A petition calling on the Assembly of the Republic to take measures to make rape a public crime and to establish femicide as a separate crime was delivered to parliament on Monday with over 200,000 signatures. Titled 'Petition against violence against women', the initiative, launched last year, was signed by 209,510 people, far exceeding the 7,500-signature threshold required for a plenary debate. Among the initial signatories are activist Francisca de Magalhães Barros, Manuela Ramalho Eanes, Dulce Rocha, former president of the Institute for Child Support, Rui Pereira, former Minister of Internal Administration, lawyer António Garcia Pereira, lawyer Isabel Aguiar Branco, and judge Clara Sottomayor. In a note sent to the press, the group explains that the petition stems from a 'growing concern among citizens and organisations regarding the persistence and severity of a phenomenon that continues to affect many thousands of women every year'. The signatories stress the urgency of amending the Penal Code to make rape a public crime and to apply harsher penalties for domestic violence, while also advocating for the legal autonomy of the crime of femicide.