As the Maria da Penha Law turns 20, it raises important questions: are we confronting violence, or merely punishing it after it occurs? And does protection reach all women equally?

One of the world’s most advanced laws was not enough to prevent 1,571 women from becoming victims of femicide in Brazil in 2025. Of these victims, 65.1% were Black women.

Enacted on 7 August 2006, the law transformed how Brazil understands domestic violence. What had previously been treated as a private matter or a minor offence came to be recognised as a human rights violation.

Considered a regional landmark by UN Women, the law was groundbreaking precisely because it went beyond punishment. It recognised five forms of violence: physical, psychological, sexual, financial and moral. It also established emergency protective measures and a network for prevention, support and accountability.

Last week, Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) broadened this protection. In a unanimous decision, it ruled that protective measures must also apply to gender-based violence occurring outside domestic, family or intimate relationships, including harassment, stalking and kidnapping.

The ruling arose from the case of a woman who had been threatened by a neighbour. She was denied protection because there was no intimate relationship between them. From now on, the determining factor will be whether the violence is gender-based, not the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator.

This is an essential step forward. Yet there remains a gap between the law’s scope and its implementation.

According to the 2026 Brazilian Public Security Yearbook, femicides increased by 4% in 2025. Of these crimes, 62.5% occurred inside the victim’s home and, in 60.9% of cases, the perpetrator was an intimate partner. Violations of protective measures rose by 16.7% across every Brazilian state and the Federal District. Reports of stalking increased by 30.1%, while psychological violence rose by 16.9%.

Violence does not affect all women in the same way. Race, income, location, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and economic dependence all shape the level of risk, access to justice and the possibility of breaking the cycle of violence.

In 2025, the courts granted more than 621,000 protective measures. They are indispensable, but a court order alone cannot guarantee safety. Authorities must monitor compliance, assess risks, coordinate the work of the police, courts, healthcare and social services, and provide access to income, housing and shelter.

Harsher criminal penalties alone will not stop violence fuelled by historical inequalities, violent models of masculinity and the normalisation of control over women.

We need to talk about education. School-based programmes, reflection groups for men who have committed violence and initiatives developed by the Maria da Penha Institute show that prevention is also a form of enforcing the law.

A law can put an end to impunity. To put an end to violence, we must transform the conditions that allow it to continue.

Learn more: https://portal.stf.jus.br/jurisprudenciaRepercussao/verAndamentoProcesso.asp?classeProcesso=ARE&incidente=7171450&numeroProcesso=1537713&numeroTema=1412