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Alternative Report of Brazil on the Implementation in Peru of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women
   

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PAPER OF THE BRAZILIAN WOMEN´S MOVEMENT REGARDING THE BRAZILIAN STATE’S COMPLIANCE WITH CEDAW: PROPOSALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (*)


I. Introduction

1. This paper is a contribution of the women’s movement in its effort to ensure full compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women — CEDAW — on the part of the Brazilian State. It was put together with substantial participation from women’s networks, national groupings, organizations and individuals. Its main purpose is to highlight the concerns and priorities related to the implementation of women’s human rights and the construction and consolidation of their citizenship, taking the experiences, perceptions and views of women’s movement activists as its starting point.

2. The following national groupings and networks took part in the process: AMB – Articulação de Mulheres Brasileiras (Concerted Action of Brazilian Women), Articulação de ONGs de Mulheres Negras Brasileiras (Network of Organizations of Black Brazilian Women), ANMTR – Articulação Nacional de Mulheres Trabalhadoras Rurais (Concerted Action of Brazilian Rural Women), CNMT/CUT – Comissão Nacional sobre a Mulher Trabalhadora da CUT (National Committee of Women Workers of the CUT trade union congress), MAMA – Movimento Articulado de Mulheres da Amazônia (Movement for the Articulation of the Womem of Amazônia), REDEFEM – Rede Brasileira de Estudos e Pesquisas Feministas (Brazilian Feminist Researchers Network), REDOR – Rede Feminista Norte e Nordeste de Estudos e Pesquisas sobre a Mulher e Relações de Gênero (Feminist Network of Women’s Studies Centers in the Brazilian North and Northeast Regions), Rede Feminista de Saúde – Rede Nacional Feminista de Saúde, Direitos Sexuais e Direitos Reprodutivos (Brazilian Feminist Network for Health and Reproductive Rigths), Rede Nacional de Parteiras Tradicionais (National Network of Traditional Midwives), Rede de Mulheres no Rádio (Women’s Radio Network), Secretaria Nacional da Mulher da CGT – Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores (National Women’s Secretariat of the CGT trade union congress), Secretaria Nacional da Mulher da Força Sindical (Secretariat for Equality and Politics for Women of Força Sindical trade union congress) and UBM – União Brasileira de Mulheres (Brazilian Women’s Union), as well as the co-conveners, AGENDE - Ações em Gênero Cidadania e Desenvolvimento (Agende - Action on Gender, Citizenship and Development) and CLADEM-Brasil - Seção brasileira do Comitê Latino Americano e do Caribe para a Defesa dos Direitos da Mulher (Brazilian section of the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defence of Women’s Rights).

3. This paper does not intend to make a critical analysis of the sixteen articles that spell out the duties of the parties to the Convention with regards to the elimination of discrimination against women. The intention is, with the inspiration of contemporary conceptions of human rights, to point out the themes which represent the biggest challenges to the full enjoyment of women’s human rights, those being: a) Universality of policies, diversity of women; b) Limits to women’s citizenship; c) Violence: the various aspects; d) Health: universality, integrity and equity. At the end, certain recommendations are presented to the Brazilian state, which seek to inform the CEDAW Committee’s analysis of and reaction to the official report. Such recommendations express a constructive effort in the light of a new political context and, especially, of the change in government that took place in January, 2003.

4. The Brazilian women’s movement has sought over the last four decades to bring about changes in behaviours, mentalities and social structures, while demanding wide-ranging and significant political change. The intense participation of Brazilian women in the Rio-92, Cairo, Beijing, Copenhagen and Durban international conferences attests not only to the legitimacy but also to the plurality of women’s voices. There is an ever-growing awareness of the need for legislative, legal and, especially, public policy measures that ensure access to fundamental human rights and to citizenship for all women.

5. As well as informing the CEDAW Committee, this paper intends to inform the new government and to seek a dialogue with it on improving federal programs and government actions related to poverty eradication, equity and justice. The inequalities of access — between sexes, racial/ethnic groups, classes and regions — must be eliminated with effective tools that promote the emancipation, autonomy and leading role of women, hence improving their self-esteem and dignity and enhancing their citizenship.

 

II. Methodology

6. The preparation of this alternative civil society report to be handed in to the CEDAW Committee received the input of the women’s movement as represented by thirteen Brazilian women’s networks and groupings convened by AGENDE and CLADEM-Brasil. Ever since 2001, AGENDE (Action on Gender, Citizenship and Development — the key Brazilian organization of the worldwide campaign ‘Women’s Rights Are Not Optional’ for the ratification and use of CEDAW and its Optional Protocol) and CLADEM-Brasil (the Brazilian section of the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defence of Women’s Rights) have been at pains to prepare the civil society report in truly democratic fashion.

7. The thirteen national networks and groupings involved in the process and the two convening organizations met in December, 2002. They decided that the process should involve the various segments of the women’s movement and agreed on joint strategies and methodologies, despite the brevity of the period until the report’s presentation1. At this meeting, a form was designed to act as a tool of consultation of the women’s and feminist movements. The results would be added into the civil society report. The form was based on the Brazilian government’s Official Report presented to civil society in October, 2002. The questions sought to identify distortions and omissions of the government’s report and point out the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of measures adopted in compliance with the fundamental rights specified in CEDAW.

8. The consultation process was carried out by means of coordinated actions involving the co-conveners and the thirteen networks and groupings. AGENDE sent out letters and forms by e-mail and post to some 1,500 women’s organizations throughout the country. Each of the thirteen networks and groupings took it upon itself to reinforce the visibility of the process before its affiliates in all of the country’s regions. As well as this, the forms were made widely available on the redefax fax network and on the electronic bulletins of participant organizations.

9. The replies sent by the various segments of the women’s movement, directly or through one of the thirteen organizations, were compiled by CLADEM-Brasil into a first version by a drafting committee. This was forwarded to the movement for further improvement. After this second round of consultations, the paper was analysed at another meeting with the Brazilian women’s networks and groupings held on 11 and 12 April, 2003. At this occasion, the paper was debated and improved, resulting in the final draft. The same drafting committee produced this draft and presented it to the thirteen organizations for final approval. Great care was taken with the transparency of all stages in the process, with the aim of guaranteeing a voice to and the full participation of Brazil’s women’s movement.

 

III. Principles

10. The implementation of women’s human rights, considering CEDAW’s protective parameters, requires the establishment of the guiding principles of contemporary human rights as the starting point. In the light of principles of universality, indivisibility and diversity, human rights are conceived within a historical perspective of building citizenship and equity and in a political context that requires the separation between Church and State.

11. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN in 1948 as a response to the barbarism of the Second World War —Holocaust, Hiroshima, Nagasaki — innovated the grammar of human rights by introducing the so-called contemporary conception of human rights based on the dignity of all people and on the universality and indivisibility of those rights. Universality because being a person is the only requirement for the enjoyment of the rights in question, with human dignity as their founding block. Indivisibility because for the first time civil and political rights were joined with economic, social and cultural rights. The 1948 Declaration combines the liberal and social discourse of citizenship, bringing together the value of freedom and the value of equality. Hence, there is no freedom without equality and no equality without freedom.

12. It is worth noting that the 1993 Vienna Declaration of Human Rights reiterates the conception of the 1948 Declaration when it states in paragraph 5: “All human rights are universal, interdependent and interrelated.” Hence, the 1993 Vienna Declaration, ratified by 171 states, endorses the universality and indivisibility of human rights.

13. Further, the Vienna Declaration states in paragraph 18 that women’s and girls’ human rights are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. This conception was reiterated in 1995 by the Platform of Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women. It is worth mentioning that there is no way to defend human rights without including the rights of half the world’s population.

14. It is important to remember the legacy of the UN Women’s Decade (1975-1985), which began with the Mexico World Women’s Conference, followed by Copenhagen in 1980 and culminating with the Third World Conference in Nairobi. CEDAW came about in this context, in 1979.

15. In relation to the historical construction of women’s rights, it is worth mentioning that the Vienna Conference of 1993 recognized violence against women as a human rights violation. In December, 1993, the UN adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women. In the following year, the Organization of American States adopted the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Violence Against Women (the ‘Belém do Pará Convention’). As well as the above international instruments, one should mention the 1994 Cairo Conference on Population and Development, which innovated by enshrining reproductive rights as human rights, the 1995 Copenhagen World Summit on Social Development and, in particular, the Fourth World Women’s Conference held in Beijing in 1995. In 2001, the UN adopted the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action at the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Their touchstone was the promotion of equality and racial diversity.

16. Diversity imposes itself as a pre-condition for achieving the universality and indivisibility of human rights. If the first phase of human rights was characterized by a general protection, both generic and abstract, and based on formal equality, during the second phase there emerge specific subjects of rights who come to be seen in their peculiarities and particularities. From this point of view, certain subjects of rights or certain violations of rights demand specific responses. We are moving away from the paradigm of the male, western, adult, white, property-owning and heterosexual to a visibility of new subjects of rights.

17. Side by side with the right to equality, there emerges the right to difference also as a fundamental right. This brings with it new subjects of rights and the recognition of identities. In this scenario, the gender perspective allows one to rethink, revisit and re-conceptualize human rights with gender relations as a starting point. In other words, what matters is perceiving how men and women live their human rights on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural level.

18. The two-dimensional character of justice is consolidating itself: justice as redistribution and as the recognition of identities. Hence the need for a kind of equality that recognizes difference and for a kind of difference that does not produce, feed or reproduce inequality. In this sense, this paper incorporates aspects of class, race, ethnicity and age into women’s human rights, considering their universality and indivisibility. Therefore, the principles of human dignity, equality, non-discrimination, diversity, universality and indivisibility condense this paper’s fundamental guiding values.

19. However, this significant advance in the fields of principles and norms has not led, in practice, to better and fairer living conditions for millions of Brazilian men and women.

20. It is worth pointing out that Brazil has the world’s fourth highest income concentration, behind only Sierra Leone, the Central African Republic and Swaziland. The average income of the 10% richest is 28 times greater than that of the 40% poorest2.

21. Social exclusion in Brazil is conditioned by the absence of the State; this is deliberate and derived from the ‘minimal State’ policy associated with structural adjustment. The State fails to provide adequate essential services, such as health, education, housing and sewerage. When it provides, it does not ensure their quality and proper implementation. Although the police is present in the most remote corners of the country, its actions are almost completely limited to discipline rather than the promotion of citizenship and other aspects of fundamental rights. The globalization of neo-liberalism has redefined the State and its ability to spend. This has compromised the full achievement of basic social rights, deepened poverty and inequality and, given the integrity of human rights, affected the full enjoyment not only of economic, social and cultural rights but of civil and political rights as well.

22. Inequality has grown systematically in Brazil. It is today much worse than in the first half of the 1980’s. There are regional variations, however, with the sharpest disparity to be found in the Northeast region, where 45% of the population live in poverty.

23. As well as regional disparities, one observes that gender, class, race, ethnicity, age and other factors cut right across the different levels of reproduction of inequality and social exclusion. Poverty and socio-economic inequality affect urban and rural women, afro-descendents and the indigenous population disproportionately.

24. However, it is worth highlighting the fact that, on a legal level, Brazil has made significant progress. It has ratified practically all the relevant international treaties and conventions. And the 1988 Constitution, considered a legal milestone in Brazil’s democratic transition and in the institutionalization of human rights, incorporated most of the women’s movement’s demands and, in particular enshrined women’s full equality with men.

25. What characterizes the Brazilian State’s non-compliance with its international commitments is the fragmentation and lack of continuity and coordination of public policies, worsened by women’s unequal access to them. This explains the estrangement between the protective parameters contained in international, constitutional and legislative measures relating to women’s human rights, and the reality of their violation. There is a chasm between the law and real life. The vast majority of women remain surrounded by walls of indifference, isolated by a set of cumulative circumstances that add to and help reproduce inequalities.

IV. Themes

i) Universality of policies, diversity of women

CEDAW articles 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14.

26 The universality and indivisibility of contemporary human rights and the diversity of subjects of rights must be considered when formulating public policies. (Article 1)

27 However, the voices and experiences of women from various regions of the country demonstrate that government programs and actions lack coordination, continuity, cohesion, accessibility and comprehensiveness. This is especially the case with regards to women who live away from the large urban centers. The policies do not reach women in their diversity, their specificities and peculiarities. Furthermore, there is a complete absence of an integrated and multidisciplinary policy that sees to women’s needs and tackles inequality. (Articles 1, 2 and 3)

28 If fundamental human rights are in existence on a legal level, the same cannot be said of their actual enjoyment. Government programs and actions designed to promote them do not reach all women equally. This is the case because women’s diversity, specificities and peculiarities are not catered for and the needs of certain segments of the female population (black women, indigenous women, forest women, young and elderly, hetero and homosexual, rural and urban or with special needs) are not seen to. (Articles 1, 2, 3 and 5a)

29 The paradox inherent in this statement is that by failing to consider women’s specificities, government programs and actions do not carry out their constitutional function, which is the promotion of equality through universal access. In the case of Brazil, a country deeply scarred by social exclusion, the promotion of equality requires recognition of the differences between each of these segments and specific programs and actions aimed at ensuring equity in access. (Articles 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5a)

30 Such policies, when they exist, are geared to women’s practical needs and do not transform their social position. They do not seek to incorporate women into the various power spheres or to recognize or treat them as autonomous political subjects capable of bringing about change. Even those policies whose main users are women or that define themselves methodologically as gender policies run into prejudices, resistance and difficulties in the acceptance of their logic on the part of government managers and officials. An example of this is the 30% women’s quota that political parties have to fill when fielding candidates for legislative posts. Conservative political practices have led this policy to have results of little significance. (Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5a and 7)

31 Discrimination can be found on different planes and aspects of public life. It is present in the way in which police officers treat women victims of violence, in the practices of teachers and educators that reproduce patriarchal ideology, in the demeaning images of women in the media, in commercial advertising, in the lyrics of songs, in the omission or sexist enforcement of laws on the part of legal authorities, in the preservation of mechanisms of exclusion of women by government officials, who bar women’s access to new technologies, knowledge and investments etc. In other words, there is no effort on the part of the Brazilian State to sensitize and train its technical staff for them to be able to implement policies aimed at transforming gender relations competently. (Articles 1, 2, 3, 5a and 7)

32 There has been a significant increase in the number of women in formal education, even surpassing men at high school level, for instance. But this has not led to a higher proportion of women professionals or to a reduction in discrimination against women in the labor market in terms of equal pay or of access to top jobs. Because it is based on sexist and patriarchal parameters, education has not been able to break loose from prejudice, hence failing to play its role as an agent of cultural transformation. (Articles 1, 2, 3, 5a, 10 and 11)

33 In the field of health, women’s access to quality services is unequal throughout their lives and, in particular, during pregnancy, birth and the puerperal period. Hence gender discrimination is added to by racial, generational and geographic factors. Data from the August, 2001 report of the Parliamentary Inquiry on Maternal Mortality and from the Maternal Mortality Dossier produced in 2000 by the National Feminist Health and Reproductive Rights Network indicate that black women, indigenous women and mixed-race women in the North, Northeast and Centre-West regions are at a greater risk of dying from preventable maternity-related illnesses than in other regions of the country. (Articles 1, 2, 3, 5a and 12)

34 Rural women have very limited access to family planning. In regions where the local hospital is not a public one, there is often the excuse that sterilizations cannot be done through SUS, the public health system. Rural women believe they should seek to ensure quality and humanized hospital care, both general and specifically geared to women’s health, full implementation of SUS in its various dimensions (prevention, protection and recovery), attention to the needs of the person as a whole (gynecological, ophthalmic, psychological, dental etc), a special health policy for women from birth and rural-awareness training for health professionals assigned to work in the countryside. (Articles 1, 2, 12 and 14b)

35 Among women with low income and schooling levels who reside in areas where access to urban goods and services is precarious, black women are twice as numerous as white women. The World Health Organization recommends six pre-natal medical checks and one during the puerperal period. Only 61% of black women had access to the former and 31% to the latter, whilst the figures for white women were 77% and 46%, respectively. And 7% of black women gave birth at home, more than three times as many as white women. (Articles 1, 2, 3, 5a, 10 and 12)

36 Social spending still falls far short of how much is necessary. According to INESC (Institute of Socio-Economic Studies), between 1995 and 1998, the resources budgeted for the environment, indigenous populations, land reform, agriculture, social security and the care of children and adolescents fell 15%, whilst actual spending fell 31%. The decrease was of 24% for the indigenous populations, 8% for the care of children and adolescents, 58% for agriculture and 3.5% for the environment3. The data demonstrate that these areas were not given priority during the period in question. (Articles 1, 2, 3 and 5a)

37 One also observes a lack of intra- and inter-governmental dialogue, which results in efforts that do not add to one another but get duplicated. There is no concern with the social control of public policies, which would involve the creation of mechanisms of evaluation, including technical and scientific indicators to monitor their quality and effectiveness. Furthermore, there is an almost complete absence of dialogue between State and civil society, particularly in the case of women, regarding public policy-making and implementation. (Articles 1, 2, 3, 5a and 7)

ii) Limits to women’s citizenship

CEDAW articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16 and 24.

38 Full citizenship includes political rights of participation, civil rights of self-determination, social rights of access to public services, economic rights and cultural rights. Therefore, being a citizen implies the full enjoyment of these rights. The exclusion or limitation of any of them weakens citizenship. (Articles 1, 2 and 3)

39 The exercise of full citizenship is a process that demands great effort, especially on the part of women, despite the great advances of the last few decades. Women have become half of the economically active population, half of the electorate and are spearheading the country’s rising educational standards. However, according to IPEA (Institute of Applied Economics Research), some 21% of the population have incomes that are insufficient to acquire the calories needed for survival and households headed by men are 20% less likely to be poor4. (Articles 1, 2, 3 and 13)

40 Public policies in Brazil have failed to ensure women’s access to their fundamental human rights either through insufficiency, lack of focus or the State’s total absence in the field. The unquestionable disparity in decision-making power and in access to social goods and public services between men and women becomes even starker when one adds the ‘racial/ethnic group’ variable. This flagrant inequality manifests itself as much in the private as in the public sphere. In the latter, difficulties in access to justice constitute a significant barrier to citizenship. An example of this is the social invisibility of gay couples who cohabit. There is no legal recognition of their sexuality. This forces them to fight for the enactment of a bill that creates the civil partnership between same-sex couples, which would grant them rights related to inheritance, insurance and alimony. (Articles 1, 2 and 7.)

41 Women’s growing participation in the labour market over the last four decades is a notable fact, and has remained steady despite the economic crises of the 1980’s and 1990’s, the intense process of restructuring undergone by Brazil’s productive economy and deep changes in the world of work. But social isolation still marks the lives of many women and those living on the periphery of major urban centres often find it difficult to obtain basic documents such as identification and working papers. (Articles 1, 2 and 14)

42 Most Brazilian women are unaware of their civil rights. Many still live with the fear instilled by past legislation on adultery, wedding annulments, loss of property or of custody of children in case of separation, among others. As a result, they often remain for a long time within male-dominated relationships, in the shadow of values such as the importance of marriage as a guarantee of social status. (Articles 5a, 5b and 24)

43 The distancing of women from public decisions is connected with daily lives. The cultural model that is still dominant in Brazil makes natural women’s permanence in traditional roles such as housework, care for the family and charity work. Their massive influx into the labour market has not freed them from such responsibilities. The insufficiency of government programs and actions, reinforced by the neo-liberal model, keeps women in a position of disadvantage in the public sphere. This limits their social mobility with equal rights and prevents them from breaking free from situations of violence and oppression. (Articles 5a, 5b, 7 and 11-2c)

44 The inexistence of programs geared towards changing cultural patterns in family life stands in the way of change. Public policy measures do not encourage the division of domestic work, the sharing of economic and emotional responsibilities in relation to the upbringing of children, the construction of new models of co-responsibility and solidarity between the sexes or the struggle against domestic violence. (Articles 1, 2, 5b and 16-1d)

45 In most Brazilian homes, women take on the entirety of domestic work. They have double and triple workloads and receive no State support. (Articles 5a and 11-2c)

46 Women’s domestic work and unpaid work on family farms remains invisible in national statistics and accounts. Government data-gathering tools do not register the time women spend on housework or reproductive work, making it difficult to give them a value that could be incorporated into the GDP. This total lack of concern with reproductive and domestic work, up until now done almost exclusively by women, reinforces the persistence of social, economic and cultural inequalities between women and men and reaffirms the State’s discrimination against women. (Articles 1, 2, 3, 5a and 14)

47 With reference to paid domestic work, women are at a stark disadvantage. According to PNAD/IBGE 2001, 93% of all domestic workers are female, corresponding to over 5 million Brazilian women5. It is the occupation of greatest female concentration in Brazil. However, men’s pay in this area of employment is higher, as is higher the percentage of male domestic workers who are formally employed: 42.4%, versus 25% for women. Brazilian labour legislation sidelines domestic workers, permitting 16-hour days, dangerous and unhealthy conditions and situations of near servility, as well as not enforcing article 7 of the Constitution. Domestic work is one of the economic sub-sectors with the lowest pay and least social prestige. In it, women and girls in situations of extreme social vulnerability (rural migrants, 10 to 16-year-olds, the under-educated and ethnically oppressed) are clearly over-represented. (Article 1, 2 and 11)

48 Legislation and welfare programs — advocated in international agreements as tools for reducing gender distances — still constitute local and regional exceptions. Historically, economic exclusion has affected women disproportionately. According to IPEA, in 1995, extreme poverty affected 27% of Brazilians (41.8 million people), 33% of women, 43% of the illiterate, 53% of the indigenous population, 38% of black people, 34% of the rural population, 44% of the North region's population and 43% of the Northeast region's population6. (Articles 3 and 4)

49 All over the world, education is an important component in workers’ pay differentials. Education affects the distribution of wealth and, consequently, of power. If there were no discrimination against women in Brazil, this vicious cycle would have already been broken because the average schooling of economically active women has been surpassing that of men in recent decades. (Articles 1, 2 and 11-1d)

50 However, the improvement in Brazilian women’s educational levels has not been uniform and this allows one to infer that racial and genders discrimination remains. Female illiteracy is still higher than male illiteracy; black women and female rural workers are three times more likely to be illiterate than white women7. Women have improved significantly their schooling and vocational education, sacrificed their personal lives and taken on heavier workloads but still fail to reach decision-making positions. It is possible to find women shop workers or industrial works who have finished high school or are in university and, even so, are at the bottom of their pay scales. (Articles 1, 2, 7, 10d e f and 11-1b)

51 Pay differentials between the sexes persist in Brazil. Women earn, on average, 64% of men’s pay. This compromises their role of family providers and their financial autonomy8. (Article 11d)

52 The Brazilian labour market is strongly segmented by occupation and perpetuates inequalities between workers. Men are concentrated in better-paying sectors (industry and production), whilst women carry out activities related to personal and social services, associated with lower pay9. (Article 11 - 1 a, b, c, d and e)

53 According to DIEESE (Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Socio-Economic Studies), 17% of economically active women do domestic work, while for men the figure is only 1%. In industry, where labour and social rights are more likely to be respected, the figures are 9% for women and 27% for men10. Therefore, women’s placement in the economy — in less dynamic sectors — results in lower pay. (Article 11–1c, e and 12-2)

54 The persistence of inequality is also related to urban/rural, regional and intra-regional pay differentials, and to racial/ethnic differentials in terms of access to education. Whether working in the formal sector, in the informal sector or in the reproductive economy, women have been forced to accept the more undervalued and less prestigious positions, which increases their vulnerability and poverty. This is particularly the case regarding black women, who, according to the Human Development Index, are at the bottom of the social pyramid with the lowest pay. (Articles 1, 2, 3, 5a, 10a and 10-1)

55 It is paradoxical that the growth in women’s participation in the labour market should not lead to discrimination being overcome. Most women work in the informal sector, where they do not enjoy labour or pension rights. Furthermore, 51% of the female economically active population, do not have a regular monthly income11. The State’s negligence with regard to the protection of women workers extends to those who do part-time, temporary, seasonal and unpaid work and, in particular, to those who do housework, family care work and unpaid work in family properties or businesses. Some of these activities are not even recognized, as in the case of midwives and health agents. (Articles 10 and 11– 1, 2)

56 As well as lower pay, women experience higher unemployment, lower rates of registered work and of social security contribution, lower union density and the resulting reduced bargaining power. They are also up against discrimination regarding hiring, pay (lower pay for the same work done by men), access to managerial posts and the right to breastfeed. (Articles 7, 11 – 1 c, d, e, f and 12-2)

57 Some of the women’s movement’s historic demands, such as childcare facilities and pre-school, have been neglected by the authorities and business leaders. The process of turning over basic schooling to the responsibility of municipalities, known as ‘municipalization’, has not brought with it sufficient resources for pre-school education. This has left poor and single-parent families completely out in the cold. Data from IPEA show that the few services that are provided tend to benefit middle-income families12. In this way, poor women continue to shoulder by themselves what should be a responsibility of the State: providing childcare. (Articles 2 f, 10 and 11- 2c)

58 Brazilian women’s participation in community life is intense. They are present in several types of organizations such as women’s groups, neighbourhood and community groups, religious organizations, professional bodies, trade unions etc. They take part in significant numbers in various people’s councils and rights councils such as education, health and welfare management councils and participative budget councils. However, this does not accord them decision-making powers. (Article 5a)

59 The predominance of the patriarchal model influences women’s self-confidence decisively, making it more difficult to affirm an equality agenda in these spaces of participative democracy. Women’s agendas remain relegated to the background due to their continuing inferior position vis-à-vis men, which keeps them on the margins of power structures, devoid of substantial influence in the processes of negotiation and discussion. (Article 5a)

60 Despite these obstacles, women’s participation in formal public life has been increasing, whether in the Legislative, Executive or Judiciary branch. However, women’s overall participation remains low. For instance, in April 2003, women made up 11.11% of the Federal Senate and 8.77% of the Chamber of Deputies, as the lower house of Congress is known in Brazil. The adoption of quotas has not in itself ensured support for female candidacies, which demonstrates the fragility of a mechanism that is not yet recognized by society as tool for cultural change. Political parties do not fund female candidacies affirmatively and the quotas are not respected. In the 2002 elections, not a single political party fielded the required 30% of women candidates. (Articles 4 and 7 a, b)

61 In the Executive branch, the number of women ministers or with ministerial status rose in the new government, though concentrated in social areas and without direct influence over economic and planning matters. Currently, women head five out of thirty ministries or special departments with ministerial status (16.67%). Women’s share of advisory or managerial posts in the Executive branch reaches 43.4%. However, their participation drops in the top two tiers, representing 22.2% of the DAS-5 posts and 18.2% of DAS-6 posts13. This also happens with top jobs in the Judiciary, despite legislation determining that all government departments and branches must increase the participation of women, Afro-descendents and people with disabilities. The limited participation of women in decision-making government jobs demonstrates yet again the State’s discrimination against women. (Articles 1, 2d, e, 4 and 7b)

62 The creation of SEDIM (National Women’s Rights Department) towards the end of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s term in 2002 was implemented with great limitations placed on its power, staffing and funding. The current re-organization of the department, which has gained ministerial status, involves a change in name to Special Department of Policies for Women, as well as an expansion in its staffing and funding. This increases the potential for coherent public policy measures that coordinate the work of various ministries and public bodies. (Article 7)

63 The possibility that CNDM (National Women’s Rights Council) will in the near future have a significant number of representatives from the feminist movement also suggests a strengthening of these mechanisms. Given that during the preparation of this report these bodies were still being set up and restructured, one can only infer their potential. (Article 7)

64 It is important to highlight the creation of the Special Department for the Promotion of Racial Equality, also with ministerial status. It should help, in terms of concrete action for black women’s full citizenship and against racism, prejudice and discrimination. (Article 7)

65 To break the barriers standing between women and the consolidation of their citizenship, the Brazilian State must formulate, implement, enforce, monitor and evaluate public policy measures that guarantee for all women equality of opportunities and of treatment, promote their emancipation and eliminate obstacles that thwart their ability to make autonomous decisions in the social, economic and cultural spheres. (Articles 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5a)

iii) Violence: the various aspects

CEDAW articles 1, 2, 5, 6, 11, 12, 14, 15 and 16.

66 Given that misogynist prejudice is a deep cultural trait in Brazilian society, discrimination and violence could not but be present in women’s daily lives. The violence perpetrated against the different segments of the Brazilian female population — black, indigenous, white, elderly, rural, girls, youngsters, lesbians, forest-dwellers, prisoners — is an example of this. Such violence reveals the existence of mechanisms used to legitimize the subjection of women to men. This subjection is characterized mainly by the use of power and force and by the State’s omission. (Articles 1, 2 and 5)

67 A research project titled ‘Brazilian Women in Public and Private Spaces’, carried out by the Perseu Abramo Foundation, heard 2,500 women in all of the country’s regions and found that almost one in five Brazilian women (19%) will declare spontaneously that she has been the victim of violence committed by a man. When stimulated by examples of different forms of violence, 43% answered in the affirmative. This demonstrates that violent relationships are an integral part of women’s day-to-day and that often they remain silent about it. According to the survey, over half the victims do not seek help and the most common forms of violence are armed threats to physical integrity (61%) and the least common are forcible sexual relations (33%)14. (Articles 1, 2, 5, 15 and 16)

68 Government programs aimed at preventing, punishing and eradicating violations of women’s human rights have turned out to be fragile mechanisms, whether due to insufficiency, lack of qualification and co-ordination, fragmentation or discontinuity — shy efforts in comparison with other public policy areas. With the establishment of the DEAMs (Specialized Police Stations for Women) during the 1980s as a watershed, such measures have run into stumbling blocks like the lack of training of public officials in detecting and dealing with the problem in its legal, medical and social aspects, hence doubling gender violence in the lives of Brazilian women. (Articles 1, 2, 5, 15 and 16)

69 The 339 existing DEAMs cover less than 10% of Brazil’s municipalities15. They tend to be located in the state capitals and the bigger towns of the South and Southeast regions16. As well as being few and far between, they lack preparedness, equipment and prestige within the police system. Many do not have firearms, telephones or cars. The so-called ‘shelter-houses’, supposedly aimed at accommodating victims whose lives are at risk and their children, number only 59 countrywide, far fewer than DEAM records suggest would be necessary17. These figures exemplify the lack of priority given by the authorities to the phenomenon of gender violence and the bureaucratically complex process of approving funding for shelter-houses. (Articles 1, 2, 5, 15 and 16)

70 The adoption of protocols and technical norms as part of the Federal Government’s effort to tackle the problem does not have repercussions at the state and municipal levels and even less in terms of changes in social relations18. Despite being insufficient, such efforts have meant that resources have been transferred. This, however, has not altered the rates or the seriousness of reported crimes, which are made more and more banal by their daily presence in news bulletins and newspapers. (Articles 1, 2, 15 and 16)

71 Brazil has no specific law against violence against women. However, law 9,099/95 aims to speed up victims’ access to justice and has created new procedures, especially in the criminal field, for ‘crimes of small offensive potential’. With the law’s enactment, many of the incidents of domestic violence against women reported at DEAMs started being tried at Jecrims (Special Criminal Courts). The fact that this law does not apply specifically to violence against women brings with it certain problems, especially with regards to the adequate punishment for domestic violence. The law does not prescribe prison sentences for aggressors. Instead, the idea is to re-educate them through alternative penalties. Serious distortions in the law’s enforcement have meant that offenders walk away, having paid fines or made food donations to charity, which serves only to make gender violence seem more banal. Further, there are very few Jecrims and many of them do not have multidisciplinary support teams, have limited opening hours and do not meet the demand generated by incidents of violence sustained by women in domestic and familial spaces. (Articles 1, 2, 5, 15 and 16)

72 One must also emphasize the lack of training on gender and human rights issues on the part of decision-makers at all levels, be they officials in charge of policies of prevention, punishment and elimination of violence against women, officials of the Judiciary (judges, public defenders, prosecutors, conciliators), civilian and military police officers, prison officers, health service and medical staff, social workers etc. (Articles 1, 2, 5, 15 and 16 — in particular article 5)

73 There are also few mechanisms and tools at hand for preventing and combating sexual violence. Support for the victims is also lacking. Despite the Ministry of Health’s technical norm for the prevention and treatment of harm resulting from sexual violence against women and adolescents of 1998, and its assurance of legal abortion in cases of pregnancy resulting from rape, there are fewer than thirty public legal abortion centres countrywide, most in state capitals and large towns. Even where they exist, their services are not publicized, educational campaigns encouraging women to seek them and public officials to refer women to them are not undertaken and the professionals working in them do not receive the necessary support. (Articles 1, 2, 5, 6, 15 and 16)

74 It is worth mentioning that sexual violence against indigenous women is commonplace in militarized border areas of the Amazon region, where impunity is rampant. (Articles 1, 2, 5, 6, 14, 15 and 16)

75 Moral and sexual harassment in the workplace is another perverse aspect of violence in gender and power relations, without effective institutional or social solutions in terms of punishment and prevention. Moral harassment — in general repeated, long-term humiliation — interferes with the lives of countless Brazilian female workers, compromising their identity, dignity, social and emotional relations and causing serious damage to their physical and mental health. These, in turn, may lead to an incapacity to work, unemployment or even death. The same applies to sexual harassment, which is still difficult to prove despite having been made into a crime in Brazil. (Articles 1, 2, 5, 6, 11, 14, 15 and 16)

76 The trafficking of women and girls for commercial sexual exploitation in all of the country’s regions is a growing phenomenon. Research conducted by the NGO CECRIA (Centre of Reference, Studies and Actions on Children and Adolescents) revealed the existence of some 241 trafficking routes for sexual exploitation in the country and abroad, including in other continents19. This is a problem that particularly affects women from the North and Northeast regions, where poverty is deeper. Black and indigenous girls, transformed into exotic and erotic commodities, are especially targeted by this brutal trade. (Articles 1, 2, 5, 6, 11, 14, 15 and 16)

77 The living conditions experienced by female prisoners (4.6% of the total prison population20) combine two forms of violation: a) Institutional – this is a part of everyday life for Brazil’s prison population and includes overcrowding, maltreatment, lack of work, lack of treatment for returning to society, lack of health care and lack of legal support, the latter often resulting in sentences not being reduced where the prisoner may be entitled to this; b) Gender – this involves the denial of female prisoners’ sexuality and reproductive rights, such as the absence of facilities for them to receive intimate visits from their spouses or partners, for them to carry through pregnancies or to keep their young children until they reach school age. (Articles 1 and 2)

78 The absence of the Brazilian State as a promoter of women’s rights and quality of life has contributed to women joining organized crime networks that have been growing daily in the major urban centres through the dealing of drugs and arms. Mothers and partners of the participants become entangled in the criminal networks as a means of obtaining an immediate source income for survival. They are pawns in a game they enter through lack of choice. Once inside, they become victims of sexual violence whatever their age and suffer abuse and humiliation in the turf wars, in the sex industry and at the hands of human trafficking syndicates. (Particularly articles 1, 2 and 6)

79 In general, the country lacks networks of inter-institutional services that act in coordinated fashion, ensuring that women victims/survivors of violence get integral, multidisciplinary and inter-sector care. Whatever the kind of violence perpetrated, good care will only be achieved when there are services that work as a network, with trained and sensitized staff. (Particularly articles 5 and 12)

80 The violence and discrimination inflicted upon Brazilian women by action or omission on the part of public and private sector agents and institutions, and the impunity with regards to the violation of women’s human rights constitute a perverse and generalized situation of institutional violence in the country. It perpetuates itself through the negligence, complicity and tolerance of the State in relation to gender inequalities. (Particularly articles 1 and 2)

iv) Health: universality, integrity and equity

CEDAW articles 12, 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15 and 16

81 The public health reform consolidated the principle of universality of access to health, enshrined in article 196 of the 1988 Federal Constitution. Despite this advance on the legal plane, the funding necessary for the full implementation of SUS (Single Health System) has been harmed by the neo-liberal economic model adopted by the Brazilian government. Health budgets have been re-routed and per capita spending on the public health system is among the lowest in the world. The state of the system means that it is far from seeing to the needs of the population, especially of women. It is necessary to ensure compliance with SUS’s principles: universality, equity, integrity and social control. (Article 12)

82 There are serious problems in making the three levels of care operational due to the precariousness of the existing structure and equipment, which fall far short of WHO guidelines. Poorly-equipped and understaffed services, especially in rural areas and on the fringes of metropolitan areas, cannot cope with the demands placed on them. Huge queues simply to book appointments, long waiting lists for treatment, inadequate hours for users’ needs and the carelessness of appointments all attest to this. (Articles 10h, 12 and 14 – 2b)

83 Although women are the main users of basic public health services, the programs fail to attend to their specific needs as defined by age, sexuality, their responsibilities and multiple roles, the demands on their time, their special needs as black, indigenous, rural, forest-dwelling or disabled women, as well as those determined by socio-economic and cultural differences. PAISM (Comprehensive Women’s Health Care Program), created in 1983 and adopted as a national directive since 1985, does not work satisfactorily in any of Brazil’s states due to the negligence and lack of sensitivity on the part of successive governments, which have failed to enforce its implementation at the state and municipal levels. (Articles 12, 1, 2, 3, and 14 – 2b)

84 The care for women’s health through SUS has been almost completely limited to during pregnancy and the puerperal period, and even then it has not been thorough. The prevention, detection and treatment of sexually-transmitted diseases, the bio-psycho-social consequences of unwanted pregnancies, abortion, access to contraception, assistance at the onset of menopause, support in cases of sexual or domestic violence, among others, have been relegated to the background. (Articles 12, 1 and 2)

85 Maternal mortality is a serious health problem that affects different Brazilian regions and ethnic groups unequally. The highest rate is to be found in the North region, followed by the Centre-West, the Northeast, the South and the Southeast regions. The phenomenon of under-reporting allows one to infer that the real rates reach devastating levels is the least-assisted areas. Maternal death rates indicate inequality both in the social sense and in terms of health care during pregnancy, birth and the puerperal period21. The setting up of the Maternal Death Study and Prevention Committees has been a slow process. Most such committees have not been able to investigate thoroughly and speedily the causes of death. It is not enough to create committees. They must have the material structure and human resources conducive to playing their role. (Articles 12 and 14 – 2b)

86 Despite the Ministry of Health’s figure of 91.5% of births taking place in hospitals, Brazilian women are still dying of preventable causes due to poor pre-natal care and incidents during birth. Directly obstetric causes account for 66% of deaths. These include hypertension syndromes, hemorrhages, puerperal infections and abortion-related complications. (Article 12)

87 The six pre-natal medical checks recommended by WHO were not carried out in the case of 62% of live births in the North, 61.2% in the Northeast, 46.1% in the South and 43.7% in the Southeast. This demonstrates the lack of simple care procedures during pregnancy, such as blood pressure follow-up, detection of illnesses such as hypertension specific to pregnancy (pre-eclampsia and eclampsia), diabetes and infections. The precarious nature of the care also makes it difficult to detect and treat HIV/AIDS, increasing the risks of mother-to-child transmission. (Article 12)

88 The North has few doctors and health units, as well as being a region where distances are huge and means of transport and communication are scarce. Three hospital ships provide itinerant care to 355 isolated areas of the Amazon region as part of the Emergency Ward and Hospital Care Program. According to the Navy Ministry, in 2001, three births, 314 ultra-sounds and one single gynecological examination were carried out, all in a single locality. This shows that, also with regards to the riverside populations, supply is not meeting demand. (Articles 12 and 14-2b)

89 Because of the deficiency in essential public services, midwives take on a significant role, by assisting pregnant women in their homes. Their work is respected and valued, and they often are the only reference point of the locality for pregnant women. This recognition is not underwritten by health managers, who do not regulate the practice of midwifery. Most midwives do not earn what the SUS table indicates for a home birth, work outside the public health service and have no access to the midwife’s kit’ distributed by the Ministry of Health. (Article 12)

90 Family planning is guaranteed by article 226, paragraph 7 of the Federal Constitution and by Law 9,263/96. The latter regulates its implementation through preventive and educational actions to ensure equal access to information, means, methods and techniques to regulate fertility. The existence of the law does not mean availability at municipal level, since the Ministry of Health distributes sufficient contraception to meet some 30% of presumed demand. On this issue, the main problems are financial constraints on the part of municipalities and a lack of sufficient doctors trained to work with some of the methods, such as the IUD. (Articles 12 and 10 h )

91 Brazil’s Family Planning Law violates article 12 of CEDAW on the question of sterilization and, as such, restricts sexual and reproductive rights. It limits sterilization to women who have two live children, who obtain their spouse’s consent and are over 25 years old. Furthermore, family planning programs are directed only at women. There are no awareness-raising programs promoting active fatherhood. This reduces the role and responsibility of men on issues of sexual and reproductive health. (Articles 12, 5b and 16 – 1d)

92 Abortion is a crime, unless there is risk of death for the pregnant woman or her pregnancy resulted from rape. In such cases, the public health system should perform the abortion. However, currently, only 46 such services exist countrywide, and the procedure is resisted by many health professionals. (Articles 12, 1 and 2)

93 The criminalization of abortion leads many women to seek clandestine services, which often result in health problems and even death. It is estimated that each year about a million women resort to illegal abortions, which constitute the fourth most common cause of maternal death and fifth most common cause of public hospital admissions (250,000). The number of 15 to 19 year–olds admitted for post–abortion curetages and treatment between 1993 and 1998 was over 50,000. (Articles 12, 1 and 2)

94 The 1998 dossier produced by the Feminist Health Network on unsafe abortion revealed several human rights violations in this field. Among them, were: curetages performed without anesthesia, negligent and prejudiced treatment, maltreatment in cases of induced miscarriages, lack of adequate counseling, gynecological tests carried out carelessly and without privacy, sexual abuse by health professionals and discrimination in cases of sexual violence. (Articles 12, 1, 2, and 5)

95 The decriminalization of abortion finds great resistance in conservative sectors of society linked to various churches. The feminist movement seeks a review of the legislation related to abortion, re-stating that it is a matter of health and human rights. (Articles 12, 2 b,f,g and 5a)

96 The pattern of HIV transmission has been changing significantly in Brazil. More and more new cases result from heterosexual intercourse and affect more and more women and young people. According to the Ministry of Health, over the last ten years, the number of women with AIDS rose 185 times, half of them infected within stable relationships. Although the number of cases among men is greater, the growth tendency among women has been accelerating. Women account for 41,052 out of 170,073 cases. This helps one understand the growing number of infants affected by the disease. (Articles 10 h and 12)

97 The ‘feminization’ of the epidemic affects women from vulnerable social groups disproportionately. The schooling level of infected women has been dropping over the years. If one considers schooling as an indicator of socio-economic status, then one may infer that there is a process of ‘empoverishment’ of women living with AIDS in Brazil. Although AIDS, like all STDs, affects people of all groups in the population, the vulnerable groups pay the heaviest price. In the case of black and indigenous women, the situation is almost certainly worsened by unfavourable socio-economic conditions and psychological disadvantages resulting from the discrimination and racism to which they are exposed. (Articles 12, 1, 2, and 10)

98 According to data from INCA (National Cancer Institute), cervical cancer killed 3,869 Brazilian women in 1999, making it the second deadliest form of cancer. The first was breast cancer, having caused 8,044 deaths in the same year. The institute also revealed that in 1998, 5.7 million women between the ages of 35 and 49 had never had a smear test done. National campaigns have sought to change this picture but these have not been accompanied by an improved public health structure to cope with the new demand generated. Prevention has not been instituted as a routine, nor has treatment been guaranteed in case of detection. (Articles 12)

99 Teenagers and young adults find it difficult to access the information, services and materials required for exercising their sexual and reproductive rights. This situation is borne out by the rates of HIV transmission and pregnancy in this age group, among others. (Articles 12, 1, 2, and 5a)

100 Despite the scarcity of data regarding reproductive health, some studies show that teenage pregnancy has been on the increase since 1993. According to DATASUS22, 24% of births within SUS in 1997, were of adolescents. The data also point to an inverse relation between schooling and incidence of pregnancy. (Articles 12, 1, 2, 5a and 10h)

101 There are no effective and accessible policies aimed at this public. These would include action within the health service, schools and communities, the latter being the space of everyday life where sexuality and reproduction find expression and where youngsters who are outside the school system can be reached. (Articles 12, 1, 2 and 10h)

102 The National Health Program for the Elderly is ineffective and its most visible action is the yearly influenza vaccination campaign. There are no trained professionals for ongoing care geared to issues such as menopause, osteoporosis, arthritis and heart disease, despite the fact that 85% of seniors have at least one chronic illness. Racial discrimination also manifests itself in the care for elderly women, for although women’s life expectancy has risen, it remains seven years lower for the black population. Further, black seniors have lower schooling and income levels. (Article 12)

103 A field named ‘Health of the Black Population’ has been under construction since the 1990s. It is based on the discovery of the prevalence of and different course taken by certain illnesses among black people. This is a theory-building process, combined with political action on the part anti-racist researchers and activists. The challenge is to sensitize governments and medical schools as to the relevance of the racial/ethnic variable in health care and research, as recommended by paragraph 111 of the Conference of the Americas Plan of Action (Santiago de Chile, December 2000) and by paragraphs 93 and 153 of the Durban Conference Plan of Action (South Africa, September 2001). (Articles 12, 1, 2, 3 and 5)

104 Considering that black women have the lowest income (85% of them are below the poverty line), one may deduce that they have least access to health services and are most harmed by the deficiencies of the system. SUS’s primary sources of information (administrative documents, medical reports and illness notification forms) in general do not inform the user’s racial/ethnic group and the national data on black women’s access are inferred from the social class to which they belong. It is known that 50% of low-income women do not have access to pre-natal care and are also affected by an excluding socio-economic reality. (Articles 12, and 2 f)

105 Sickle cell disease is the most prevalent genetic ailment among Brazil’s black population. Its incidence varies from 2% to 6% of the general population and from 6% to 10% of the black population. In 1996, the Ministry of Health launched the Sickle Cell Disease Program, but its implementation is slow and in few states and municipalities, depending as it does on the sensitivity of local governments. Despite its prevalence and complexity, requiring an ethical and therapeutic approach beyond early diagnosis, it is unknown to a large proportion of health professions. (Article 12)

106 It is estimated that the various programs geared to people with special needs meet only about 10% of demand, which excludes some 14.4 million people. The Federal Constitution and Law 8,742/93 assure the payment of a disability benefit (called ‘Benefício da Prestação Continuada’) to disabled people whose family income is below ¼ of the monthly minimum wage per capita (R$ 60 or approximately US$ 20). Given that this benefit is linked to household income, if it rises the benefit may be lost. This leaves millions of disabled people out in the cold and demonstrates the lack of impetus on the State’s part to ensure their autonomy and quality of life, as well as violating article 11– 1e of CEDAW. (Articles 12, 11 – 1e and 13a)

107 There are no actions aimed at the specific health demands of lesbians. Even in the case of inclusive programs like the STD/AIDS prevention program, lesbians are discriminated against due to the lack of professionals trained to understand their needs. (Articles 12, 1, 2 and 5)

108 Women workers are exposed to risks derived from the organization of work. Sexual, moral and psychological harassment, physical and mental fatigue can all damage a person's health. Women workers are more likely to be affected by osteo-muscular ailments related to work, given that the traditional sexual division of labour reserves for them repetitive jobs that demand greater manual dexterity and speed. (Articles 12 and 11-1c)

109 Domestic violence, a constant in women's lives, is another factor damaging their health, with consequences for their sexual and reproductive lives, STDs and abortions, as well as in the use of anti-depressants to cope with the routine of abuse. (Articles 12, 1, 2 and 5)

 

IV) Recommendations

1) To comply with international treaties and conventions through the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary branches of government at federal, state and municipal level, in particular with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Violence Against Women, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, International Labour Organization conventions 100, 111 and 156, as well as the agreements signed in the platforms and plans of action of UN world conferences, in particular the Fourth World Women’s Conference.

2) To ensure full and free enjoyment of women's human rights, in the light of international and constitutional parameters. To adopt all measures necessary to harmonize the domestic legal order, revoking discriminatory legal precepts and formulating normative, judicial and policy measures to ensure women's full equality and dignity.

3) To develop economic reforms and improve regulations, legal mechanisms and national policies to increase women's access to financial services and resources, including land, and to the right to education, information, property and technological resources.

i) Universality of policies, diversity of women

4) To incorporate a gender perspective and social analysis right across the planning, design, implementation and evaluation of public policies, with the creation of monitoring mechanisms that include technical-scientific indicators. For this to be possible, it is absolutely necessary to train and sensitize government managers and agents as to women’s issues to ensure equity and women’s inclusion through adequate methodologies.

5) To promote, through the educational system (with reformulated curricula and teacher-training) and the media, a culture of respect for diversity, based on universal human rights and solidarity, on the right to difference and equity, and on the fight against patriarchal domination, racism, xenophobia, sexism, prejudice and all forms of discrimination.

6) To call on the mass media to take on their social responsibility of transforming the collective imagination and cultural patterns with regards to their sexist, racist and homophobic aspects, implementing information and communication programs of wide-ranging social reach.

ii) Limits to women's citizenship

7) New cultural standards must be proposed and encouraged, by means of public policies in the social and political fields, as well as through the media, with the aim of building new social roles and values such as gender equality, shared domestic and familial responsibilities, solidarity with motherhood and non-discriminatory education based on equity and plurality.

8) Women's participation in decision-making processes must be stimulated and ensured. This includes training them to exercise a participative democracy based on equal opportunities and on respecting diversity and plurality.

9) The formulation of indicators that estimate the value of domestic and familial work for incorporation into the GDP. This would reveal the weight of this sort of work in the national economy and influence the distribution of resources for social programs.

10) Public planning should consider women in their specificities, in an effort to reduce rapidly the inequalities between women, considering class, regional, historical, cultural and racial/ethnic factors. The exclusion of indigenous, forest-dwelling, Northeastern, black and rural women is of special relevance here.

11) To encourage the mass media to project onto the collective imagination positive images regarding gender, race, ethnicity and sexuality, in line with chapter J of the Beijing Conference and chapter 4 of the Durban Conference.

iii) Violence: the various aspects

Challenging violence against women demands integrated actions in the fields of law and public policies, which in turn demand the following from the Brazilian State:

12) Specific national legislation on violence against women, especially in the domestic and family domain, which includes protective measures, legal procedures — civil and/or criminal — and administrative mechanisms to prevent, punish and eradicate such violence.

13) The formulation, implementation and monitoring of a national plan of action to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women with the commitment of the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary branches of government at federal, state and municipal level.

14) The inclusion in policies, plans and action programs, at all levels and in all spheres, of measures preventing and combating impunity with regards to gender violence practiced against the various segments of women — black, indigenous, white, old, young, lesbians, rural, forest-dwelling and prisoners — by public and private agents, with special attention to be paid to domestic and sexual violence, workplace sexual and moral harassment, human trafficking and any other form of institutional violence against women or girls under the care, guardianship, protection or custody of State or non-State agents or institutions.

15) Adequate funding for policies, plans and action programs that ensure the expansion and equipment of services dealing with violence against women — in particular, police stations and shelters —, as well as for training public sector managers and officials who work directly in such services, including judges, public defenders, prosecutors, conciliators, civilian and military police officers, prison officers, health and medical staff and social workers.

16) The establishment of networks of inter-institutional services that can co-ordinate governmental and non-governmental actions in areas such as public safety, justice, health, education, social work, housing etc, with the aim of ensuring integral, multi-disciplinary and inter-sector care for victim/survivors of violence against women.

iv) Health: universality, integrity and equity

17) To ensure for all women full access to integral and quality health care that meets their needs over their whole lifetimes and takes into account their differences, their age, ethnic and race-related needs and their multiple roles and responsibilities. More specifically:

a) To set up and expand reproductive health services for rural, indigenous and forest women, including prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and illnesses resulting from contact with toxic substances used in agriculture etc.

b) To set up culturally-specific itinerant health services for indigenous and forest women, to prevent and treat drug and alcohol dependency and breast, cervical and uterine cancer.

c) To set up health services that answer to the specific needs of lesbians, including prevention and treatment of STDs/AIDS and awareness training for care and counseling staff.

d) To set up and expand health services for women with disabilities, seeing to their needs and helping their inclusion.

e) To set up and expand health services for elderly women, including training for professionals on their specific health issues such as menopause, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease etc.

f) To set up and expand health services that respond to the specificities and needs of black women, in particular, the countrywide implementation of the Ministry of Health’s Sickle Cell Disease Program (PAF) of 1996. This must respect bio-ethical definitions and the free consent of patients for diagnosis and treatment, as well as ensuring automatic inclusion for family members in PAF.

g) To set up and expand health services for adolescents, including a comprehensive sexual and reproductive health program, free distribution of condoms and other forms of contraception and staff training to provide this service sensitively.

18) To expand and ensure access to quality contraception and conception services, making medication and other inputs freely available, especially emergency contraception in cases of rape.

19) To guarantee access for all women to comprehensive sexual health services, including prevention of HIV/AIDS and other STDs, and to expand diagnostic, counseling and treatment services for such illnesses.

20) To ensure quality pre- and post-natal healthcare in order to reduce maternal death and disease, preventing and treating the most frequent diseases like high blood pressure, chief cause of maternal death, especially among black women. To strengthen the existing Maternal Death Study and Prevention Committees and to promote the establishment of one in each Brazilian municipality. To encourage municipalities to adopt humanized birthing techniques.

21) To recognize the decriminalization and legalization of abortion as a citizenship right and a public health issue.

22) To raise health workers’ awareness of gender and racial/ethnic issues to ensure quality care, especially in cases of domestic violence, sexual abuse, racist attacks or any other form of violence.

 

VI. Team in Charge of Production:

  • AGENDE – Ações em Gênero Cidadania e Desenvolvimento (Agende - Action on Gender, Citizenship and Development)

  • CLADEM/Brasil – Comitê Latino Americano e do Caribe para a Defesa dos Direitos da Mulher(Brazilian section of the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defence of Women’s Rights).

  • AMB – Articulação de Mulheres Brasileiras (Concerted Action of Brazilian Women)

  • Articulação de ONGs de Mulheres Negras Brasileiras (Network of Organizations of Black Brazilian Women)

  • ANMTR – Articulação Nacional de Mulheres Trabalhadoras Rurais (Concerted Action of Brazilian Rural Women)

  • CNMT/CUT - Comissão Nacional Sobre a Mulher Trabalhadora da CUT (National Committee of Women Workers of the CUT trade union congress)

  • MAMA - Movimento Articulado de Mulheres da Amazônia (Movement for the Articulation of the Womem of Amazônia)

  • REDEFEM - Rede Brasileira de Estudos e Pesquisas Feministas ((Brazilian Feminist Researchers Network)

  • REDOR - Rede Feminista Norte e Nordeste de Estudos e Pesquisas sobre a Mulher e Relações de Gênero (Feminist Network of Women´s Studies Centers in the Brazilian North and Northeast Regions)

  • Rede Nacional de Parteiras Tradicionais (National Network of Traditional Midwives)

  • Rede Feminista de Saúde – Rede Nacional Feminista de Saúde, Direitos Sexuais e Direitos Reprodutivos (Brazilian Feminist Network for Health and Reproductive Rigths)

  • Rede de Mulheres no Rádio (Women’s Radio Network)

  • Secretaria Nacional da Mulher da CGT - Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores (National Women’s Secretariat of the CGT trade union congress)

  • Secretaria Nacional da Mulher da Força Sindical (Secretariat for Equality and Politics for Women of Força Sindical trade union congress)

  • UBM - União Brasileira de Mulheres (Brazilian Women’s Union)

Convening Organizations:

  • AGENDE – Ações em Gênero Cidadania e Desenvolvimento (Agende - Action on Gender, Citizenship and Development)

  • CLADEM/Brasil – Comitê Latino-Americano e do Caribe para a Defesa dos Direitos da Mulher (Brazilian section of the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defence of Women’s Rights).

Drafting Committee:

  • Flávia Piovesan

  • Silvia Pimentel

  • Télia Negrão

  • Marlene Libardoni

  • Dora Porto

VII. Special Contributions:

  • Advocacia Cidadã pelos Direitos Humanos e Ibase

  • Rede Dawn (Development Alternatives With Women For a New Era)

  • AMHOR - Articulação e Movimento Homossexual do Recife e Área Metropolitana

  • ANMTR – Articulação Nacional de Mulheres Trabalhadoras Rurais

  • Associação Alagoana Pró-mulher

  • Associação Brasileira das Mulheres de Carreira Jurídica

  • Associação de Mulheres Trabalhadoras Rurais e Urbanas do Município de Santa Luzia

  • BPWI – Federação Internacional das Associações de Mulheres de Negócios e Profissionais do Brasil

  • Central Autônoma dos Trabalhadores

  • CEDENPA - Centro de Estudos e Defesa do Negro do Pará

  • Coletivo Feminino Plural

  • Comissão Estadual de Combate a Discriminação Racial da CUT do Rio Grande do Sul

  • Comissão Sobre a Mulher Trabalhadora da CUT do Rio Grande o Sul

  • CNMT/CUT - Comissão Nacional sobre a Mulher Trabalhadora da CUT

  • COIMI - Comitê Inter-Tribal de Mulheres Indígenas em Alagoas

  • CFESS - Conselho Federal de Serviço Social

  • Conselho Municipal da Mulher de Macaíba

  • Conselho Municipal da Mulher de Uberlândia

  • ECOS – Comunicação e Sexualidade

  • Força Sindical Rondônia

  • Fórum de Entidades Autônomas de Mulheres de Alagoas

  • Fundação Carlos Chagas

  • Grupo Autônomo de Mulheres de Pelotas

  • Grupo Curumim - Gestação e Parto

  • Grupo de Mulheres da Ilha

  • Instituto Nacional de Combate à Desigualdade Social

  • Instituto PAPAI

  • MAMA - Movimento Articulado de Mulheres da Amazônia

  • Movimento de Mulheres Trabalhadoras Urbanas da região das Missões

  • Organização de Mulheres Negras Maria do Egito

  • SACI - Sociedade Afrosergipana de Estados e Cidadania

  • Rede de Gênero e Geração de Ouro Preto

  • Rede de Mulheres do Rádio

  • Rede Feminista de Saúde – Rede Nacional Feminista de Saúde, Direitos Sexuais e Direitos Reprodutivos

  • Rede Nacional de Parteiras Tradicionais

  • Secretaria Municipal do Bem-Estar Social de Marília

  • Casa Abrigo “Mamãe Canguru” de Marília

  • THEMIS – Assessoria Jurídica e Estudos de Gênero/ SIM - Serviço de Informação a Mulher (regionais: Restinga, Canoas, Cruzeiro, Leste, Norte, e Navegantes)

  • Sindicato dos Trabalhadores em Empresas de Telecomunicações do Estado de São Paulo.

  • SINTE/RN – Sindicato dos Trabalhadores em Educação Pública do Rio Grande do Norte

  • UBM - União Brasileira de Mulheres

  • Núcleo de Gênero, Raça e Etnia da Faculdade de Serviço Social da PUC

  • CDDMIP - Comissão de Defesa dos Direitos da Mulher Indígena Potyguara

  • Lena Lavinas

 

ANNEX

Annex 1 - FORM

PROCESS OF PREPARING THE CIVIL SOCIETY REPORT TO CEDA