Brazil 2022: The expert committee of the UN Human Rights Council calls on the government to withdraw the parental alienation law

GENEVA (November 4, 2022) -- Experts of the UN Human Rights Council issued an appeal to Brazil's new government to withdraw the law criminalizing "parental alienation" (passed in 2010), which leads to discrimination against women and girls, particularly in custody court cases.Following the completion of the country's presidential elections, the Human Rights experts issued the following statement:Today we call on the newly elected government of Brazil to take decisive measures to end violence against women and girls. We issue an appeal for an end to the longstanding legal use of the concept of parental alienation and related variants in Brazil, through which mothers and children are criminally punished, in cases where there are allegations of domestic violence and abuse [1].

In a law passed in 2010, "parental alienation" is defined as "interference in the psychological development of the child or adolescent, promoted or caused by one of the parents, by the grandparents, or by those who have the child or adolescent under their authority, custody, or supervision, with the aim of excluding a parent or harming the establishment or maintenance of the child's bonds with the parent" [2].

This law led to the spread of the use of the theory of "parental alienation" in Family Courts – despite the lack of clinical or scientific foundation [3]. The law also made it easier for fathers accused of domestic violence and abuse to successfully raise false claims against mothers with whom they were in custody disputes [4].

Family Courts very often dismiss mothers' allegations of sexual abuse of their children by their fathers or stepfathers. They express distrust toward mothers and punish them, among other things, with the loss of parental responsibility over their children.

We express our deep concern about the entrenched gender stereotypes that contribute to the legitimization of the concept of "parental alienation" and its invocation, mainly against women, in judicial decisions concerning custody or parental responsibility. These gender stereotypes are the cause of significant discrimination against women, as their testimonies regarding the abuse of their children are dismissed or considered unreliable. These forms of discrimination violate the principles of a fair trial and expose mothers and children to abuse, to life-threatening situations, and to other violations of their fundamental freedoms.

We highlight the deeply concerning consequences of the law's application for mothers, many of whom have no choice but to remain silent about the abuse of their children by their partner or former partner, out of fear of being accused of "parental alienation" and losing custody.

The use of "parental alienation" and related theories contributes to downplaying the significance of violence against women and girls in Brazil, a country with extremely high rates of domestic violence against children, particularly girls, in the wake of an especially high and steadily increasing femicide rate over the past decade.

Brazil has one of the highest femicide rates in the world. The results of a national survey (2017) showed that one in three girls and one in three women in Brazil had experienced violence in the previous year – violence ranging from threats and beatings to attempted murder. More than half of the perpetrators were current or former partners.

The 2021 National Crime Statistics reveal that a woman is raped every 10 minutes in Brazil and that a femicide occurs every seven hours. Levels of violence against women are also kept high by other non-state actors, including private businesses and institutions linked to the state, including law enforcement services. It is vital that the Brazilian government spare no effort to stem the tide of violence against its women and girls and put an end to the rampant impunity for crimes committed against them.

We call on the Brazilian state to withdraw the "parental alienation" law and restore women's and girls' access to their sexual and reproductive rights – to provide effective legal access to termination of pregnancy – to lift cuts to the federal state budget for activities and programs aimed at ending violence against women, and to redouble efforts to prevent violence against women and girls, particularly those exposed to violence due to multiple, intersecting forms of oppression (intersectional), including women in politics, women human rights defenders, indigenous women and girls, Afro-Brazilian women, migrant women, and trans women.

Footnotes

[1] Read here about how "parental alienation" is used as a legal tool in court cases by abusers aiming to dismiss the charges against them and incriminate (usually) the mother.

[2] Read here why the theory of "parental alienation" is flawed and pseudoscientific.

[3] Read here how the core claims of the theory of "parental alienation" are refuted by significant scientific research.

[4] Read here about the repugnant commercialization of the pseudoscientific theory of "parental alienation".

Bibliography | Sources

Link to the statement by the experts of the UN Human Rights Council