Brazil's Supreme Court Strengthens Protection for Women in Cases of Gender-Based Violence

The Supreme Court of Brazil has made a significant decision to strengthen protection for women in cases of gender-based violence. The court has expanded the scope of emergency protection measures for women victims of gender-based violence, allowing their application even when there is no domestic, family, or intimate relationship between the victim and the aggressor.

According to the court's decision, any judge who receives a request for protective measures must analyze whether there is an immediate risk to the victim's physical or psychological integrity, regardless of their jurisdiction, and then refer the case to the corresponding court. The court has also ratified that in situations of extreme urgency, agents and police delegates can grant protective measures.

The decision was made in response to a case in Minas Gerais, where a court denied protection to a woman who reported threats from a neighbor, considering that there was no affective relationship. The president of the STF, Luiz Edson Fachin, stated that "gender-based violence transcends the family sphere and occurs in community, professional, and institutional spaces."

The court's decision also extends protection to violence against female candidates during electoral processes, establishing that requests will be processed directly by the Electoral Justice.

This decision comes at a time of a crisis of macho violence in Brazil, which in 2025 recorded 1,571 feminicides, the highest number since records began, according to the Brazilian Forum for Public Security. In February, the three branches of government signed a national pact for "coordinated and permanent action" in the prevention and combat of violence against women.

In the first half of the year, in Brazil, almost 340,000 emergency protection measures were granted to women under the Maria da Penha Law, representing a 170% increase compared to the same period in 2020, according to official data.

The judge Carmen Lúcia, the only woman on the Supreme Court during the session, highlighted that violence against women continues to increase despite the existence of the law. She stated that the law needed to be updated because violence against women in the country is also a matter of power and many feminicides occur outside the woman's home and in situations that are reported to the police but ignored.

Carmen Lúcia denounced that "in real life, judges reject (accusations against men) without justification, saying it's not urgent, leaving it for next Monday. Meanwhile, one of us dies." She stated that, with this ruling, the Supreme Court "demonstrates that it is not blind or deaf to all this that occurs against all of us, women."

The deaths resulting from interventions by security forces in Brazil increased by 5.4% between 2024 and 2025, reaching a total of 6,602 victims, which means that 18 people died every day due to police actions.

On the other hand, the homicide rate in the country was 19.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2025, the lowest value since the beginning of the historical series in 2012 and far from the record registered in 2017, when it reached 31.2.

| Measure | Value | | --- | --- | | Number of feminicides in 2025 | 1,571 | | Increase in deaths resulting from security force interventions between 2024 and 2025 | 5.4% | | Total number of victims of security force interventions in 2025 | 6,602 | | Homicide rate in 2025 | 19.1 per 100,000 inhabitants | | Homicide rate in 2017 | 31.2 per 100,000 inhabitants |