Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed on Monday a piece of legislation imposing strict rules aimed at preventing violence against women in Brazil.

The legislation hopes to deter men from beating up their wives or companions at home.

People committing this type of crime will be subject to a maximum of three years of solitary confinement up from a maximum of just one year, as established in previous legislation.

Additionally, the new rules abolished the fee penalties for minor infractions, which means people perpetrating mild forms of violence will now go to jail.

There are more than 2 million cases of violence against women every year in Brazil, according to the findings of research by the Perseu Abramo Foundation in 2001.

The research showed that 20 percent of Brazilian women had suffered some kind of violence from men, physically or psychologically.

The new legislation was named after Maria da Penha Maia, who is a national champion of the cause against violence against women.

Maia's husband, Marco Antonio Herredia, tried to murder her twice, and one of the attempts left her paraplegic.

Her's was the first violence against a woman case to reach the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of the Organization of American States. Herredia was convicted and remains in jail.

Junia Puglia, vice-director of the Brazilian office of the United Nations Development Fund for Women, said on Monday that the new legislation needed publicity in order for it not to fall into oblivion.

It is necessary to understand that violence against women is a violation of human rights. The relationship between men and women must not establish a hierarchy between genders, added Puglia.

Source: Xinhua