t of 14 countries in Latin America. The study was released in April this year by the social organization Visão Mundial (World Vision), in São Paulo.
Types of violence considered included physical and psychological abuse, child labor, early marriage, online threats and sexual violence. In Brazil, 13 per cent of respondents believe there is a high risk of incidence of those practices against children in the country. Next in the ranking are Mexico, with 11 per cent, and Peru and Bolivia, with 10 per cent. The best perceptions were observed in Honduras and Costa Rica, with 2 per cent.
Gender violence
“The present Brazil faces insufficient funding for the implementation of effective laws and policies to tackle the violence against women”. That is the opinion of the program manager for ONU Women in Brazil, Joana Chagas, who attended the Regional Symposium on Gender Violence in April this year.
Supported by data from the Research on Socioeconomic Conditions and Domestic and Family Violence against Women, Joana pointed that gender inequality tends to worsen for women who suffered a previous episode of aggression.
In 2017, 27 per cent of Brazilian women in the Northeast, aged 15 to 49, had been victims of domestic violence. In the region, 17 per cent of women have already been physically assaulted at least once. From the 10,000 respondents, about 600 were attacked during pregnancy. In that group, 77 per cent of women were black.
Violence in rural areas
A rise in violence and murders of workers in clashes in the country
In June 2018, the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) published the data of its report. In a note the press, CPT reported a surge in the number of homicides in rural areas since 2015.
According to the document, there were at least 70 violent deaths last year, the highest amount since 2003. The Pastoral itself has suffered virtual attacks and they denounce the criminalization of social organizations.
According to the CPT study, since 2015 there has been an escalation in violent deaths of rural workers, indigenous peoples, quilombola peoples, landholders, anglers and settlers. The highest incidence of murders was observed in Pará — 21, 10 of which occurred in the so-called Massacre of Pau d’Arco on May 24 2017, during a repossession suit at a farm. Second and third places belong to Rondônia (17) and Bahia (10).
According to the report, 28 of the 70 murders (40 per cent) occurred in slaughters. Since 1985, there have been 46 massacres with a total of 220 victims. CPT keeps a web page on the matter:
Violence against LGBT individuals
The killing of LGBTs grew 30 per cent between 2016 and 2017.
According to a survey presented by the Gay Group of Bahia (GGB) in January this year, there was a rise of 30 per cent in homicides of LGBT people in comparison with 2017 — from 343 to 445 deaths. The survey informs that every 19 hours one LGBT person is killed or commits suicide because of “LGBTphobia”, which puts Brazil on the top of the ranking for that kind of crime.
The causes of death registered in 2017 continues the same trend of previous years, with predominance of fire arms (30.8 per cent), followed by thrusting and cutting weapons such as knives (25.2 per cent). According to international human rights agencies, Brazil kills more homosexuals than the 13 countries in the West and Africa where there is a death penalty for LGBT people.
Violence against human rights defenders
Brazil had more than one human rights defender killed every five days in the country in 2016 and in the first semester of 2017. The data was presented by the Brazilian Committee of Human Rights Defenders, which published the dossier “A Life of Struggle: criminalization and violence against human rights defenders in Brazil” in June 2017.
The dossier reveals that at least 66 human rights defenders were killed in Brazil in 2016. The North and Northeast regions concentrate most of the cases and conflicts about land are the main cause of death.
The document also points that urban centers present a “escalating, naturalized dynamics of brutal violence, which is diffused in a manner that hampers the comprehension of the attacks against human rights defenders”. The main agents behind those attacks are State agents — the police — and the militia funded by large corporations.
Police violence against protesters escalated in 2016, after the intensification in street demonstrations against the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and, later, against the new government established after the “implementation of a juridical-institutional coup”.
Violence against indigenous peoples
Violence against indigenous peoples has grown to alarming rates. According to data from the Missionary Indigenist Council (Cimi), in 2016 there were 735 deaths of children under the age of 5, 106 suicide cases and 118 murders of indigenous individuals in Brazil.
The government and the politicians in the rural caucus are identified as co-responsible for this rise in violence and pressure on territories occupied by traditional peoples.
According to analyses presented in the CIMI’s report Violence Against Indigenous Peoples in Brazil (data for 2016), there is evidence of an increase in some of the most significant types of violence and rights violations, such as infant mortality, suicide, murder, and omission and slowness in the regularization of traditional lands, compared to data for 2015, the previous year.
Religious intolerance
Religious intolerance is on the rise in Brazil. Acts of hate include the destruction of temples and attacks against followers of religions of African origin.
According to data from the Human Rights Secretariat, linked to the Ministry of Justice, there has been an annual escalation in the reporting of religious intolerance, and followers of religions of African origin are the main victims of hate crimes.
The Religious Intolerance Dossier, drafted by Koinonia — Ecumenical Presence and Service, introduces the MAP OF RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE IN BRAZIL (2008 to 2017).
The map compiles cases of religious intolerance in Brazil that were registered in the Religious Intolerance Dossier. See for more information:
Violence in Brazil is a complex behavioral phenomenon of aggressiveness that dates back to the historical bases of the country and affects all layers of society. We can no longer believe in the myth of a pacific Brazil. We are one of the most violent countries in the world and it is imperative that we discuss the violence and the social crisis, in the search for new paths.
Pad — International Articulation and Dialogue
By Kátia Visentainer — Communication