Working Groups of Pacto's Network
The Working Groups served as collaborative platforms among organizations within the Pact for Democracy network. Throughout the electoral period, each group focused on monitoring specific issues and bringing together organizations specialized in different themes to engage in coordinated and joint actions.
Women and Political Violence
The Women and Political Violence Working Group brought together 26 organizations working on gender and human rights agendas:
A Tenda das Candidatas, Abraji, AzMina, Centro De Defesa dos Direitos Humanos de Petrópolis, Conectas, Elas No Poder, Fundação Tide Setubal, Grupo Mulheres do Brasil, Hori, Igarapé, INESC, Iniciativa Negra por uma nova política sobre drogas, Instituto Arueras, Instituto Alziras, Instituto Galo da Manhã, Instituto Igarapé, Instituto Mulheres na Urna / Goianas na Urna, Instituto Vamos Juntas, InternetLab, Mulheres Na Contramão, OAB de Caldas Novas de Goiás, Observatório de Violência Política Contra a Mulher, Plan International Brasil, Rede de Ação Política pela Sustentabilidade (RAPS), Rede Justiça Criminal, Rede Liberdade e Transparência Internacional - Brasil.
Those meetings facilitated the sharing of information, campaigns, and action strategies. In August, in partnership with the Public Prosecutor's Office of São Paulo and lawyers from the Liberdade Network, a direct reporting channel to the Public Prosecutor's Office was established. Through this channel, authorities could receive cases forwarded by the organizations that were part of the Working Group. The group actively followed two complaints that began proceedings within the Public Prosecutor's Office: one from federal deputy candidate Sâmia Bomfim (PSOL/SP) and another from the candidate in Rio de Janeiro, Benny Briolly (PSOL/RJ), both facing severe threats during the electoral process.
The Pacto pela Democracia's perspective on the issue of gender-based political violence during the electoral period was the subject of an article written by Margarida Gorecki, operations coordinator, and Helena Salvador, communication advisor of Pacto. The text was published in the Folha de São Paulo newspaper in September 2022.
Public Security Forces
The group gathered nine organizations from Pacto's network:
Human Rights Watch, Sou da Paz, Igarapé, Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública, Conectas, Rede Liberdade, Transparência Internacional, Galo da Manhã e WWF Brasil.
The Working Group met with the aim of monitoring the risks of uprisings or negligence by public security forces during the electoral process. Upon the activation of state Public Prosecutors' Offices, letters were sent to the Attorneys General and Electoral Attorneys General. These letters requested external oversight of public security forces to ensure the protection of voters, poll workers, candidates, as well as electronic voting machines. Meetings were held with Public Prosecutors' Offices in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and Tocantins, where action plans were shared to ensure the security of the states during the electoral period.
Disinformation
The working group directly brought together 13 organizations from Pacto pela Democracia:
Instituto Marielle Franco, Desinformante, Instituto Vero, Coalizão Direitos na Rede, Netlab-UFRJ, Sleeping Giants Brasil, Conectas, Oxfam Brasil, Rede Liberdade, Artigo 19, CPDH, Intervozes, Democracia em Xeque e Mulheres Negras Decidem e também mobilizou ativamente outros atores com foco em combater a desinformação em massa e a difusão de conteúdos falsos sobre o processo eleitoral.
Within the Working Group — and with the support of a network of organizations specializing in digital rights, such as the Coalizão Direitos na Rede [Rights in the Network Coalition] — the "Democracia Pede Socorro" ["Democracy Calls for Help"] campaign was orchestrated. This initiative aimed to urge digital platforms to implement effective policies against disinformation and against political violence on social networks.
The campaign, which began with a diagnosis made by organizations specializing in disinformation combat policies, involved meetings with representatives of digital platforms and the disinformation combat unit of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). The result was the publication of a document signed by the Working Group organizations, which was continually updated throughout the electoral process.