Violence against women: more than half of the states did not provide data

Eighteen states and the Federal District (DF) did not provide data on violence against women, in breach of the Access to Information Law (LAI). Among them, Acre, Paraíba and Santa Catarina completely denied access to their state indicators. Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás and DF did not respond to requests to send the indicators. The mapping is part of a partnership between the Observatório da Mulher contra a Violência of the Federal Senate, the social company Gênero e Número and the Avon Institute. Requests for security data to the states and the Federal District were forwarded by Gênero e Número in mid-2022. In response, Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro , Paraná, and Rio Grande do Sul submitted insufficient information. Only the states of Roraima, Amapá, Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia, Ceará, São Paulo and Espírito Santo sent complete data as requested. “As we are from the Senate, we have been doing a job of looking for senators from those states who still haven’t sent [os dados] to request this reinforcement from the state security secretaries, to see if we can get this data and continue the project”, said the coordinator of the Women’s Observatory in the Federal Senate, Maria Teresa Prado, in an interview with Agência Brasil. The Agência Brasil report contacted the states that did not submit the requested information to hear their positions, but until the publication of this content did not receive a response. Survey The partnership arose from the need to unify, organize, analyze and monitor national public statistics on violence against women. The first path of the research was to use the LAI to ask the federative units for data on public safety, especially on occurrence records and feminicides, and also on calls to the Military Police. The project started from the understanding that, for the research, it was necessary to map the data by the members of the partnership and, thus, guarantee “the transparency and availability of bases on violence against women in different sectors: health, public security, justice , between others”. The intention was to ensure compliance with the law, which guarantees equal access to data to all citizens. “We want to work on the quality of these general data on violence against women so that they can be improved. It is in this line that we want to work with this partnership”, pointed out the coordinator of the Women’s Observatory in the Federal Senate. According to the coordinator of Projects, Research and Impact of the Avon Institute, Beatriz Accioly, through this information it will be possible to understand the Brazilian scenario in relation to violence against women: “The project is to create this repository [de dados] who will be staying in [uma extensão] .gov, that is, it will have an official platform linked to the Federal Senate.” Beatriz adds that this data consolidation has already occurred with DataSUS in relation to women’s health. However, public safety information still does not have an easily accessible platform, she said. Standardization According to the coordinator of the Women’s Observatory, the idea is to work on raising awareness about the importance of this survey. “We know that there are several impediments, from the person who fills out the form, the fact that it has a single form. There are several issues to be addressed and [é importante que] this is resolved so that we have a database”, says Maria Teresa, adding that in addition to being often incomplete, the data are organized differently in each state. According to the researchers, the work would be more It would be easier if the federation units and the Federal District had a standardization. Maria Teresa recalled that, in 2021, the law was approved that created the National Policy on Data and Information Related to Violence against Women (PNAINFO), but it still needs regulation to put it into practice. “What is shocking is to see that the femicide data are high, but to think that there is a very large underreporting. If it were real, it would be much higher”, completed Maria Teresa. Public policies The coordinator of the The observatory hopes that, with the measures announced by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to guarantee more security and women’s rights, research will evolve with greater availability of data that will make favor the elaboration of public policies. “I really hope so. Just the fact of having the Women’s Ministry and having the announced actions that permeate all the ministries. Placing the issue of women as a transversal issue to the ministries, I think it was very important. Now it’s up to us to collect everything that was there. Everything indicates that the theme will be prioritized”, said Maria Teresa. In Beatriz Accioly’s view, data is an instrument to enable analyses, diagnoses, direct resources and make decisions. “That’s why it should be used, even if it doesn’t have the quality you’re looking for. We have to work on two fronts: seek quality, transparency, but also use what we have as much as possible to guide public policies”, she pointed out.

Agência Brasil