Chamber Approves Urgency for Bill That Would Criminalize Misogyny

Overview

• The Chamber of Deputies voted to fast-track PL 896/2023 with an urgency request that won 293 votes to 158 on Wednesday, allowing the bill to go directly to the plenary without passing through committees.
• Relator Tabata Amaral is negotiating changes to the text after producing a substitute that defines misogyny as the practice, induction or incitement of violence, rights restriction or an offense to a woman’s dignity.
• If approved in identical form by both houses and signed by the president, the law would add misogyny to the Law of Racism, making the offense inafiançável (no bail) and imprescritível (no statute of limitations) and imposing prison terms of roughly two to five years plus fines for certain acts.
• The draft includes digital-era tools and aggravators such as temporary suspension of social‑media profiles by judicial order, increased penalties for attacks by groups, for targeting vulnerable people, and for conduct that seeks economic or audience gain online.
• Political conflict remains acute between supporters who say the bill targets organized online hate and opponents who warn the language is vague and risks curbing religious speech and other freedoms, and a plenary merit vote is expected but not yet scheduled before the July recess.