Theme

In Brazil, police violence and the criminalization of social movements and organizations violate the right to free speech, organization and demonstration. Brazil Fund supports groups, collectives and organizations that face such violations and seek to guarantee and expand the democratic right to political action.

Brazil Fund supports organizations, groups and collectives fighting the discrimination and violence that affects the LGBT population. Their actions aim at confronting homophobia, transphobia and lesbophobia, as well as the enforcement of rights that were already conquered and the creation of new rights to guarantee this population full access to citizenship.

The history of Brazilian society is marked by the disrespect for indigenous peoples and violations of their rights and by the struggle of these peoples to guarantee not only rights but also their very existence and their communities’. In recent years, the legislative field has pushed towards the withdrawing of already secured achievements while at the same time allegations of lethal violence against indigenous peoples are more and more common. Brazil Fund supports organizations, groups and communities that fight to defend indigenous land, as well as their ways of life and traditions.

Nowadays, our society’s economic model privileges the market and constantly establishes new forms of exclusion. As a consequence, cities have lost their fundamental sense of public space through processes of urban change that privilege economic power and promote social and spatial segregation. We support organizations, groups and collectives that work in the defense of the right to the city, in particular of the right to decent housing, mobility and access to infrastructure, as well as on strengthening of the social and collective roles of public spaces.

The right to land and natural resources, and the promotion of decent work have been constantly threatened. We support organizations, groups and collectives of rural workers, extractive communities and small farmers working under community production modes, who confront and denounce the violations they suffer, seeking the implementation of public policies to broaden and secure their rights.

We support organizations, groups and colletives that deal with the violation of the rights of adolescents that are confined in youth detention centers through actions that guarantee the principles of the Statute of the Child and Adolescent. Despite the existence of specific legislation for over 30 years, in fact, the rights of boys and girls in situations of conflict with law have not been fully implemented. In addition, the actions of groups that confront the attempts to reduce the legal age are fundamental. The possibility of having legal age reduced confronts the fundamental rights of children and adolescents of being protected and respected.

The recognition of rights of the maroon populations was a fundamental struggle that resulted in the increased understanding of the meaning, existence and resistance of peoples who were enslaved. However, such recognition and the existence of a set of laws that give effect to the rights has not translated, in practice, into permanent changes for the maroon people and for other traditional peoples. There are constant violations of rights and serious threats to people and communities. Brazil Fund supports groups, organizations, collectives and communities facing these situations by proposing political advocacy actions, legal actions and community strengthening, among others, to guarantee their achievements and broaden their rights.

Brazil Human Rights Fund supports initiatives aimed at ensuring human rights to populations that are vulnerable to the negative impacts of major infrastructure works, like hydroelectric plants, as well as of large-scale business projects such as mining. The supported organizations, groups and collectives carry out advocacy actions, offer legal advice, foster knowledge production, articulation and mobilization actions, having as their main objective the defense of natural resources.

Racism is one of the social structures that produces the most inequalities and violations of rights within the Brazilian society. The high rates of violence against the black population represent the darkest side of this situation.  However, racism is also expressed through religious intolerance, selective incarceration, wage inequalities, insults, prejudice and discrimination. We support organizations, groups and collectives that aim to transform this situation by confronting, denouncing and building alternatives to ensure human rights to the entire Black population.

In Brazil, state institutions have deepened the existing violating of fundamental rights. These problems relate to police violence and to the excessive resort to detentions, in particular pre-trial detentions, torture and ill-treatment, restricted access to lawyers and the rare use of alternatives sentences, among others. We support organizations, groups and civil society collectives that take concrete actions to prevent and denounce violations, demand compensations and strengthen and expand the legislation that provide for the enjoyment of fundamental rights.

Unequal salaries, disrespect for reproductive rights, low representativeness in politics, oppression and repression of sexual freedom, exploitation at work, as well as domestic and sexual violence are problems that are part of the daily life of Brazilian women. We support organizations, groups and collectives that base their work on the denouncing of women's rights’ violations, as well as on the confrontation of sexism in all fields of life.

Youth in Brazil, notably the Black youth, living in urban, peri-urban and rural peripheries, among others, have been the main target of police violence and extermination groups. In addition, youth have their rights constantly threatened or denied, as the segregationist logic of public and private spaces creates real and symbolic impediments to their access and presence. Brazil Fund supports organizations, groups and collectives that work together with youth, or are integrated by young people, in actions to denounce violations, to promote and guarantee their rights and to expand the principles of the Child and Youth Statute.