National Human Rights Day is celebrated on 12/08 in honour of Margarida Maria Alves - rural worker, tenant farmer and trade union leader - who was killed in 1983 for her struggle to defend the rights of rural workers.
The commitment made by human rights defenders, like Margarida, in various areas such as: the environment, education, the fight against discrimination, the conflict for land, access to health, among others, help to face the challenges to the enforcement of human dignity, making sure that individual and collective, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights are observed, which constitute the set of fundamental guarantees in order to achieve improvements in society as a whole.
Comment written by lawyers Ariane do Carmo Silva and Amanda dos Reis.