Thais Leitão
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Rio - The implementation of the law dealing specifically with violence against women will liquidate one of Brazil's outstanding debts vis-à-vis the international community, according to Nilcéia Freire, minister of the special presidential secretariat for Women's Policies.

"This is an innovative law, because it combines all the measures necessary for us gradually to fulfill the commitments assumed by the Brazilian State in the international conventions it endorsed."

The bill, which was submitted by the Executive to the National Congress, was passed by the Senate on Tuesday (4) and is awaiting the signature of president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The law makes aggressors liable to harsher sentences and establishes mechanisms to curb domestic and family violence against women.

Brazil is a signatory of the United Nations (UN) convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (1979) and the Belém, Pará, convention (1994), which is aimed at punishing and erradicating violence against women in the sphere of the Organization of American States (OAS).

The minister participated today (7) in the seminar, Legal Guideline in Confronting Violence against Women, sponsored by the Public Defender's Office of the state of Rio de Janeiro in conjunction with the non-governmental organization, Advocaci.

Translation: David Silberstein