In 2025, amid deep urgencies and historic opportunities, the Brazil Human Rights Fund reaffirmed its strategic role in strengthening Brazilian civil society as a core part of the democratic fabric.
In the conversations that shaped the public debate throughout the year, we stated clearly that climate justice is a human rights issue. We also emphasized that tackling racism remains an urgent task. We stressed that defending rights in Brazil is a high-risk activity and that protecting activists is essential.
Recent facts once again confirmed the relevance of our work. Women continue to face threats rooted in structural violence. Peripheries and favelas are subjected to an unjust war against their populations. The right of Indigenous peoples, local communities, and quilombola communities to their territories remains constantly under threat. And it is imperative to ensure humane working conditions for all.
Against this backdrop, we worked to ensure that grassroots organizations, collectives, and groups were present in the key spaces of public debate in 2025. We close the year confident in the strength of our mission and with meaningful results from work focused on strengthening these organizations in cities, rural areas, forests and waters, and the most remote regions.
Over its 19 years of activity, the Brazil Human Rights Fund has supported more than 2,200 projects through grants totaling more than R$ 126 million. In addition to financial resources, we provide technical accompaniment and opportunities for connection, peer learning, and movement building. We trust the organizations we support, value their autonomy, and dedicate our efforts to enabling them to carry out their work with the greatest possible positive impact.
A year of major gatherings
When it comes to movement building, this year offered highly significant opportunities for organized civil society to influence the structural issues of our time. A key front of the Brazil Human Rights Fund’s work in 2025 was providing funding and staff support to ensure the strong presence and participation of hundreds of grassroots groups in these spaces. In doing so, they were able to bring the demands and proposals of their territories into decisive moments of Brazilian public life.
This was evident at COP 30, the UN climate conference, where the Peoples’ Summit amplified the voices of social movements and more than 1,000 grassroots groups and social movements, and received grants from our initiatives Raízes, focused on climate justice for Indigenous peoples and local communities, and Labora, a fund dedicated to promoting decent work and a just transition. Also at COP 30, The Global South House served as a space to affirm the strategic role of independent philanthropy from the Global South, influence funding flows, and strengthen local climate solutions across Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The Brazil Human Rights Fund was one of the organizations that collaborated in building the House.
The same commitment guided our support to the March of Black Women, for which we provided grants that enabled dozens of women’s organizations to travel to Brasília to march for reparation and good living, and to put forward public policies and pathways toward racial and gender justice. We also allocated resources to Indigenous organizations to participate in Acampamento Terra Livre (Free Land Camp), the largest national mobilization of Indigenous peoples, where struggles for land demarcation, a healthy environment, and the preservation of ways of life connected to nature take place.
In São Paulo, we convened a gathering of more than 140 organizations supported through our calls for proposals. Leaders shared learnings and strategies, demonstrating that when grassroots organizations connect, collaborations begin, networks are strengthened, solutions emerge, and human rights struggles advance with greater impact.
More than 20 active calls for proposals
Throughout 2025, our team kept 22 calls for proposals active, once again demonstrating our capacity to manage a large volume of resources efficiently and transparently. We closed the year with more than 380 projects underway across multiple areas of human rights.
Our partnership with CONAQ, the country’s largest coalition of quilombola organizations, also remained active, through a project aimed at advancing land titling in Amapá, Amazonas, and Maranhão.
There were also dozens of grants supporting mobilization and political participation, in addition to responding to emergency requests. Among these, we highlight the grant and fundraising campaign that enabled an organization in Rio de Janeiro to provide emergency assistance to families in the favelas of Alemão and Penha. For ten years, the Brazil Human Rights Fund has maintained a structured and unique program that supports organizations and key actors working to rethink and promote change in Brazil’s justice and public security system.
We ended 2025 by launching three new calls for proposals, enabling grassroots groups and collectives to resume their activities in January by securing new resources for the continuity of their work. The Annual Call for Proposals 2026 pays tribute to Rose Marie Muraro, one of the founders of the Brazil Human Rights Fund and a pivotal feminist leader in the country’s history. It is titled Strengthening Rights and Gestating a New World, in homage to one of Rose Marie’s books.
All of this work is made possible through the efforts of the vast network that walks alongside the Brazil Human Rights Fund: activists who submit their projects, organizations that work tirelessly at the grassroots of society where life truly unfolds, donors who share our vision and invest in social transformation, and philanthropic partners who help the Fund move forward, ever stronger.
From Friday, December 19, through January 4, we will be closed for the end-of-year recess. During this period, you can continue to follow our work through our channels: website, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook.
In 2026, the Brazil Human Rights Fund marks 20 years. This milestone for a foundation conceived and created by activists is therefore also a milestone for human rights in the country. We will have many new developments and stories to share. Stay with us.
Ana Valéria Araújo
Executive director
Allyne Andrade
Deputy executive director
Gislene Aniceto
General manager
