: conectas : Conectas Human Rights : @conectas

Rua Barão de Itapetininga, 935º. andar São Paulo SP01042-908 BrazilT | F +55 11 3884.7440

www.conectas.orgconectas@conectas.org

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS MARGARIDA BULHÕES PEDREIRA GENEVOIS Coordinator, Brazilian Network for Human Rights Education ANAMARIA SCHINDLER Superintendent, Arapyaú Institute 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 Plastic Artist THEODOMIRO DIAS Professor, Getúlio Vargas Foundation

FISCAL COMMITTEE ANA LUCIA DE MATTOS BARRETTO VILLELA Director, Alana Institute FABIO CARUSO CURY Lawyer, Cury Advogados Associados FLAVIA REGINA DE SOUZA Lawyer, Mattos Filho Veiga Filho Marrey Jr. and Quiroga Advogados

Conectas Human Rights is an international non-governmental, not-for-profit organization, founded in Sao Paulo/Brazil in October 2001. Its mission is to promote the realization of human rights and consolidation of the Rule of Law, especially in the 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 academics in the Global South and to foster interaction between them, through collaborative networks. In Brazil, Conectas promotes strategic and public interest litigation. The GLOBAL SOUTH PROGRAM aims to increase the impact of the work of human rights defenders, academics and organizations from the Global South (Africa, Asia and Latin America). It therefore develops education, research, networking and advocacy activities. The program also aims to facilitate access by Global South activists to the mechanisms of the United Nations (UN) and regional human rights systems.

The Global South Program consists of the following projects:

• International Human Rights Colloquium • Human Rights Fellowship for Lusophone Africa • Sur – International Journal on Human Rights• Foreign Policy and Human Rights The JUSTICE PROGRAM works nationally, regionally and internationally to protect human rights and to promote 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 so, it aims to destabilize human rights violations and hold the perpetrators accountable, in addition to causing political embarrassment and fostering public debate.

The Justice Program consists of the following projects:

• Strategic Litigation• Supreme Court: participation in the constitutional debate • Right to Health and Access to Medicines

The objectives of each project and the main activities and results achieved until early 2011 are presented below.

STAFF

LUCIA NADER - Executive DirectorJUANA KWEITEL - Program DirectorMARCOS ROBERTO FUCHS - Associate Director Administrative and Finance

FERNANDA MIOTO - ManagerAGUEDA LOPES - RecepcionistCELSO GOTTSFRITZ - IT ConsultantGISELE DOS SANTOS - Administrative AssistantJOSEFA LEITE - Administrative AssistantROSIMEYRI CARMINATI - Financial Assistant

Institutional Development

RENATA PRETURLAN - Assistant

Communications

NATÁLIA SUZUKI - CoordinatorFERNANDA GOTO - Intern GLOBAL SOUTH PROGRAM

International Human Rights Colloquium

TATIANA SILVA - Project AssistantTHIAGO AMPARO Project Assistant Foreign Policy and Human Rights

CAMILA ASANO - CoordinatorMARÍLIA RAMOS - Intern

Fellowship Program for Lusophone Africa

MURIEL SOARES Project Assistant Sur – International Jounal on Human Rights

PEDRO PAULO POPPOVIC - EditorOSCAR V. VIEIRA - Editor (Pro Bono)MATHEUS HERNANDEZ - AssistantRENATO BARRETO - Intern JUSTICE PROGRAM VIVIAN CALDERONI - LawyerFERNANDA MACHIAVELI - Representative in BrasiliaELOÍSA MACHADO - Consultant

MALAK POPPOVICSenior Advisor for Special Projects

MARIANA DUARTERepresentative in Geneva

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) 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 UNITED NATIONS DEMOCRACY FUND UNITED NATIONS FOUNDATION / BETTER WORLD FUND (UNF/BWF) Other donors and partners Ashoka Social Entrepreneurs Brazilian Ministry of Health/UNESCO Channel Foundation Embassy of Switzerland in Brasilia Embassy of the Netherlands in Brasilia Friederich Ebert Foundation - Brazil General Consulate of Canada in Sao Paulo General Consulate of France in Sao Paulo Getulio Vargas Foundation - Law School of Sao Paulo Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo

GLOBAL SOUTH PROGRAM

International Human Rights Colloquium

Organized since 2001, the Colloquium is an annual conference attended by human rights defenders, academics 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. The Colloquium is intended to strengthen the individual and collective impact of human rights defenders and, 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 in their countries in lectures, working groups and workshops. 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 regional human rights systems, topics that are addressed at all the conferences.

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 and develop collaborative activities, with the facilitation of Conectas.

Colloquium/2010

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Human Rights Fellowship for Lusophone Africa Each year, since 2004, Conectas receives activists from Portuguese-speaking African countries to expand their academic and practical knowledge on human rights in Brazil. This fellowship, part of the Open Society Justice Initiative Fellows Program, aims to strengthen the work of the 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-SP) and work as interns at other Brazilian NGOs.

In six years, 34 activists from Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique have taken part in 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.

Sur – International Journal on Human Rights 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. The print run for each issue is 2,700 copies, which are distributed free of charge in over 100 countries. The journal also has an electronic version (www.surjournal.org). The articles submitted to Sur are peer-reviewed in a blind-review process. In partnership with other organizations, Sur has already published thematic issues on transitional justice; access to medicines; rights of migrants and refugees; economic, social and cultural rights; the UN Millennium 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% written by authors from the Global South. In 2011, the partner organization Partners in Development for Research, Consulting and Training (Egypt) published a special edition in Arabic.

OTHER PROJECTS The Justiciability of Human Rights: India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) Between 2007 and 2009, in addition to the projects mentioned above, Conectas organized the comparative study “The Justiciability of Human Rights – a comparative analysis: India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA)”. The research had two primary objectives. The first, to evaluate the role played by the constitutional courts, 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 lessons can be learned and shared, with the ultimate goal of improving the protecting 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.

Black Women’s Right to Health 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 and guaranteeing women dignified health treatment. 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; (b) provision of training courses and production of educational material; and (c) creation of a Rights Center in São Mateus.

Conectas Human Rights believes in working collaboratively and maintains a number of partnerships with other national, regional and international organizations. It currently participates in the following networks: Latin 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.

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

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.

Police Station in the Espírito Santo State /2009

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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