In Brazil, the violations of fundamental rights by state institutions have been worsening. They are problems related to police brutality; to the excessive use of detentions, especially provisory arrests; to torture and mistreatment; to the curtailment of access to lawyers; to the low use of penal alternatives; among others. We work to support organizations, groups and civil society collectives that undertake concrete actions seeking to denounce, demand reparations and prevent said violations, as well as to strengthen and expand legislation that enable the fruition of fundamental rights.
The history of Brazilian society is defined by the disrespect to indigenous peoples and violations of their rights, and by those peoples’ fights to guarantee not only their rights, but their own existence as communities and people. In the latest years there is a strong offensive tendency in the legislative field to rebuke all the previously ensured achievements, at the same time as reports of lethal violence on indigenous peoples grow. The Brazil Fund supports organizations, groups and communities that fight for the defense of indigenous land and territory, as well as their ways of life and traditions.
The discrimination and violence that fall on the LGBT population are fought by organizations, groups and collectives supported by the Brazil Fund. These are actions that seek to combat homophobia, transphobia and lesbophobia, as well as to effect the rights already conquered and to create new rights aiming to guarantee full access of that population to citizenship.
We live in a society whose only economic model privileges the market and constantly establishes new forms of exclusion. As a consequence, cities have been losing their fundamental purpose as a public space through processes of urban changes that privilege economic power and promote social and spatial segregation. We support organizations, groups and collectives that act in the defense of the right to the city, especially the right to dignified housing, mobility and access to infrastructure, as well as the strengthening of the social and collective function of public spaces.
The right to land, to natural resources and to the promotion of decent work has been constantly threatened. We support organizations, groups and collectives of rural workers, extractive communities and small farmers, with communal production modes that fight and denounce the suffered violences seeking the effecting of public policies to expand and assure their rights.
We support organizations, groups and collectives that fight the violations of adolescent’s rights in fulfillment of socio educational measures through actions that lead to the guarantee of the principles laid out in the Child and Adolescent Statute. Though the specific law exists for more than 30 years, in practice the rights of boys and girls in situations of conflict with the law have not been fully effected. Moreover, the actions of groups that fight attempts of reducing the criminal majority are fundamental. The possibility of reduction affronts the fundamental right of children and adolescents to be protected and respected.
The acknowledgement of rights for quilombola populations has been a fundamental fight that meant an expansion of understanding of the meaning, existence and resistances of the peoples that have been enslaved. However, said acknowledgement and the existence of a set of laws that actualize the rights has not been translated in practice to permanent changes for the quilombola population and the local populations as well. There are constant rights’ violations and grave threats to the people and communities. The Brazil Fund supports groups, organizations, collectives and communities that fight said situations, proposing actions of advocacy, legal actions, communal strengthening, among others, to ensure their achievements and expand their rights.
The Brazil Fund supports initiatives that aim to guarantee the human rights of populations vulnerable to the negative impacts of great works of infrastructure, such as hydroelectric plants, and also large scale business projects, such as the cases relating to mining. The organizations, groups and collectives supported conduct actions of political advocacy, legal advice, production of knowledge, networking and mobilization, also having a concern with the defense of natural resources.
Racism is one of the social structures that produces more inequality and rights’ violations in Brazilian society. The high levels of violence against the black population are the most brutal face of this situation. However, racism is also expressed by religious intolerance, selective incarceration, pay inequalities, injury, slander, prejudice and discrimination. We support organizations, groups and collectives that aim to transform these situations, acting in the fight, denouncement and construction of alternatives for the insurance of human rights to all the black population.
Unequal pay, disrespect to reproductive rights, low political representativity, oppression and repression of sexual freedoms, work exploration, domestic and sexual violence are problems that are part of the daily lives of Brazilian women. We support organizations, groups and collectives that act to denounce the violation of women’s rights, as well as in the fight against sexism in all spheres of life.
Brazilian youths from urban peripheries, suburbs, rural areas, among other contexts, have been the main target of police brutality and extermination groups, especially black youths. Moreover, youths have their rights constantly threatened or unfulfilled, as the segregationist logic of public and private spaces creates real and symbolic obstacles for their access and presence. The Brazil Fund supports organizations, groups and collectives that work alongside the youth, or are constituted by young people, in actions of reporting violence, defense, promotion and guarantee of their rights and expansion of the youth statute’s principles.
