Brazil’s Lula signs anti-femicide pact at women’s march

Brasilia, Aug 16 (EFE).- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed here Wednesday a national pact against femicides, part of a packet of measures to support low-income women in rural areas.

The center-left president announced those measures at the closing ceremony of the Marcha das Margaridas, a mass rally held once every four years.

In a speech to the tens of thousands of female participants, Lula said he is an ally in their struggle and urged them to keep fighting for their rights.

“We won’t tolerate more discrimination, more misogyny and more gender violence. We can’t accept so many women dead in their own homes. It’s impossible to believe it’s normal for a woman to earn less than a man in the same position. Women aren’t and cannot be treated as second-class citizens,” the president said.

During the ceremony, Lula signed a series of executive orders in support of women, including a national anti-femicide pact.

The plan encompasses actions that include the delivery of 270 mobile units to provide direct assistance and guidance to female victims of gender-related violence.

Lula also announced other measures aimed at improving income levels of campesino families and combating violence in rural areas.

They include relaunching an agrarian reform program that had been suspended during the four-year tenure of Lula’s predecessor, rightist Jair Bolsonaro.

Specifically, he announced the creation of eight new rural settlements, the granting of property to 5,711 landless campesino families and the regularization of the situation of 40,000 other families who lacked titles to the land they were occupying.

He also created a new national body that will coordinate the efforts of institutions that combat violence against human rights and environmental defenders in rural areas.

The Marcha das Margaridas has been held once every four years since 2003 in memory of Margarida Maria Alves, a peasant union leader who fought for workers’ and women’s rights and became a symbol of the struggle for agrarian reform and women’s rights after she was slain by a masked gunman at her home in 1983. EFE

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