President Jair Bolsonaro today (Dec. 20) signed a decree introducing the National Plan Against Femicide—PNEF in the original acronym. The plan, the Planalto presidential palace reported, seeks to integrate government efforts and policies from a number of sectors to tackle and prevent gender-based killings. The decree will be published tomorrow in Brazil’s Official Gazette.
The document strengthens national policies against all forms of femicide, introducing goals such as raising society’s awareness, increasing ways cases can be reported, improved data management, accountability, education, and the surveillance of offenders.
On the victims’ side, the plan aims to protect rights and foster full humanitarian assistance for women, with no disregard for their dignity. The measure is also meant to cover indirect victims and orphans.
The initiative combines a series of sectors within the Executive Branch (education, health care, social work, public security), as well as agents in the country’s court system, the legislative, and society. “By means of cooperation between different agencies and branches, we seek to guarantee the implementation of the full cycle of the public policy and the cooperation of efforts to tackle femicide,” a note from the presidential palace reads.
