Portuguese Português (WORD)

Background and objectives

At the invitation of the Government of Brazil, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Ms. Reem Alsalem, will conduct an official country visit to Brazil, which has been scheduled from 23 May to 1 June 2022.

Country visits are undertaken following an invitation by the Government and are prepared and conducted in close cooperation with the State concerned, in a spirit of cooperation and dialogue. The objective of the country visit is for the Special Rapporteur to gain first-hand understanding of issues related to her mandate, in particular in measures taken to prevent, combat and eliminate violence against women and girls, and to provide redress for victims. Following a country visit, the Special Rapporteur presents a report with her findings, conclusions and recommendations to the State concerned at the Human Rights Council session. The conclusions and recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur are a useful tool for States to improve measures to prevent and eliminate violence against women.

The Special Rapporteur will start her visit in Brasília. She also intends to travel to other states. During her visit, as part of gathering information from all relevant stakeholders, she intends to convene meetings with a number of stakeholders, including State representatives, as well as various non-governmental and civil society organizations and associations, the private sector at the national and local level, including community-based groups and individuals, as well as with relevant international organizations such as the UN entities and international NGOs.

At the end of her mission on 1 June 2022, the Special Rapporteur will debrief the Government officials on her preliminary findings. In line with established practice, she will also hold a press conference at the end of her visit in order to share the preliminary findings with the broader public. Additional information on the time and the venue of the press conference will be shared in the coming weeks.

In preparation of the mission, the Special Rapporteur seeks relevant information from multiple stakeholders.

Key questions and types of input sought

In preparation of the visit, the Special Rapporteur invites all interested individuals and organizations, including civil society organizations, activists, and academics, to provide input for the preparation of her visit. She would welcome information on issues related to violence against women and girls, including its different manifestations; groups of women and girls particularly vulnerable to violence; and policies to prevent and combat violence against women.

While all submissions are welcome and the topics below are not meant to be exhaustive, the Special Rapporteur is particularly interested in receiving information on the following:

• Legal, institutional and policy frameworks related to violence against women and girls;
• Efforts to prevent femicide, including protection measures and data collection strategies;
• Violence against afro-descendent women and girls;
• Violence against indigenous women and girls;
• Violence against women of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity or expression;
• Violence against refugees and migrants, including sexual exploitation and trafficking of women and girls;
• Violence against women and girls that may be nationals of Brazil, stateless, refugees, asylum seekers and migrants;
• Climate change, environmental degradation and gender-based violence against women and girls;
• Gender stereotyping and biases in judicial processes, including in sexual violence and child custody cases;
• Women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights;
• Coordination of essential services, including shelters, one stop service centres; protection orders and other integrated services for victims of gender-based violence against women;
• Capacity of the different institutions to prevent, detect, monitor and respond to situations of violence against women, including capacity building initiatives.