THE POPULAR PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS

Lessons learned in the Elma Novais case

Abstract

Elma Novais case is an emblematic case for the creation of a formal/institutional
methodology to protect human rights defenders. At the beginning of the 2000s,
protection already existed for witnesses and children and adolescents, but for
human rights defenders there was no adequate protection. The experience of
popular protection was decisive to prove today how the Brazilian State's first
approach to protect Elma Novais was mistaken. The protection knowledge
accumulated and systematized by Projeto Sementes is a historic brand of civil
society.