According to a new report released by the Brazilian government on Tuesday, over the past 10 years, the murders of black Brazilian women have risen a staggering 54%. The report also points out that the deaths of white and light-skinned women fell by 9.8% during that same time period.
The studies featured in the report were conducted by the Latin American Social Sciences Institute (FLACSO) in coordination with UN Women Brazil and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The report also found that an average of 13 women per day were killed in Brazil in 2013. This average places Brazil as having the 5th highest femicide rate out of 83 countries studied by the World Health Organization.
This shocking information comes just months after Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff signed off on a new femicide law, that sets harsher penalties for the killings of women and girls in the country.
h/t TeleSUR.
Photo Credit: A protester wearing earings with the map of Africa takes part in the International March Against the Genocide of Black People in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 22, 2014. AFP PHOTO / YASUYOSHI CHIBA