Ipas > Ipas Brazil campaigns against sexual violence

Ipas Brazil campaigns against sexual violence

February 21, 2008

Ipas is leading a campaign in Brazil to alert women that they have a right to live free of violence.

In October, Brazil was rocked by the story of a 15-year-old girl who had been arrested for petty theft and imprisoned with 34 male prisoners for nearly a month. During that time she was repeatedly raped and tortured, incidents that were entirely ignored by the prison guards. The episode shined a light on the problem of sexual violence in Brazil, and opened dialogue around efforts to fight violence and ensure that women have access to treatment.

Sexual violence, which includes rape, sexual harassment, trafficking of persons, incest, forced marriage, forced sterilization, forced prostitution, forced abortion and forced pregnancy, has devastating consequences. Globally, one out of three women will experience gender-based violence at least once during her lifetime. Beyond the obvious physical and psychological effects, sexual violence has long-term consequences for women’s lives, including sexually transmitted infections (STIs), miscarriage, infertility, unwanted pregnancy and a perceived need to seek clandestine, often unsafe abortions.

In Brazil, where sexual violence is an especially pervasive problem, Ipas is leading a campaign to alert women that they have a right to live free of violence and that help is available. Launched on November 2006, it began with a 60-second television and radio advertisement called Silence, broadcast in Belém, the capital and largest city of the northern state of Pará with more than 2 million inhabitants. The inaugural theme of the campaign was “know your rights,” and it was launched in conjunction with a new sexual-violence hotline developed by the Brazilian Ministry of Women’s Affairs. These spots were broadcast in Pará by all major television networks.

In addition to the radio and TV spots, the campaign included posters and print materials featuring information on where to go for help in situations of sexual violence. It also highlighted the range of health services that women have a right to: emergency contraception, prophylaxis for HIV and STIs, and legal abortion. In the three months after the campaign, calls to the hotline were triple what they had been in the three months before. A second round of the campaign began in November 2007. This new effort built on the earlier campaign; however, instead of solely focusing on the rights of female victims of sexual violence, it also focuses on referring women to appropriate health services.

In Brazil, as in much of Latin America and the Caribbean, sexual violence is especially pervasive. One study set in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre found that by the eighth grade, one out of 20 students had directly witnessed an act of sexual violence, and that more than one out of four knew someone who had been a victim of sexual violence.

Two of the videos from the Brazilian campaign have been posted on YouTube and can be viewed here and here respectively.

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258