Brazil

Law No. 14,541/2023 establishes the creation and uninterrupted operation of Women’s Police Stations (Delegacias Especializadas de Atendimento à Mulher – Deam) to provide specialized law enforcement services for women who are victims of violence. The law requires these stations to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including weekends and holidays. Assistance must be provided preferably by female police officers in private rooms.

Law No. 14,612, of July 3, 2023, amended the Statute of the Legal Profession (Law No. 8,906/1994) to include moral harassment, sexual harassment, and discrimination among the ethical-disciplinary violations within the scope of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB). With this reform, Article 34 of the statute was updated to explicitly prohibit these practices and to define their scope.

Law No. 14,857/2024 amended Law No. 11,340/2006 (Maria da Penha Law) to establish confidentiality of the victim’s name in cases involving crimes committed in the context of domestic and family violence against women. The measure strengthens protections for the victim’s privacy and dignity by ensuring that their identity remains confidential throughout judicial proceedings.

The applicant brought this case to the Inter-American Commission (“IACHR”), arguing that Brazil effectively condoned violence against women through ineffective judicial and prosecutorial action. The applicant’s husband shot her in the back while she was sleeping. She survived, but was paralyzed from the waist down. Her husband received a sentence of two years in prison after 19 years of trial.

Claim of Breach No. 31818 – Federal Supreme Court and Popular Action No. 1011189-79.2017.4.01.3400 – Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (2019)

Special Appeal No. 1,977,124 – Superior Court of Justice, Sixth Panel (2022)

On May 14, 2013, the National Justice Council issued a resolution stating that competent authorities are not allowed to refuse (a) to celebrate same-sex civil marriages nor (b) to convert same-sex common-law marriages (stable union) into civil marriages.  The National Justice Council is a public administrative body that aims to advance the work of the Brazilian judicial system.

An Afro-Brazilian woman suffered a high-risk pregnancy and was repeatedly denied timely care at public health facility, before dying of a digestive hemorrhage following delivery of her stillborn fetus. Her death is not an isolated case; Brazil's maternal mortality rates are disproportionately high for a country of its economic status and the chances of dying in pregnancy and childbirth are greatest among indigenous, low-income, and Afro-descendant women.