Camila Moradia
The annual Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk was established in 2005 to honour the work of HRDs who are courageously making outstanding contributions to the promotion and protection of the human rights of others, often at great personal risk to themselves.
"We are doing active work. We are a collective of women doing the minimum for other women here and in other slums of Rio de Janeiro. Our focus is to promote heads of families, whether or not they are victims of domestic violence. Therefore, we register, monitor and accompany these women and their families.”
Camila Moradia was the recipient of FLD's Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk for the Americas region in 2021. She was born in a place known as Grota, in the group of favelas that make up the Complexo do Alemão. "Cria do morro" as she is born, raised and lives in Alemão. Her family is in its fourth generation in the favela.
Camila accompanied her mother in the fight for rights, especially women's rights since she was five years old. She has always studied in day care schools in the Alemão area. She participated in almost all social projects available according to her age, lived for 5 years in Minas Gerais and after finishing high school, returned to her home (Alemão Complex) at the age of 18.
In 2004, Camila returned to participate actively in social projects developed by the City Hall and the State Government of Rio de Janeiro. She was a young apprentice, monitor and supervisor in these projects. She worked in Rio for 10 years developing several social and development activities with the residents, mainly women. Camila always believed that women were the main tool for transformation in society, but they were also the ones who suffered the most from the reality.
In 2010, with the removal of the "Favelinha da Skol", Camila became one of the leaders of the fight for housing in the Alemão complex and started to give voice to 1,300 families. In 2015, based on the actions she was already carrying out and the demands of women who arrived, Camila established the collective, Women in Action in Alemão (MEAA).
MEAA's mission is to end violence against women and contribute to the empowerment of women and their families, thus strengthening their autonomy and guaranteeing their basic rights. More than 400 women are assisted in the Complexo do Alemão, a slum in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro.
The challenges and threats faced by human rights defenders in Brazil remain very high, particularly for those working on issues of land, environment, indigenous peoples, LGBTi rights, corruption and impunity. Many HRDs have experienced death threats, physical attacks, arbitrary arrests and lawsuits. The high number of killings is of particular concern and takes place against a background of widespread impunity.
