Femicide and the new National Investigation Protocol

Published on June 23, 2020, in Official Gazette of the Union, Ordinance 340 of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security creates the new “National Protocol for Investigation and Expert Analysis in Femicide Crimes”. 

Without disclosing the content of this Protocol, the Ordinance establishes that it aims to "support and contribute to the standardization and uniformity of procedures applied by the civil police and official criminal investigation agencies of the States and the Federal District in the investigation of femicide crimes." The remainder is confidential and its knowledge will be restricted to the Civil Police and criminal investigation agencies. 

Beyond its blatant opacity, the Ordinance violates constitutional mandates by failing to comply with commitments internationally assumed and ratified by our country. As a signatory to a set of regional instruments – which includes the Belém do Pará Convention – Brazil should pay particular attention to the recommendation of the Conference of States Parties to this Convention and the Ibero-American Association of Public Prosecutors (AIAMP) for adherence to the “Latin American Model Protocol for the investigation of violent deaths of women for reasons of gender (femicide/feminicide)”. 

This highly relevant document, the Protocol from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), was significantly anticipated for its competence in instructing criminal justice systems, providing guidance to forensic experts, and ensuring public safety in general. 

It proposes to effectively adjust the investigative approach to gender-specific issues. It minimizes institutional violence by preventing the revictimization of direct victims of attempted femicide and indirect victims of this same crime (whether consummated or not), and by guaranteeing them full reparation.

Thus, among the objectives is to promote "correct criminal classification and judicial decisions free from stereotypes and gender biases that sustain impunity, create obstacles to access to justice, and limit preventive actions in cases of violence against women." 

Perhaps the Ministry of Justice is unaware, but Brazil has in fact adhered to this Protocol since April 2016, implementing it in the "National Guidelines for investigating, prosecuting and judging violent deaths of women with a gender perspective". 

Is it naive to think there was a lack of knowledge? Or should we assume that the Ordinance has the hidden purpose of indirectly revoking these Guidelines? Furthermore, wouldn't new "secret" guidelines violate transparency and the democratic process of participation, debate, and listening to feminist and social movements? 

With the adoption of yet another authoritarian, somber, and murky measure, the Bolsonaro government aims to end public policies focused on the full exercise of female citizenship and the guarantee of women's human rights. Genocide in times of COVID-19 and state-sanctioned femicide are two sides of the same coin: pandemics that have race, class, and gender dimensions.