Training Strengthens Cerrado Leaders’ Abilities to Engage with International Human Rights Systems

Press release
September 10 2026

The course is part of a broader agenda of listening, coordination, and public communication to make the Cerrado visible within international human rights systems.

Leaders of traditional peoples and communities (PCTs) and African-rooted communities from the Cerrado and Caatinga biomes are advancing in a training process on the Inter-American and Universal Human Rights Systems, as part of an initiative to strengthen the use of international mechanisms for protection, reporting, and participation.

The training takes place at a moment when Cerrado organizations have intensified their national and international coordination to confront the historical erasure of the biome from debates on climate, territory, water, and human rights. The course is part of a broader process that includes territorial meetings, information production, public communication, and dialogue with international mechanisms.

The proposal seeks to strengthen not only the visibility of violations, but also the capacity of leaders, activists, technical experts, and human rights defenders themselves to sustain public agendas over time. Rather than treating international systems as distant spaces restricted to specialists, the training brings these instruments closer to the concrete experiences of those who live in and protect the Cerrado.

For Imoxikongo Raíssa Felippe, an agroecologist and course participant, the training has been important for both those beginning to access international human rights systems and leaders who already work in communities and territories. She notes that, although the content can be complex at times, the training plays a fundamental introductory role by presenting concrete paths for reporting, protection, and international advocacy.

“We sometimes think that the world is not watching the violations taking place in Brazil, but it is important to know that there are international condemnations, judgments, and pathways in response to human rights and territorial violations. This course will always be important and necessary,” Felippe said.

The classes covered the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), precautionary measures, individual petitions, friendly settlements, monitoring, technical cooperation, the Inter-American Court, Inter-American standards, climate justice, environmental rights, as well as prior consent and mechanisms of the United Nations Universal System. The course was designed to help leaders and organizations access these tools through an approach connected to the realities of the territories.

In western Bahia, where Amanda Alves works, the conflicts affecting the Cerrado take concrete form. According to her, the region is marked by serious violations against traditional peoples and communities, whose territories, ways of life, and common goods are constantly threatened by a predatory development model. In this context, the training deepens knowledge and presents important tools to strengthen work with communities.

Sheilla B. Dourado, a researcher with the New Social Cartography Network, also highlighted the course's practical dimension. For her, professionals working directly within international systems help the content reach organizations in a clear, applicable way.

It is, she said, “fundamental knowledge to expand access to justice for people and groups that do not find responses to their demands at the national level.”

The course mobilized around 120 registered participants and formed a core group of 42 participants who completed the full training path. They include leaders, technical experts, activists, and defenders of the rights of traditional peoples and communities and African-rooted communities from the Cerrado and Caatinga biomes, whose consistent engagement demonstrates the relevance of a training process that combines technical repertoire, political listening, and network strengthening.

For Tata Ngunzetala, the traditional name of Francisco Aires in Candomblé Angola-Kongo and the leader of an Afro-territory in Águas Lindas de Goiás, on the outskirts of the Federal District, the course offered a concrete perspective for communities facing constant violations.

“It was a watershed moment,” he said. According to him, learning about the Inter-American and Universal Systems shows that other doors can open in the face of territorial, cultural, food-related, and spiritual violations.

“It provided possibilities and, in some way, gives us hope to know that there are other doors we can knock on and that can be opened. Knowing these possibilities strengthens us,” Tata Ngunzetala added.

His statement conveys the training's political reach by showing that the Cerrado’s international presence depends on strengthening those who know the territory, experience its conflicts, and are already building community responses to the climate crisis, territorial insecurity, and human rights violations.