL IN BRAZIL:
EXAMPLES OF PARLIAMENTARIANS CONNECTING THE DOTS
Guns play a significant role in intimate partner and family violence in Brazil.
It is estimated that every 15 seconds, a woman suffers violence in the home.
The 2003 study by the Perseu Abramo Foundation indicates that 2.1 million
Brazilian women suffer from domestic violence (beatings, spankings, physical
torture, rape) each year. The presence of a gun in the home heightens
the probability of a lethal outcome. This is particularly troubling as Brazil
has some 17 million guns in circulation.
Brazil is the only country in Latin America that does not have specific
legislation to deal with this problem. Under current legislation, such violence
is considered a misdemeanor, tried in small claims courts together
with traffic disputes, rather than as a human rights violation. Ninety percent
of the cases end in “conciliation,” rather than prosecution, with the
offender paying a very small fine as the only “punitive” measure.
Following the adoption of the Disarmament Statute in 2003, any police
officer convicted of violence against women will have their gun license
suspended, and the offender’s superiors are responsible for ensuring they
cannot carry out armed functions for the duration of the suspension. Unfortunately,
the general prohibition on the carrying of guns by the civilian
population does not fully protect women from gun violence in the home,
as restricting licenses to carry guns only impedes people from taking guns
into the street.
In 2002, a group of women’s rights organisations came together to propose
Brazil’s first legislation on domestic violence against women. A provision
has been incorporated in the proposed domestic violence legislation to
better protect women from guns, supported by the lobbying efforts of NGOs
and parliamentarians across the country. Whilst previous attempts to include
spousal consent in the 2003 gun laws failed, an opportunity to close that
legal loophole was presented in the context of the domestic legislation.
Gaps however remain to be closed: the legislation uses the term ‘carry’ but
not ‘own’ (in Portuguese, the terms are quite close: porte and posse, respectively).
Thus, as it stands, the legislation restricts convicted abusers’ rights
to carry a gun but not to own one.
4. Building gender-aware programmes
“There is a need to pay greater attention to the needs of our women
and children, who have been the most affected by gun violence. At
the same time, equal if not more attention needs to be paid to young
men who in most cases are often both the victims and perpetrators of
violence through the use of small arms. There is need in this connection
to pursue the strengthening of national and regional programmes
that address youth crime.”
—Jamaican statement at the UN Review Conference, 26 June 2006
87