TAG: Brazil

Brazil’s pronunciation at the Nairobi Summit ICPD25

The world has undergone several changes in recent decades, such as declining population growth, aging populations, increased external and internal migratory movements, epidemiological transition, rising youth unemployment. At the same time, many challenges still remain, such as persistent hunger, poverty and socioeconomic inequality, inequality between women and men, violence against women and girls, high rates […]

Three Cards and a Joker: Bolsonaro and the Marielle Case

by Isabela Kalil The Context On October 29, 2019, Jornal Nacional (the main Brazilian television newspaper, broadcast by Rede Globo) reported that the name of Brazil’s current president, Jair Bolsonaro, appeared in the investigation into the murder of Councilwoman Marielle Franco (PSOL). Marielle was assassinated in a drive-by execution in the city of Rio […]

The Lancet HIV highlights threats the Brazilian response to the epidemic faces

Due to a historically progressive human-rights based approach to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, Brazil has globally been deemed an important standard-bearer of the HIV/AIDS response – however, given the growing influence of conservativism in the country, Brazil’s continued status as an HIV/AIDS leader remains uncertain. As HIV infections alarmingly increase in marginalized populations across the […]

Mapping of bills against “gender ideology” in Brazil’s Parliament

At present, 15 bills related to “gender ideology” are being processed in the Parliament. Eight of them were presented in the first half of 2019, three in 2018, two in 2016 and two in 2015. The bills presented in Congress in 2019 proposed the criminalization of those who promote”gender ideology”, especially in schools, proposing amendments […]

Sexual politics in May and June 2019

#StopTheBans – Thousands of demonstrators marched in more than 500 cities across the US on May, 21th to protect abortion rights after Alabama state house passed, on May 15th, the strictest provision in the country (see a compilation) – which bans abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with an exception only for when a woman’s health is at […]

Human Rights, Gender and Sexuality: A Minister Who Does Not Play Around

by Rajnia de Vito and Marco Aurélio Prado In a political scene that is thoroughly saturated with sex and gender tropes and memes, Damares Alves, head of the new Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights, is an icon and spokesperson for the new government’s sexual politics.[i] “Terribly Christian”, as she called herself on January […]

Lena Lavinas: “We’re watching a politics of dismantling”

Lena Lavinas is an economist and full professor at the Economics Institute of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. In 2017, she published the book Takeover of Social Policy by Financialization. The Brazilian paradox, (Palgrave Macmillan). Here, in a long conversation with Fábio Grotz, she analyzes the directions and effects of the Bolsonaro government’s […]

Understanding the dismantling of the AIDS response in Brazil

Rio de Janeiro, May 27th, 2019 Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA) After the justifications given by the Ministry of Health for the establishment of the new structure of the Department responsible for the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic – among the measures is the renaming of the former Department of Surveillance, Prevention and Control […]

Politics of Death: The End of Brazil’s Department of AIDS

Brazil’s national AIDS movement – comprised of networks, collectives, CSOs and activists signed below – repudiates Decree N. 9795 (read in Portuguese), released on May 20th, 2019, that establishes a new structure for the Ministry of Health. As a result, the former Department of STIs, Aids and Viral Hepatitis is now named the “Department of […]

Sexual politics in April 2019

Highlights Algeria and Sudan: A revived Arab Spring? – Almost six years after the Arab Spring waned under the shadows of the Sissi regime, political upheavals revived in the Arab World. In Algeria, after six weeks of persistent demonstrations, President Bouteflika, in power since 1999, was forced to withdraw from reelection and then to resign, leaving […]

Sexual politics in March 2019

The Christchurch attack In Christchurch, New Zealand, a solitary white male Australian sniper killed fifty people who were praying in two mosques. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was appraised for the compassionate but firm handling of the tragedy, in particular because the policy measures immediately proposed to ban semiautomatic weapons among other actions (read more). The […]

Sexual Politics in January and February 2019

#Hail International Women’s Day 2019: struggle, endurance, resistance! #Eyes on Brazil From an insider´s point of view, observing Brazilian politics after January 1st is like being caught in liquefier trying to make sense of the wind whirl turning one into pieces. SPW is planning a thorough assessment of the first 100 days of the new administration. For […]