Gender-based political violence in Brazil: understanding the phenomenon and its legal framework through the analysis of its pioneering case

Latin America stands out as a pioneering region in formulating institutional protocols and legal frameworks as tools for preventing and opposing gender-based political violence. In the case of Brazil, it was only in 2021 that a federal law was enacted with the aim of “preventing, repressing, and combating political violence against women”. In July 2022, State Deputy Rodrigo Amorim became the first defendant under Law 14.192/21, accused of verbal offences against Benny Briolly, a transgender and black councilwoman in Niterói city, Rio de Janeiro. This reflection is based on the application of this legal instrument, focusing on the analysis of the first criminal proceeding under the law on political violence against women in the country. Using this event as a case study, this article aims to understand the potential and limitations of the law, as well as dig deeper into this leading case of political violence against women and the contestations of the harmful effects of such conduct. The study uses the concept of phenomenological structure to analyze the types of arguments and legitimization used in a legal process involving a trans-woman who has been subjected to hostile conduct. It aims to understand how the incident is framed as an act of gender-based political violence, and similarly, how the perpetrator's defense denies the actions as a case of political violence. The phenomenological structure is a methodological resource aimed at understanding how a problem is constructed, encompassing arguments of legitimation, values, and repertoires that make a certain issue problematic. Here, the problem to be analyzed is the gender-based political violence suffered from Benny Briolly in this specific case. Firstly, we examine the structure of the indictment in the criminal process to understand the nature of the criminal conduct and how they are classified according to the law’s severity context. This highlights the fact that gender-based political violence is harmful to women’s integrity in institutional politics. Secondly, we aim to understand how gender-based political violence is challenged and dismissed as an empirical reality from the defendant’s perspective. Understanding the details of the legal process as a judicial discourse that divides the field into two sides can help us see these cases from two opposing perspectives. While the accuser claims the defendant's actions were violent and harmful, the defendant denies the injurious content of his conduct, which ultimately ends up minimizing and perhaps also normalizing the practical effects of this type of gender-based violence. With this analysis, we aim to uncover how the law can be applied and its limitations, leading to thoughts on how to tackle the issue more broadly. Our examination of the law will take two perspectives: first, as a tool with both limitations and potential applications, and second, as a means to investigate cases of gender violence and denial, like this one. Through this approach, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of the severity of the issue and explore options for addressing it.