Development of an Information System on the Maria Da Penha Law (Law No. 11,340/2006) (BR0081)

to develop a system for collecting and storing standardized information on the public policies related to the Maria da Penha Law.

Commitment 5.2. Development of an Information System on the Maria da Penha Law (Law No. 11,340/2006)

Commitment Text: To develop a system for collecting and storing standardized information on the public policies related to the Maria da Penha Law.

Responsible institution: Secretariat for Women’s Policies

Supporting institution: None

Start date: Not specified                          End date: 14 December 2014

Commitment aim

The Maria da Penha Law, approved in 2006, planned to create a unified information system for data on domestic and family violence against women. The commitment proposed to create the system, standardise national data, compare different government branches and states, and enable civil society to monitor the government’s policies on women.

Status

Midterm: Substantial

The Secretariat for Women’s Policies adapted the Dial 180 tool to feed into a national information system. This transformed a passive system that offered information on violence against women into an active channel to register complaints. One example was the launch of the “Women, Living without Violence” program, which used the Dial 180 system to route complaints to public security authorities while copying the public prosecutor’s office in each state. To be completed, the system needs to increase its capacity to collect and standardise information. At the midterm review, the government had begun preparing for this increased capacity by hiring additional tele-operators, expanding contracts for more phone lines to cover free calls, and restructuring the system of assistance for women who have suffered violence.

End of term: Substantial

The government held inter-ministerial meetings to prepare a draft of the national information system. Several government bodies, such as the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada, IPEA) and the Civil House, worked on defining the indicators and variables to be included in the data system. However, there was no concrete additional progress on the system since the midterm evaluation. In addition, the Secretariat for Women’s Policies, which was responsible for implementing this commitment, was integrated into the Ministry of Justice and Citizenship in 2016. According to an information request by Article 19, there is currently no agency assigned to the implementation of this commitment, which means it is not possible to identify an expected date of completion.^{[Note 123: Bárbara Paes, “How is Open Government Related to Violence Against Women in Brazil?” 8 March 2017, http://bit.ly/2nxM2ph.]}

Did it open government?

Access to information: Marginal

Civic participation: Did not change

The commitment resulted in an important (yet partial) process for managing and disclosing data on violence against women. Although the information system promised in the commitment text was not completed by the end of the action plan, the government did improve the Dial 180 tool to collect and disclose information about violence against women. During the action plan, the government promoted the 180 dial-in system through a public awareness campaign to encourage women to dial in and provide information. In addition, the government increased the number of tele-operators from 90 to 300, and established a mechanism for incidents to be routed directly to law enforcement agencies.^{[Note 124: Portal Brasil, “Ligue 180 dá salto no apoio ás mulheres e bate recorde de atendimentos,” 8 March 2016, http://bit.ly/2nIlcdP.]} These improvements led to a surge in usage of the system. In 2016, the service received more than a million calls (over 3,000 per day), 51% more than the previous record reached in 2015,^{[Note 125: Rafael Gregorio, “’180’ teve recorde de denúncias em 2016; negras são maioria entre vítimas,” Folha de São Paulo, 8 March 2017, http://bit.ly/2oO9PTt.]} which was already 54% more than the number of calls received in 2014.^{[Note 126: Agência Brasil, “Relatos de violência sexual aumentaram 129% em 2015 no Ligue 180,” 8 March 2016, http://bit.ly/2oJPSQt.]} According to government data publicised by the national press, 12% of all calls mentioned violence against women, and reports of violence alone increased 129% from 2014 to 2015,^{[Note 127: Ibid.]} and 83% from 2015 to 2016.^{[Note 128: Rafael Gregorio, “’180’ teve recorde de denúncias em 2016; negras são maioria entre vítimas,” Folha de São Paulo, 8 March 2017, http://bit.ly/2oO9PTt.]} Experts agree that the increase in the number of calls is a result of greater dissemination of the Dial 180 system.^{[Note 129: Rute Pina, “Denúncias de violência doméstica e familiar crescem 133%,” Brasil de Fato, 10 August 2016, http://bit.ly/2p6rCVd.]}

These results point to greater access to both information and justice. Given that many people call to access information on rights and services,^{[Note 130: Portal Brasil, “Ligue 180 dá salto no apoio ás mulheres e bate recorde de atendimentos,” 8 March 2016, http://bit.ly/2nIlcdP.]} there are now more people receiving this information than before. In addition, the system is innovative in so far as it provides standardised data to the public in a country where, previously, data on violence against women were not widely available. There is now strong evidence of the media’s use of the data to highlight greater levels of violence against black women,^{[Note 131: Rafael Gregorio, “’180’ teve recorde de denúncias em 2016; negras são maioria entre vítimas,” Folha de São Paulo, 8 March 2017, http://bit.ly/2oO9PTt.]} and to inform citizens about the realities of gender violence.^{[Note 132: Luisa Bustamente, “Ligue 180: as mentiras e verdades do debate sobre a violência de gênero,” 9 March 2017, http://bit.ly/2oeJpMz.]}

Important though they are, the activities carried out during the action plan constituted marginal improvements to an existing program. Dial 180 was created in 2005, and recorded 3.36 million calls between 2006 and 2013.^{[Note 133: Compromisso e Atitude, “Com ampliação do Ligue 180, serviço passará a registrar e encaminhar denúncias de violência doméstica,” 6 March 2014, http://bit.ly/2o2cY1J. ]} According to Article 19, the results of the commitment are not very impactful, and the Dial 180 system “is far from being a national system, given that it is not integrated with other databases, such as health and public security databases, and it does not allow one to follow up on victim cases. In other words, there is no follow up after a call is made to see how the government responded.”^{[Note 134: Joara Marchezini (Project Officer on Access to Information, Article 19), e-mail correspondence with the IRM researcher.]}

Carried forward?

The commitment is not part of Brazil’s third action plan. However, the IRM researcher recommends opening the data, reviewing the systematisation process, and inviting civil society organisations to map the data and help improve data gathering, quality, and quantity.