Brazil Fund announced in November and December its support to 29 new projects through two special funding lines stablished through partnerships that allowed the investment of over R$ 2 million in the defense of human rights throughout the country.
Brazil Human Rights Fund in partnership with Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations and Clua (Climate and Land Use Alliance) launched the special call for proposals “Investigative Journalism and Human Rights”, which supports the 8 projects that will be presented here. Each initiative will receive up to R$ 40,000 to prepare a news report in the period of one year.
The initiatives come from all over the country and involve a great diversity of themes and proponents. In a country where human rights are violated on a daily basis and in various forms, investigative journalism is fundamental to call society’s attention to this theme, as well as to denounce violations.
The partnership with Oak Foundation and the Betty and Jacob Lafer Institute provides support to eleven proposals aimed at fighting human rights violations resulting from the abusive treatment given to pre-trial detainees under the Brazilian criminal justice system.
The proposals were selected through the “Criminal Justice and Human Rights” special call presented here. Each organization will receive up to R$ 150,000 to develop activities in a period of up to 18 months. The initiative seeks to strengthen civil society specifically in this field. The focus of the selected projects is to guarantee the human rights of people in pre-trial detention, and question the excessive use of provisional arrest and the punitive culture upon which mass incarceration in Brazil is based; combating and preventing torture; ensuring transparency in prisons; immediate access to lawyers; quality assurance of the assistance provided by public defenders; and strengthening of alternative penalties.
The two selection processes were carried out by independent committees and composed by specialists.
