The Collective Protection of Women Human Rights Defenders in Quilombola (Afro-Brazilian) Communities in Brazil

In a collaborative partnership with Protection International, this research project examines the protection of women human rights defenders in quilombola communities in the Northeast of Brazil. Quilombos are autonomous communities established by escaped African slaves who resisted slavery.

Remnant quilombo communities are powerful and symbolic spaces of resistance, where collective protection practices are led by women in defense of their community, traditions, and territory. These communities challenge racial injustice manifested in the lack of economic resources and struggle for land rights.

Women human rights defenders are particularly subjected to racialised and gendered risks.

Protection International defines 'collective protection' as the strategies and actions that aim at protecting collectives and their individuals, who may be at risk for their defence of human rights. Existing governmental initiatives keep failing to protect women human rights defenders and their communities.

By employing participatory action research methods in a quilombola community of fishermen and fisherwomen in Bahia, this study will examine the intersection of race, class, gender, and abilities in women human rights defenders' experiences of risk, This study will also examine the extent to which local, national and international protection mechanisms enact collective protection measures in quilombola communities, and whether they are attentive to gendered colonial legacies in Brazil