ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses on how women's human rights impacted the political arena of Brazil in different periods of its contemporary history. The chapter explores the participation of women's movements in the United Nations (UN) conferences during the 1990s and the impact these conferences, in turn, had in Brazil, including the reform of discriminatory legislation, the creation of new legislation, and as intellectual and political reinforcement around the advocacy for, and implementation of, improved public policies to benefit women. An advocacy process from civil society organizations usually aims to denounce public or private initiatives seen as harmful or discriminatory, to propose new legislation or policies, and to monitor their implementation. Civil society denounced the dictatorship's violations of human rights, including arbitrary imprisonment, torture, and assassination, and found support in international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International. The international and national contexts for abortion reform are adverse, with intensifying religious fundamentalism fueling conservative perspectives on sexuality and reproduction.
