Brazil: Study on the Public Policy for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders by Ulisses Neto

Ulisses Terto Neto, a Brazilian human rights lawyer and researcher and law professor at the State University of Goiás (UEG), comments on the existing public policy for the protection of human rights defenders in Brazil. Neto shared with us this brief note surrounding Brazilian protection mechanisms for human rights defenders, containing a version of events on the development of the public policy for the protection of human rights defenders in Brazil.

“The implementation of the Public Policy for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (PPPHRD) has been occurring through a circuitous process in Brazil. Although the federal government has since 2004 supported it formally, there has never been enough political will from state authorities to fully implement it. […] There should be no doubt, thus, that Brazilian human rights defenders must continue their social struggles for democracy, human rights and social justice in order not only to tackle social authoritarianism, but also to build up a national human rights culture. That is why they must be protected by State and organized civil society altogether.”

Ulisses has published many articles on protection policies for human rights defenders in Brazil and other countries in Latin America. For a complete analysis of the political history of the PPPHRD see Ulisses Terto Neto, The Protection of Human Rights Defenders in Latin America: A Legal and Socio-Political Analysis of Brazil (2018).

Find a full list of publications by Ulisses Terto Neto here.