The UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls on Wednesday commended a legislative effort to repeal Brazil’s controversial Parental Alienation Law and to remove the contentious definition of “parental alienation” in Brazil’s Specialized Hearing Law.

Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem said: “This initiative, led by a group of feminist congresswomen, is an important step by legislators to bring Brazil in line with international human rights standards established under binding international and regional human rights treaties and standards on gender equality and child protection.”

The newly proposed bill would omit the concept of parental alienation from Article 699 of Brazil’s Code of Civil Procedure, as the notion has been criticized due to “its lack of empirical basis, its circularity and for [the original theorist’s] own problematic beliefs around sexual abuse.”

Brazil remains the first and only country to explicitly define and criminalize “parental alienation” under Law No. 12.318/2010, with critics pointing out that the law legitimizes a pseudo-concept lacking scientific validity, which has been weaponized in custody disputes to silence claims of abuse. Article 2 of the law defines parental alienation as an interference in the psychological development of the child or adolescent promoted or induced by a parent, grandparent, or guardian.

This provision has fueled concerns that normal parenting practices, legitimate attempts to shield children from abusive situations, or even a child’s own reluctance to engage with an abusive parent can be mischaracterized as alienation. Although a public hearing regarding the approval of this law illustrated that fathers had a higher likelihood of being accused of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA), it was “falsely reported that 30-70% of these allegations are untruthful.” Although the provision is gender-neutral, in practice it has typically been weaponized against mothers, especially those who have made claims of sexual abuse and domestic violence.

Alsalem also urged the importance of implementing an empathetic trauma-informed care framework in the forthcoming scheduled hearing on the draft repeal bill in order to ensure that the needs of survivors are supported.