Valdênia Paulino Lanfranchi

Brazil, CAHR, Autumn 2014

My name is Valdênia Paulino Lanfranchi, and I am from Brazil. I am 47 years old, married and a human rights activist. I grew up in a big poor neighborhood in São Paulo. São Paulo is the most important economic city in Brazil. It's the richest and most unequal.

Outraged with so many executions of adolescents, girls in prostitution, children out of school, battered women, police brutality, illegal arrests, torture and so many other consequences of the disease called poverty, the result of inequality and injustice, I started already as a teenager to do something.

Formed in the grassroots small Christian communities, I became aware of why so many people, in places so different on this planet, are living in poverty and social exclusion. This awareness led me to live for years with girls who wanted to get off the streets and prostitution, to help open local centers for the defense of human rights, to meet the families, in particular women, children and young people living in the slums, the main victims of police brutality, death-squads, and domestic violence.

Studying became a necessity to qualify for my work. I went to university and got degrees in Education and Law. Over time I have studied and invented ways to defend and promote human rights and new paradigms of social activism for my country, where the political regime is a recent democracy that needs a lot of work to be consolidated.

Over the years I participated in the creation of the following organizations: the Girls' House, in 1987, where I lived to welcome girls who wanted to become free from sexual exploitation and life on the streets; and the "Monica Paião Trevisan" Centre for the Defense of Children's Rights – CEDECA, in 1989. CEDECA was created to struggle against the extermination of adolescents and youths in the slums of Sapopemba, on the outskirts of São Paulo which at the time was part of the public "security" policy in several States of Brazil. CEDECA is active to this day. Finally I participated in establishing the "Pablo Gonzales Olalla" Human Rights Centre – CHDS, in São Paulo, in 2001. The purpose was the education and promotion of human rights, especially among the population in slums and the victims of police violence. Our activities included various income-generating cooperatives involving women from the slums.

I believe that knowledge can help poor people, particularly women, make proactive changes in caring for their necessities.

After suffering repeated attacks, threats and other intimidation acts because of the work that was doing, I moved with my husband, also a human rights activist, to the State of Paraíba, in the northeastern region of Brazil, where we worked in the "Oscar Romero" Human Rights Centre – CEDHOR, the Association of Settlers and Afro-descendant communities – AACADE, and the creation of the Observatory of Public Budget and Policy – OOPPS!

I was the first woman to occupy the post of Police Ombudsman in the State of Paraíba from 2011 to 2013. As those in power, whose interests are threatened, are extremely unforgiving, I was then a victim of everything, from raids on the headquarters of our organizations, to sexual violence and death threats. However, the certainty that we are on the right track and the solidarity of people who support our work helped me to continue my activities.

Now I want to work to empower vulnerable and discriminated communities through basic knowledge of State institutions and human rights and their mechanisms so that they can influence public policies and act as agents in the process of improvement of their own lives. I believe that knowledge can help poor people, particularly women, make proactive changes in caring for their necessities.

I hope to develop a human rights manual with a training program to be used with women and youth from grassroots communities, social leaders, students, teachers and other groups.

I dream of the day when violations of human rights will be only one long and sad history of the past.

Back to past defenders