Rua Barão de Itapetininga, 93

5º. andar São Paulo SP

01042-908 Brazil
T | F +55 11 3884.7440

www.conectas.org
conectas@conectas.org

: conectas : Conectas Human Rights : @conectas

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 BOARD OF DIRECTORS FISCAL COMMITTEE

ANA LUCIA DE MATTOS BARRETTO VILLELA 

MARGARIDA BULHÕES PEDREIRA GENEVOIS
Director, Alana Institute
Coordinator, Brazilian Network for Human Rights
FABIO CARUSO CURY
Education
Lawyer, Cury Advogados Associados
ANAMARIA SCHINDLER
FLAVIA REGINA DE SOUZA
Superintendent, Arapyaú Institute
Lawyer, Mattos Filho Veiga Filho Marrey Jr. and
Quiroga Advogados
ANDRÉ RAICHELIS DEGENSZAJN
Knowledge Manager, Group of Institutes, Foundations
and Enterprises (GIFE)

CLAUDE GRINFEDER
Member of the Board, Marjan Ind. Farmacêutica

GUILHERME LUSTOSA DA CUNHA (in memoriam)

Lawyer and ex-UN

MARIA TEREZA PINHEIRO

Journalist, Rede Globo de Televisão

OSCAR VILHENA VIEIRA

Dean, Fundação Getúlio Vargas’s Law School

SANDRA CARVALHO
Director, Global Justice

SÉRGIO FINGERMANN Conectas Human Rights is an international non-governmental, not-for-profit organization, founded in Sao Paulo/
Plastic Artist Brazil in October 2001.

THEODOMIRO DIAS Its mission is to promote the realization of human rights and consolidation of the Rule of Law, especially in the
Professor, Getúlio Vargas Foundation Global South (Africa, Asia and Latin America).

Conectas was accorded consultative status with the ECOSOC-UN in 2006, and observer status with the African
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in 2009.

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 Conectas develops its activities through two programs that interact together and encompass national, regional and
international activities. The individual projects of each program aim to strengthen human rights defenders and
STAFF Fellowship Program for Lusophone Africa

academics in the Global South and to foster interaction between them, through collaborative networks. In Brazil, MURIEL SOARES 
LUCIA NADER - Executive Director
Conectas promotes strategic and public interest litigation. Project Assistant
JUANA KWEITEL - Program Director
 
MARCOS ROBERTO FUCHS - Associate Director
The GLOBAL SOUTH PROGRAM aims to increase the impact of the work of human rights defenders, academics Sur – International Jounal on Human Rights
and organizations from the Global South (Africa, Asia and Latin America). It therefore develops education,
Administrative and Finance
research, networking and advocacy activities. The program also aims to facilitate access by Global South activists PEDRO PAULO POPPOVIC - Editor
to the mechanisms of the United Nations (UN) and regional human rights systems. OSCAR V. VIEIRA - Editor (Pro Bono)
FERNANDA MIOTO - Manager
MATHEUS HERNANDEZ - Assistant
AGUEDA LOPES - Recepcionist
The Global South Program consists of the following projects: RENATO BARRETO - Intern
CELSO GOTTSFRITZ - IT Consultant
GISELE DOS SANTOS - Administrative Assistant
• International Human Rights Colloquium JUSTICE PROGRAM
JOSEFA LEITE - Administrative Assistant
• Human Rights Fellowship for Lusophone Africa
ROSIMEYRI CARMINATI - Financial Assistant
• Sur – International Journal on Human Rights VIVIAN CALDERONI - Lawyer
• Foreign Policy and Human Rights FERNANDA MACHIAVELI - Representative in Brasilia
Institutional Development
ELOÍSA MACHADO - Consultant
The JUSTICE PROGRAM works nationally, regionally and internationally to protect human rights and to promote
RENATA PRETURLAN - Assistant
access to justice for vulnerable groups who are victims of human rights violations in Brazil. It therefore develops
strategic litigation and participates in the constitutional debate, particularly in the Supreme Federal Court. In doing
Communications
so, it aims to destabilize human rights violations and hold the perpetrators accountable, in addition to causing
political embarrassment and fostering public debate.
NATÁLIA SUZUKI - Coordinator
FERNANDA GOTO - Intern
The Justice Program consists of the following projects:
GLOBAL SOUTH PROGRAM
• Strategic Litigation
• Supreme Court: participation in the constitutional debate
International Human Rights Colloquium
• Right to Health and Access to Medicines
TATIANA SILVA - Project Assistant
THIAGO AMPARO Project Assistant
The objectives of each project and the main activities and results achieved until early 2011 are presented below. MALAK POPPOVIC
Senior Advisor for Special Projects
Foreign Policy and Human Rights
MARIANA DUARTE
CAMILA ASANO - Coordinator
Representative in Geneva  
MARÍLIA RAMOS - Intern
Conectas also has a team of volunteers for each
of its projects and receives students from different
countries for unpaid internships.

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 DONORS AND PARTNERS (2001-2010) GLOBAL SOUTH PROGRAM
Conectas would like to thank and acknowledge the support of its main donors and partners.

Main Donors

EUROPEAN COMMISSION
FORD FOUNDATION
FUNDAÇÃO CARLOS CHAGAS
MACARTHUR FOUNDATION
OAK FOUNDATION
OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS
OVERBROOK FOUNDATION
THE SIGRID RAUSING TRUST
Colloquium/2010
UNITED NATIONS DEMOCRACY FUND
International Human Rights Colloquium
UNITED NATIONS FOUNDATION / BETTER WORLD FUND (UNF/BWF)
Organized since 2001, the Colloquium is an annual conference attended by human rights defenders, academics
Other donors and partners
and specialists from around the world, particularly from the Global South (Africa, Asia and Latin America). It is
held over the period of a week in São Paulo (Brazil) in three languages: English, Portuguese and Spanish.
Ashoka Social Entrepreneurs
Brazilian Ministry of Health/UNESCO The Colloquium is intended to strengthen the individual and collective impact of human rights defenders and,
Channel Foundation at the same time, to encourage them to engage internationally in promoting these rights. During the event,
activists and academics share their knowledge and experiences on human rights and on the projects developed
Embassy of Switzerland in Brasilia in their countries in lectures, working groups and workshops.
Embassy of the Netherlands in Brasilia
Friederich Ebert Foundation - Brazil The colloquium also aims to have a multiplying effect that benefits both the participants and their organizations
after the conference, through networking and joint actions. Many of these actions involve using the UN and
General Consulate of Canada in Sao Paulo regional human rights systems, topics that are addressed at all the conferences.
General Consulate of France in Sao Paulo
Getulio Vargas Foundation - Law School of Sao Paulo From 2001 to 2010, more than 870 activists and academics from 50 countries, primarily Africa, Asia and
Latin America, have participated in the 10 editions of the Colloquium. Many of them remain in contact
Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo
and develop collaborative activities, with the facilitation of Conectas.

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 Human Rights Fellowship for Lusophone Africa
OTHER PROJECTS
Each year, since 2004, Conectas receives activists from Portuguese-speaking African countries to expand their
The Justiciability of Human Rights: India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA)
academic and practical knowledge on human rights in Brazil.
Between 2007 and 2009, in addition to the projects mentioned above, Conectas organized the comparative
This fellowship, part of the Open Society Justice Initiative Fellows Program, aims to strengthen the work of the
study “The Justiciability of Human Rights – a comparative analysis: India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA)”.
participants in their countries of origin and to connect them with other human rights defenders from the Global
South. During the five months they spend in Brazil, they take courses at the São Paulo Catholic University (PUC-
The research had two primary objectives. The first, to evaluate the role played by the constitutional courts,
SP) and work as interns at other Brazilian NGOs.
in the three countries, in the promotion and protection of human rights. The second objective was to provide
legal professionals and fundamental rights´ centers with a comparative report on the rulings and strategies so
In six years, 34 activists from Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique have taken part in
lessons can be learned and shared, with the ultimate goal of improving the protecting human rights.
the fellowship program. Once back in their home countries, they apply the knowledge acquired in Brazil
to develop projects in various fields of human rights.
The results of the research, that had the support of Ford Foundation, were presented in a seminar at the Law
School of the Getulio Vargas Foundation, in Sao Paulo, in March 2010.
Sur – International Journal on Human Rights
Black Women’s Right to Health
Created in 2004, it is the only multilingual publication of its kind published in Portuguese, English and Spanish.
Its goal it to contribute to a critical debate on human rights issues from a Global South perspective.
From 2007 to 2010, Conectas, in partnership with Geledès – Black Women’s Institute, developed the pilot
project “Black Women’s Right to Health in Brazil”, for the purpose of combating racial and gender discrimination
The print run for each issue is 2,700 copies, which are distributed free of charge in over 100 countries. The
and guaranteeing women dignified health treatment.
journal also has an electronic version (www.surjournal.org). The articles submitted to Sur are peer-reviewed in a
blind-review process.
The main results of the project, which was supported by the European Commission, were: (a) the training of
more than 110 women in a poor neighborhood of São Paulo on issues of gender, race and access to health;
In partnership with other organizations, Sur has already published thematic issues on transitional justice;
(b) provision of training courses and production of educational material; and (c) creation of a Rights Center
access to medicines; rights of migrants and refugees; economic, social and cultural rights; the UN Millennium
in São Mateus.
Development Goals; corporate accountability, and the rights of persons with disabilities.

In 2010, Sur established a partnership with the Carlos Chagas Foundation (FCC), which supports the journal and
serves on its Executive Board.

By the end of 2010, 12 issues of the Sur Journal had been published, containing 95 articles, 70%
Conectas Human Rights believes in working collaboratively and maintains a number of partnerships with other
written by authors from the Global South. In 2011, the partner organization Partners in Development for
national, regional and international organizations. It currently participates in the following networks: Latin
Research, Consulting and Training (Egypt) published a special edition in Arabic.
American Coalition of NGOs, Brazilian Human Rights and Foreign Policy Committee, Brazilian Public Security
Forum, Forum of National Human Rights Organizations (FENDH), Jusdh: Justice and Human Rights Forum, UN
Human Rights Council Network (HRC Net), DHESCA Brazil Platform, Brazilian Network for the Integration of
Peoples (REBRIP)/Working Group on Intellectual Property (GTPI), International Network for Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) and Criminal Justice Network.

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 Right to Health and Access to Medicines
As a member of the Working Group on Intellectual Property of the Brazilian Network for the Integration of
Peoples (GTPI/REBRIP), Conectas develops legal actions primarily aimed at minimizing the negative impacts
of the intellectual property protection system for pharmaceutical products on access to medicines in Brazil.
Carried out in partnership with other NGOs, the activities are intended to guarantee the right to health and
access to medicines through legal proceedings, research, seminars and national and international advocacy.
Conectas, as a member of the GTPI, is responsible for five pioneering legal cases on the right to
health, including: a “public civil action” on compulsory licensing for medicines; a case examining
patents for pharmaceutical products; and a petition to the Brazilian Attorney General against the
system for revalidating patents, known as the pipeline mechanism. In addition to this, it also carried
the research for the report “Intellectual property for pharmaceutical products: a study on legislative
adequacy from the viewpoint of public health and the human right to health”.
Since its creation, the Justice Program has had a privileged institutional partnership with the Pro Bono Institute.
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Foreign Policy and Human Rights
Created in 2005, the goal of this project is to strengthen the international protection of human rights, promoting
the use of the UN and regional human rights systems by NGOs in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Conectas also
seeks to make Global South countries, particularly Brazil, accountable for its foreign policies on human rights.
To promote access by NGOs to the UN and regional human rights systems, Conectas organizes training courses,
provides technical support, develops advocacy activities, fosters the creation of networks and carries out trans-
regional campaigns.
In Brazil, Conectas works on creating mechanisms for civil society to participate in and monitor foreign policy. It
is a founding member of the Brazilian Committee on Human Rights and Foreign Policy. Since 2007, Conectas has
published the yearbook “Human Rights: Brazil at the UN”, a compilation of Brazil’s votes and initiatives, as well
as of the recommendations addressed to the country.
In 2010, Conectas established a permanent representation in Geneva (Switzerland), in partnership with the
organizations Centro de Estudios Legales e Sociales (Argentina) and Corporación Humanas (Chile).
Conectas has participated in 14 sessions of the UN Human Rights Council and in 2 sessions of the African
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Courses have been organized for more than 500 human
rights defenders from 25 countries, with a special focus on the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR)
mechanism and the African human rights system.
Conectas, together with partners, has also addressed human rights violations in North Korea, Iran,
Myanmar (Burma), Zimbabwe and Venezuela, among other countries.
In 2010, Conectas embarked on activities related to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities.
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 JUSTICE PROGRAM
Police Station in the Espírito Santo State /2009
Strategic Litigation
Conectas’ strategic litigation project aims to destabilize the institutional practice of systematic human rights
abuses, especially in juvenile and adult prison systems.
Since 2003, the organization has worked to defend and guarantee the rights of adolescents held in the
juvenile system´s facilities of Fundação Casa (formerly known as Febem) in the state of Sao Paulo, in
partnership with other human rights organizations.
Over the past 7 years, Conectas has filed 65 compensation lawsuits and administrative proceedings
in cases involving torture or death in the facilities of Fundação Casa/Febem. It has managed to raise
compensation levels for death from 30 to 300 times the minimum monthly wage and it also succeeded
in obtaining the first pension for a mother of one of the victims.
In 2007, Conectas also began working with the adult prison system, where systematic human rights violations occur.
Conectas is responsible for more than 15 other legal cases involving police violence and the prison
system – some of them using the UN and regional human rights systems.
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In 2009 and 2010, in partnership with other organizations, Conectas mobilized to combat the abuses
occurring in the prison system in the state of Espírito Santo. Civil society reported the situation to
Brazilian authorities, to the UN and to Inter-American Human Rights System. After holding a side
event to the session of the UN Human Rights Council, these serious violations were given national and
international exposure, bringing it to the attention of public opinion. The government was compelled
to recognize the problem and to present some solutions, namely to halt the use of ‘metal cells/
containers’, stop imprisoning people in police stations and reduce overcrowding. Nevertheless, the
system still presents serious problems that need to be resolved by the public authorities engaging in
dialogue and working together with Brazilian civil society.
Conectas is currently focusing its efforts on combating the abusive use of pre-trial detention. It is part of a
network of nine Brazilian organizations that are working on the issue. In 2011, Conectas, in partnership with
the Instituto Sou da Paz and Pastoral Carcerária, established a permanent representation in the Brazilian capital,
Brasília, to monitor the initiatives of the Executive and Legislative branches of government on criminal justice.
Supreme Court: participation in the constitutional debate
Since 2004, Conectas has been filing amicus curiae briefs in legal cases in the court system, particularly cases
involving fundamental rights being heard by the Supreme Federal Court (STF). The purpose is to influence court
decisions on human rights issues.
The project encourages other interested organizations to prepare amici curiae briefs, thereby enhancing the
legitimacy of civil society participation in the STF.
By the end of 2010, Conectas had submitted 41 amici curiae briefs to the Supreme Federal Court, 2 to
the São Paulo Court of Appeals and 2 to the Constitutional Court of Colombia, on a range of issues, such
as disarmament, same-sex unions and slave labor.
Conectas has participated in 4 public hearings held by the Supreme Federal Court on affirmative action
measures, pregnancy termination in cases of anencephaly, the environment and recycled tire imports,
and the right to health.
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