Ana Valéria Araújo

Ana Valéria Araújo is the founding Executive Director of the Brazil Human Rights Fund, the first public interest Brazilian foundation dedicated to support grassroots organizations challenging human rights abuses. She has worked to help structure an effective human rights community, and to strengthen some of the most invisible segments of the Brazilian society. She has also been trying to help engage Brazilians on human rights causes and social justice philanthropy. She has helped establish the Network of Independent Funds for Social Justice – Brazil. Currently, she also serves at the steering committee of the International Human Rights Funder Group (IHRFG). Earlier, Ana had served as the Executive Director of the Rainforest Foundation US, in New York, developing advocacy, and policy strategies to promote the rights of Indigenous peoples in Latin American countries such as Guiana, Suriname, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. Ana is a human rights lawyer with more than 20 years of experience in the field of indigenous rights and environmental law. She worked for the Nucleus for Indigenous Rights, one of the first organizations in the country to use legal instruments in the defense of Indigenous peoples. Ana is also a founding member of the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) in Brazil. She was involved in some of the most important land rights cases in the country. Today, she is a member of ISA’s board of directors.  In 1999, Time Magazine/CNN Network named her as one of “Latin America’s Leaders for the New Millennium” for the ability to have an impact on society. She lives in São Paulo, Brazil.