Network of Communities and Movements against Violence

Strengthening the actions of families of victims of institutional violence in their struggle for justice and against State violence in the favelas.

– Roundtable with families about recent cases of institutional violence in favelas.

– Psychological assistance for families of victims of institutional violence in cases accompanied by the Network of Communities and Movements against Violence.

– Workshop on legal guidance.

– Workshop on institutional racism.

– Workshop on the forms of confronting institutional violence and denunciations of human rights violations.

– Workshop on gender.

– Roundtable to evaluate workshops and assistance activities.

– Meeting for collective development of a protest calendar.

– Meetings with families to share experiences and self-care activities.

Faced with the history of violent interventions by security forces in favelas and outlying areas of Rio de Janeiro, one highlight has been the heroic efforts of victims’ families, mostly black women who have had their sons, brothers, husbands, nephews or grandchildren murdered or disappeared during military incursions, in denouncing human rights violations. These are women who have become protagonists in the struggle for justice, demanding that the State offer reparations for their loss, while also fighting for the decriminalization of their loved ones, since they died accused of being thieves or drug traffickers who were exchanging gunfire with the police. Besides visits to the different institutions responsible for the execution or mediation of police investigations and legal processes of the respective homicide cases, they also must administer the internal consequences of these deaths to their families.

The Network of Communities and Movements against Violence is mostly composed of the families of victims of institutional violence, while attending to the demands of collectives made up of favela residents who seek support when someone is executed during Military Police or Civil Police actions.

– Manguinhos Social Forum.

– Moleque Movement.

– Youth Forum of Rio de Janeiro.

– March Against the Genocide of the Black People Organizers (RJ).

– Mothers of May Movement (SP).

– Association of Mothers and Family Members of Victims of Violence (ES).

– React or Die Movement (BA).

– Global Justice and Amnesty International.

Various activities related to political mobilization were organized by the network in support of relatives of victims of institutional violence. The activities involved participants from the Network of Communities and Movements Against Violence and relatives not directly linked to the organization. Police violence gained attention on the agenda through the mobilization and protest activities or through the support for new complaints being brought to the Center for Human Rights of the Public Defender’s Office of Rio de Janeiro. The project strengthened the network of participants and collaborators and contributed to the formation of new alliances, such as with activists from Black Lives Matter.