Casa Fund and partners promote articulation meeting for the protection of human rights defenders

Organized by the Casa Socio-Environmental Fund, the Brazil Human Rights Fund and the Fund for Urgent Action of Latin America and the Caribbean (FAU), the meeting brought together different civil society organizations in São Paulo

On the 28th of February this year, a meeting was held in São Paulo (SP) between funds and organizations supporting human rights defenders. The initiative aimed to strengthen the articulation between the participating organizations, enhancing cooperation between funders and organizations that work with actions to protect and promote human rights, research and documentation, litigation and advocacy, communication, training and direct monitoring with defenders.

The meeting took place after articulations that occured during the 10-year seminar of the Comuá Network, in September 2022, which hosted a panel of debates on the role of philanthropy in the emergency protection agenda for defenders of human rights and the environment. Now in 2023, at the new meeting, analysis were shared on scenarios of issues that affect support for people who defend human rights. Experiences were exchanged and ideas for improving cooperation between the different organizations were discussed.

The first meeting between the organizations was held in September 2022 within the 10-year seminar of Rede Comuá.

Organized by Casa Socio-Environmental Fund, Brazil Human Rights Fund and the Fund for Urgent Action of Latin America and the Caribbean (FUA), this meeting was attended by representatives of Rede Comuá, Elas + Fund, Positivo Fund, Frontline Defenders, Protection International, Amazon Watch, Global Witness, Human Rights Watch, Global Justice, National Human Rights Movement (MNDH) and Brazilian Committee of Human Rights Defenders.

Three main approaches were discussed: How to overcome barriers to reach and support human rights defenders at risk; What areas where collaboration between funds and organizations would help to increase the protection of these people; How the work of funds and organizations can be more effective, with greater impact on the protection of defenders.

For Rodrigo Montaldi, programs manager at Casa Fund, “meetings like this, in addition to fulfilling a need for greater cooperation and articulation between these organizations, tend to enhance and optimize the protection of defenders who put their lives at risk precisely because they are defending their territories and a collective good.”

As a result of the meeting in São Paulo, a joint work plan was created that foresees the creation of a permanent governance space, to promote dialogue and exchange between funds and organizations. The objective of this space is to structure actions for the exchange of methodologies to support protection for human rights defenders, as well as to carry out an active search for existing articulations and also to narrow and strengthen the relationship and actions between funds and organizations.