As set forth in the Declaration of the UN World Conference on Human Rights Vienna : "The human rights of women and of the girl-child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. At the same time, truly participatory democracy cannot flourish until every segment of society fully takes part in national life.
In Brazil, women's rights organizations opened a new space for women's participation in national life by working within the context of efforts initiated in the early 's to reorganize society to achieve an increasingly effective exercise of democracy.
As a consequence of this opening, important initiatives have been taken within both the public and private sectors to combat discrimination against women and its effects. The women's movement in Brazil, supported by the action of hundreds of nongovernmental organizations working in the field of women's rights, has been extremely active in lobbying for advances in women's rights, with great effort having been invested in seeking concrete measures to protect women's right to be free from violence.
The Government of Brazil, in turn, has adopted and implemented a series of significant initiatives designed to enhance the observance of the human rights of its female populace. Notwithstanding these advances, and the fact that discrimination on the basis of sex is prohibited by law, the Commission has received complaints and information detailing the persistence of de facto and de jure bias against women in various spheres, and as manifested in the phenomena of violence against women.
Within the inter-American human rights system, States Parties to the American Convention undertake to respect and ensure the rights and freedoms established therein "without any discrimination for reasons of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic status, birth, or any other social condition. With respect to equality, the American Convention establishes the right of each person to equal protection of and before the law Article 24 , and States Parties are specifically obliged to "take appropriate steps to ensure the equality of rights and the adequate balancing of responsibilities of the spouses" with respect to marriage or its dissolution Article In terms of gender-specific protections, the Convention prohibits trafficking in women Article 6.
