Lula praises Janja while announcing measures to combat femicide and warns: "we will indeed intervene in fights between husband and wife"

247 - President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva highlighted this Wednesday (4) the leading role of the first lady, Rosângela Lula da Silva, Janja, in promoting debates and measures to combat femicide. 

The government of President Lula, the National Congress, and the Judiciary jointly launched the Brazil Pact to Combat Femicide in Brasília, DF. The initiative foresees coordinated and permanent action among the three branches of government with the goal of preventing violence against girls and women in Brazil. The agreement recognizes that violence against women in the country constitutes a structural crisis that cannot be addressed by isolated actions, according to the... Agency Brazil.

At the event, President Lula thanked Janja for alerting him to the seriousness of violence against women in Brazil. He stated that the issue needs to be addressed as a "factory gate" matter, to be discussed in the daily lives of workers, and not just in marches. According to Lula, the main objective of the new agreement signed between the Three Branches of Government is to raise awareness among men from preschool to university.

"Every act of violence is a femicide foretold," Lula stated in his speech. "We will indeed intervene in fights between husbands and wives," the president warned. Here is the full text of President Lula's speech read at the event: 

My friends,

Every day, four women are victims of femicide in Brazil.

This means that every six hours a woman is murdered simply for being a woman.

This means that, from the time we left home today until this moment, a woman's life has been violently cut short.

Just because she's a woman.

A dear friend, a colleague, a neighbor who faced a double workday to feed her children. A woman, a girl, a teenager.

According to a survey conducted by the Senate, 27% of Brazilian women reported having suffered some type of domestic or family violence in 2025.

At this very moment, as we sign this Pact, a woman is being assaulted.

With slaps, punches, kicks, suffocation, blows, hair pulling, kicks and insults.

Dragged by cars, wounded on the asphalt, disfigured under the witness of elevator cameras.

So many Tainaras, Fernandas, Catarinas, Ritas, Marias, Alanes, Laíses...

Women prevented from living their lives, simply because they are women.

To say no to a relationship.

To exercise their right to decide about their own lives, and to reconfigure paths that no longer serve them.

Femicide is challenging the structures of prevention and combat, and it is growing at an alarming rate in the country.

It is unacceptable that women continue to be beaten and murdered every day under the gaze of a society that sins through inaction.

Those who remain silent in the face of everyday scenes of abuse and violence.

It needs to be made perfectly clear: any sign of mistreatment on the street, shouting in the neighborhood, abuse and intolerance in the workplace. Every act of violence is a femicide waiting to happen.

We cannot remain silent. We can no longer ignore it, pretending that we have nothing to do with it, that we shouldn't interfere in a fight between husband and wife.

Because we are and will continue to get involved, yes.

My friends,

The Pact we signed today must extend beyond the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches.

Fighting femicide, and all forms of violence against women, must be the responsibility of the entire society.

But mainly, and especially, from men.

It's not enough to not be an aggressor. It's also necessary to fight so that there are no more aggressions.

Every man in this country has a mission to fulfill.

Talking with friends, cousins, uncles, neighbors, work colleagues, drinking buddies, and soccer partners.

We cannot remain silent.

As a public authority, we will improve the instruments for protection, prevention, and support.

As men, let's dismantle, brick by brick, this sexist culture that shames us all.

It is necessary to punish aggressors in an exemplary manner. But it is also necessary to educate the boys, to raise awareness among young people and adults.

To make them understand the seriousness of the crime they commit. And that nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies any form of violence against girls and women – in real life or in the digital world.

My friends,

We know that the domestic environment is the setting for many of these acts of violence.

Most women who are victims of femicide die at the hands of current or former husbands and ex-boyfriends.

But also through the hands of strangers who cross their path on the streets.

To men who refuse to be led by women. To them, it is necessary to say loud and clear:

Women are increasingly gaining leadership positions in the job market.

And they will achieve even more, through justice and merit.

Because a woman's place is wherever she wants to be.

It is unacceptable that while we strengthen protective measures, such as the Maria da Penha Law and the Femicide Law, men continue to assault and murder women.

There was a time when defending one's honor was a justification for violence against women.

Jealousy is no longer a valid excuse.

It should never have served.

But it remains one of the main arguments used by the murderers in their own defense.

Meanwhile, some digital networks are teaching male children and teenagers to hate women.

Digital platforms can no longer be used by criminals who lure girls, commit all sorts of abuses against them, and induce them to self-harm and often suicide.

It is up to each man to transform this reality.

Turn this game around.

We need to make women feel protected, free, and safe.

Whether online, at home, on the streets, at work, anywhere, anytime.

Dressed in whatever makes her happiest. In the company of whomever she wants.

The safety of girls and women is a necessary condition for our evolution as a society and for the full exercise of democracy.

Often, weary of so much barbarity, we come to think that the fight is lost. That our enemies are the majority. That evil has won.

Is not true.

We are many. And we were made for love, not for hate. For joy, not for fear. For embraces, not for violence.

Together, we are capable of building a more humanist, fraternal, and affectionate world.

Let's get to work.

Thank you.