Summary:
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One woman per seven hours will die as a result of femicide between 2016 and 2021, according to reports.
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In the Amazonas state, more than one in every five cases of intentional killing of women by another person was femicidal.
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The UNFPA-led workshops looked into different kinds of violence and explained how to connect with regional social support networks and the right legal protection procedures.
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These include the Maria da Penha Law, which changed Brazil’s criminal code in 2006 to allow aggressors to be held if the risk of them doing an act of violence against a woman or girl was judged to be a threat to someone’s life.
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The sessions are designed to teach women from indigenous communities how to share knowledge that could save their friends, family, and peers’ lives.
In Parque das Tribos, an indigenous neighborhood in Manaus, Brazil, which is the state capital of Amazonas, violence against women is common.
The sole female chief of the 4,500-person Parque das Tribos, Lutana Ribeiro, is of the Kokama ethnic group and says, “As a leader, I have encountered many things.” Women knock on my door, pleading for help.
Because there aren’t many people living in Amazonas and it’s hard to get there by air, road, or sea, it’s hard for the state to get public services like those that help with sexual and reproductive health and stop gender-based violence.
In a UNFPA workshop, indigenous Brazilian women spoke about gender violence.
Significant rise in femicide
Every minute in 2021, at least one Brazilian called the national police emergency line to report domestic abuse. One woman per seven hours will die as a result of femicide between 2016 and 2021, according to reports. Femicide is the intentional killing of a woman for at least part of the reason she is a woman.
In the Amazonas State, more than one in every five cases of intentional killing of women by another person was femicidal.
Ms. Ribeiro recently led seminars for women who have experienced gender-based violence. Fifty local women took part. Her community highly recognizes her as a steadfast supporter of human rights. Few people talked on the first day. Most of them have spoken today.
The UNFPA-led workshops looked into different kinds of violence and explained how to connect with regional social support networks and the proper legal protection procedures.
These include the Maria da Penha Law, which changed Brazil’s criminal code in 2006 to allow aggressors to be held if the risk of them doing an act of violence against a woman or girl was judged to be a threat to someone’s life.
Children’s artwork depicts indigenous Brazilian women attending UNFPA programs.
A place where women feel comfortable
From the second day of the program, the ladies were eager to share their experiences with the UNFPA team, according to Ms. Ribeiro. “Many women felt stronger after the first lecture.” The following day, people had had enough of violence. Due to the women’s increased power, these guys will no longer treat them however they choose.
The sessions are designed to teach women from indigenous communities how to share knowledge that could save their friends’, families’, and peers’ lives.
Children also participated in extracurricular activities so that their mothers could go. According to Ms. Ribeiro, “The project was crucial for us to develop stronger and have this support through debate and experience.”
The director of the UNFPA office in Manaus, Débora Rodrigues, said that the workshops gave women a safe place to talk about the different kinds of violence that affect them every day and about ways to deal with it, such as making sure that everyone in the Parque das Tribos community has access to services that protect their rights and keep them safe.
With money from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the UNFPA is working in the Brazilian states of Roraima and Amazonas to improve the community’s ability to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls.
In 2022, the initiative helped more than 36,000 women and girls by giving them better access to resources like shelters and safe spaces for survivors and workshops where both men and boys took part.
Ms. Ribeiro says that the people who went to the workshop in Parque das Tribos felt more robust and more united, and they said, “We indigenous people are not afraid.”
