Objetivos e público alvo
The project aims to strengthen the comprehensive security of human rights defenders and rural communities in the Far South of Bahia, a region marked by agrarian conflicts and violence against rural workers. The actions include training and qualification of defenders, legal assistance to encamped and settled families, and political advocacy to ensure the communities’ permanence in their lands. The priority target group is landless families, rural leaders, and defenders who act in the fight for Agrarian Reform, facing threats from rural militias, landowners, and eviction actions.
Contexto
The Far South of Bahia is a region of intense agrarian conflicts, where the expansion of agribusiness, especially the monoculture of eucalyptus, generates violence and insecurity for rural, Indigenous, quilombola*, and riverine communities. MST, which organizes about 250 encampments and 168 settlements in the region, faces constant threats, including actions of rural militias, forced evictions, and the criminalization of leaders. The MST Human Rights Collective acts in the legal and political defense of these communities, but the lack of resources and complexity of the conflicts demand an institutional strengthening to ensure the safety of defenders and the families’ permanence in the lands.
*Traditional communities descended from runaway enslaved people.
Sobre a Organização
The MST Human Rights Collective in Southern Bahia is comprised of lawyers and popular defenders, many of them having come from Agrarian Reform settlements and encampments. The organization acts in the legal defense of landless families, promoting the training of defenders, the articulation of protection networks, and political advocacy on human rights organs. It takes part in networks such as the National Network of Popular Attorneys (RENAP) and the Association of Rural Workers’ Lawyers (AATR), as well as counting with the support of social movements and international organizations.
