• Highlights

• Municipalities with a specific structure for human rights drop by 10.5 percentage points between 2019 and 2023.
• In 2023, the sectoral policies with a bigger organizational structure were those related to the elderly (86.1%), children and teenagers (86.0%), women (80.9%) and persons with disabilities (78.0%).
• The number of municipalities with Municipal Guards increases by 11.3%.
• In 30% of the municipalities, the Municipal Guard uses a gun.
• The Military Police recorded a reduction of 4.4% in their permanent corps and women make up 12.2% of the total police officers.
• Permanent members of Civil Police Corps drop by 7.9% and women make up 27.8% of the total.
• Proportion of municipalities with a Municipal Council for the Rights of Women increases to 34.9%.
• 99.9% of the municipalities have a social assistance structure.
• Five states did not provide social assistance services. .

In four years, there was a drop of 0.5 percentage points (p.p) in the number of municipalities in the country with a specific organizational structure to take care of Huan Rights policies. In 2023, 34.1% of the municipalities had a similar structure, a number below the 44.6% registered in 2019. At state level, all the states surveyed had some sort of structure, being secretariats in partnership with other policies, the most frequent ones.

Mato Grosso do Sul (20.3%), Santa Catarina (21.0%), Mato Grosso (21.%) and Tocantins (23.0%) were the states with the smallest proportions of municipalities with such structures. As for Federation Units, the highlight is the increase, from 3 to 7, in the number of states Where the manager of this field is not a secretariat, which has had effects concerning the budget structure and political power of issues at state level.

These data area part of a chapter on Human Rights of the Survey of Basic Municipal Information (MUNIC) 2023 and of the Survey of Basic State Information (ESTADIC) 2023, which investigated eight topics: policies for women, public security, food security, social assistance, early childhood, labor and productive inclusion, and human rights. Read also “Three out of four municipalities didn’t have any plan for early childhood in 2023”.

It is worthy of mention that the state of Rondônia had not answered ESTADIC until the end of data collection. Therefore, the results presented do not show information for this state, with only 26 Federation Units being considered for the sake of analysis.

Policies for the elderly are the ones most often covered by human rights bodies

Among the municipalities with management bodies for human rights, the sectoral policies with the biggest organizational structures were those for the elderly (86.1%), children and teenagers (86.0%), women (80.9%) and persons with disabilities (78.0%).

In 2019, 93.4% of the municipalities with an organizational structure for Human Rights developed actions and specific programs for children and teenagers. Others (91.3%), dealt with elderly people, policies for women were found in 87.2% of the municipalities with a management body and persons with disabilities, 83.3%.

Social assistance and Justice were the policies most often shared with Human Rights

In eleven states (Acre, Roraima, Maranhão, Piauí, Sergipe, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso and Goiás), the policy of human rights was structured as a state secretariat in partnership with social assistance areas. In ten other Federation Units, the policies were partners of Justice: Amazonas, Amapá, Tocantins, Piauí, Pernambuco, Bahia, São Paulo, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul and Federal District).

Percentage of municipalities with an organizational structure in public security increases

According to results of MUNIC, in 2023, 30.7% of the municipalities had some type of organizational structure in the area of public security, which shows an increase of 7.1 percentage points against figures of 2019 (23.6%). 

Number of municipalities with Municipal Guards increases by 11.3%

Between 2019 and 2023, there was an increase of 11.3% in the number of municipalities that implemented the Municipal Guard in their public security structure, with a change from 1,188 to 1,322 municipalities. Likewise, the number of municipal guards increased by 2.44% between the years of 2019 and 2023, with a change from 99,510 officers in 2019 to 101,854, in 2023.

The percentage of municipalities where the Municipal Guard carried a gun reached 30%, whereas, in 2019, that percentage reached 22,4%, an increase of 7.6 percentage points.

In 2023, 20 Federation Units had an exclusive secretariat for public security

In 2023, 20 Federation Units had an exclusive secretariat for public security and five had shared secretaries with other policies. Against the result of 2019, there was no significant change in the total structures presented, however, there were changes in relation to some changes from shared secretariats into exclusive ones, as those of Rio Grande do Norte, Pará and Mato Grosso do Sul. Paraíba and the Federal District no longer deal with the topic on an exclusive basis, but now have secretariats shared by different policies.

Managers of public security in the states were all male, with ages between 38 and 65, with a predominance of white persons (20) with a high level of education, including specialization (15), master’s and (1) PhD (2) degrees. In this respect, the profile of public security remained similar as that found in the edition of 2019, when these items were first investigated.

Military Police records decrease by 4.4% in the number of officers and women represent 12.2% of the total number

ESTADIC 2023 shows that there was a drop of 4.4% in the military police corps in relation to the edition of 2019, with a change from 416,923, in 2019, to 398,455 military police officers in 2023. The participation of women in the corps and 2023 stood at 12.2% of the total officers, which represented an advance towards gender equality in the comparison between 2099 and 2014, when the percentage was 10.9% and 9.8%, respectively.

In 2023, the state with the biggest female participation in the military police was Amapá (27%) and the one with the lowest participation was Rio Grande do Norte.

“We observe that the Military Police has been reduced Every year. Female participation, despite its increase, is still very small, although states such as Amapá is above average in comparison with other Federation Units,” remarked Caroline Santos, analyst of the survey.

Civil Police corps drop by 7.9% and women represent 27.8% of the total

According to data of ESTADIC, in the year 2023, the civil police had 107,968 professionals, a figure 7.9% lower than what was observed in the edition of 2019 (117,228).

The participation of women in the civil police was significantly higher than in the military police. In 2023, this percentage was 27.8% of the total found in civil police.

In some states, female participation was above that of men, as in Rio Grande do Sul, Amapá and Goiás, whose percentages of women were 40.4%, 36.1% and 34.2%, respectively.

In 2023, 31.3% of the municipalities had an executive body aimed at policies for women 

In 2023, 31.3% of the municipalities had an executive body aimed at policies for women, an increase of 11.4 percentage points Against 2018, when 19.9% of the municipalities had bodies of this kind. 

According to information in MUNIC, the management of policies for women, in 2023, was carried out at an exclusive municipal secretariat in only 14.4% of the municipalities, a little above the figure registered in 2018 (12.8%). The predominance of shared activities was most common in the case of social assistance (90.1%), but policies for human rights (6.4%) and for health (5.4%) were also mentioned.

In 2023, 34.9% of the municipalities had a Municipal Council for Women’s Rights 

In 2023, 34.9% of the municipalities had a Municipal Council for Women’s Rights, almost 10% more than in 2018 (23.6%). “This result shows Evolution, but indicates there is a lot to advance, as this is type of representation for civil society is not yet widespread in Brazil’s political process,” says Denise Guichard, the survey analyst. 

In 58.3% of the municipalities with a Municipal Council for Women’s Rights, there was some infrastructure available. However, only 17.8% had their own budget, which means an advance from 2018 (8.4%).

All the Federation Units had executive bodies aimed at policies for women in 2023

According to data from ESTADIC 2023, the executive bodies of policies for women were found in all the Federation Units, as in the year 2018. There was, from 2018 to 2023, a significant change in relation to the characterization of this structure, for, in 2018, only 11 Federation Units had secretariats, being 6 exclusive and 5 other shared with different policies; in 2023, the figure changed to 19, being 15 exclusive secretariats and 4 secretariats in partnership with other policies.

Seven Federation Units reported not having a State Plan of Policies for Women

In 2023, Tocantins, Ceará, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul reported not having a State Plan of Policies for Women. Among the other 19 Federation Units that had a plan, Amazonas, Rio Grande do Norte, Alagoas, Sergipe, Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso do Sul reported not having established a monitoring committee. Paraíba and Mato Grosso were the only ones reporting that civil society was not part of the composition of the committee.

All the states had a State Council for Women’s Rights. In seven states (Roraima, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul and the Federal District), the State Council for Women’s Rights was mostly represented by civil society; while others were joint committees.

In 2023, 19 states had a shelter for women victims of domestic violence 

In 2023, 19 Federation Units had shelter homes for women victims of domestic violence or a Sheltering Service for Women Victims of Violence. Tocantins, Alagoas, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Mato Grosso and Goiás reported not having either in the year of 2023. The states of São Paulo (43) and Santa Catarina (13) were the ones holding the majority of these structures. 

Among the main services provided by shelter homes, the most common type was individual psychological assistance; the states of Sergipe and Santa Catarina were the only ones not offering this service.

Similarly, except for Sergipe, legal assistance activities were carried out by shelter homens in all the other states.  

Day care centers were only offered by the shelter homes of Pará, Ceará and Rio de Janeiro.

In 2023, 99.9% of the municipalities had a structure for social assistance 

According to MUNIC, in the year of 2023, more than 99.0% of the municipalities had an organizational structure to deal with social assistance, a total of 5,567 (99.9%) Brazilian municipalities.

As for the characterization of the administrative body in charge of the social assistance policy, 97.0% (5 409) had a secretariat. Among them, 72.8% (4,054) had an exclusive secretariat, and 24.2% (1,355), a secretariat shared with other policies. It is observed that the existence of an organizational structure for social assistance policy is about 100%, or very close to that proportion, in all ranges of population size. 

Most social assistance managers are women 

According to ESTADIC, in 2023, all the 26 FUs surveyed had an organizational structure for social assistance policies, with all managers in direct administration, as an exclusive secretariat (Amazonas, Maranhão, Ceará, Alagoas, Rio Grande do Sul and Goiás), a department under another secretariat (Federal District) or a secretariat shared with another policy (the other Federation Units).

In 17 FUs, the managers of the social assistance policy were women, and nine were men, all with a higher education degree. 

Five states did not provide social assistance services 

Five states reported not providing social assistance services: Rio Grande do Norte, Alagoas, Bahia, Paraná and Mato Grosso. Except for Bahia, these were the same that reported not having offered social assistance services in 2018.

In 2023, all the 21 Federation Units that reported the rendering social assistance services directly offered special services in this segment. Basic social protection, on the other hand, was reported by Amazonas, Piauí and the Federal District, only. 

As for special social protection services, 11 Federation Units offered medium and high complexity services, nine, high complexity special services and Paraná reported the provision of medium complexity special services only. 

More about the survey

MUNIC and ESTADIC carry out, on a regular basis, surveys about the structure, dynamics and activities of municipal and state institutions. The survey unit is the municipality and the main informant is the municipal admiistration, in the case of MUNIC, and the state government, by means of its departments, in the case of ESTADIC. On November 28, the IBGE will release the basic sanitation module for MUNIC 2023.