This week, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff signed into law new criminal penalties for the gender-motivated killing of women and girls, also known as femicide. The law defines femicide as “any homicide which includes domestic violence, and contempt or discrimination against women.” As reported by Reuters, the femicide rate in Brazil increased by 230 percent over a 30-year period between 1980 and 2010. In general, Latin America has some of the highest femicide rates in the world.
Compiled from: Moloney, Anastasia, Brazil passes femicide law to tackle rise in gender killings, Reuters (March 10, 2015); Adamczyk, Ed, Brazil combats violence against women with new law, UPI (March 11, 2015).