More than 1,400 femicides were recorded last year in Brazil – that is every six hours a woman lost her life – according to a survey published today. The president Lula he announced meters for to stop this “unbearable” violence which in 2022 reached record levels.

In total, 1,410 women were murdered, a 5 percent increase compared to 2021. It is the highest number ever recorded since 2015, when data on femicides began to be collected, said news site G1, which relied on its tally. in official figures from the 26 States and the federal capital Brasilia.

Surprisingly, the total number of homicides last year decreased by 1%, compared to 40,800 murders in 2021.

The increase in femicides is “unacceptable”, President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva said at a ceremony at the Planalto presidential palace on the occasion of International Women’s Rights Day.

“Today we present a package of measures to put an end to this brutality, but we must go even further in our fight against unacceptable physical violence against women,” he insisted.

Among other things, it is predicted that the resources granted to women’s shelters will be increased, while a preventive monitoring program for victims of domestic violence will be reactivated. Lula accuses his far-right predecessor in office, Jair Bolsonaro, of “covertly encouraging violence against women”. Bolsonaro used to make misogynistic remarks and in 2014 he said of a left-wing MP that she was “too ugly” to be raped.

Lula, flanked by his wife, several ministers and former president Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016), also announced that A bill to end the wage gap between men and women will soon be introduced in Congress.