Camilo Tovar
Camilo is responsible for designing and carrying out Race & Equality’s advocacy strategy before the European Union (EU) institutions and its different bodies.
Prior to joining Race & Equality, Camilo has worked for European and Latin American NGO networks, implementing advocacy strategies towards the EU with the aim to promote a human rights-based approach in its relations with Latin America and the Caribbean. As a consultant he has facilitated strategic planning and project design processes for civil society organizations, conduct research, policy analysis and drafting of studies. He was also advisor on international affairs and cooperation for the Ministry of Culture of Colombia.
Camilo holds a BA in Economics from Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia, and an Advanced Master in European Integration and Development from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium.
tovar@raceandequality.org
Gaia Hefti
Gaia is the advocacy officer in Geneva and coordinates the advocacy activities before international human rights mechanisms in Geneva, Switzerland.
Prior to joining Race and Equality, Gaia worked with the Mexican Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the democratic space unit, where she focused on the monitoring of abuses against human rights defenders, journalists and during peaceful protests. Additionally, she worked in different local and international human rights organization on human rights education, particularly on international human rights mechanisms, in Chile, Germany and Switzerland.
Gaia holds an Msc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BA in International Studies with a specialization in the Latin Americana region form Leiden University.
hefti@raceandequality.org
Paolla Moura
Paolla handles all communications work for our work on LGBTI rights in Brazil and supports the implementation of our region-wide communications strategy.
Before joining us, Paolla worked in the field of public relations, particularly in cultural and business promotions. She has focused her past work as a journalist and communications specialist on the topics of race, gender, and intersectional feminism, especially the development of Afro-descendant identity and consciousness for social movements seeking racial and gender justice.
Paolla is trained as a journalist and holds a master’s degree in Culture and Territory from Universidad Federal Fluminense (Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil)
jornalista@raceandequality.org
Leilane Reis
Leilane works with the strengthening of Brazilian organizations to combat racism and gender violence, and to promote and defend human rights at the national and international levels.
Leilane is a lawyer, with a master´s degree in law and public policies. She has experience in criminal law. Before joining Race and Equality, she has worked to combat violence against women, and also as a legal assistant in supporting refugee and refugee seekers.
She is currently working on her Ph.D. at PUC/Rio, where she is researching environmental migrations and refuge. She is also a researcher on human rights, forced displacement, extractivist, and environmental justice, with a focus on race and gender.
reis@raceandequality.org
Nathaly Calixto
Nathaly Calixto (she/her) serves as the Brazil Program Officer and is located in the Washington DC office. Her role involves representing the Brazil office at an institutional level in DC and advocating for our partners, effectively elevating their concerns to the highest levels of human rights protection. She actively engages with influential stakeholders, such as the US Congress, State Department, the OAS, and prominent human rights organizations with a regional and global impact.
Nathaly is a lawyer specializing in International Politics and Human Rights, with a Master’s in Political Science and International Relations from NOVA University of Lisbon, and SciencePo-certified in International Migration. She has worked in Brazil, Sri Lanka, and Portugal, conducting research in the fields of migration, international politics and human rights.
calixto@raceandequality.org
Rodnei Jericó da Silva
Lawyer and Coordinator of the Race and Equality Brazil Program. Rodnei is responsible for managing the projects, programs and strategic alliances of Race and Equality in Brazil.
For 23 years he acted as lawyer and coordinator of SOS Racism of Geledés – Black Women’s Institute. He has a postgraduate study in Human Rights from the University of São Paulo (USP), postgraduate in Human Rights and International Law from the Advocates Training Program at Columbia University (NY), also a postgraduate in Civil Law and Civil Procedural Law. Litigator with vast experience in the defense of the rights of the Black population. Since 2001, he has been acting before the International Human Rights Protection Systems, both in the Inter-American Human Rights System and the Universal Human Rights System.
jerico@raceandequality.org
Luz Mateo Cielo
Luz implements the communication strategies of the LGBTI Program working with staff and activists in Latin America and the Caribbean to promote the LGBTI+ work of Race and Equality and our partners.
Previously, she worked as a consultant in the area of communications for various feminist non-governmental organizations such as the Estudio por la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer (DEMUS), Movimiento Manuela Ramos, and Lesbianas Independientes Feministas Socialistas (LIFS), all dedicated to the protection and promotion of the human rights of women and LGBTI+ and gender diverse people.
She has experience carrying out communication campaigns for political and social advocacy incoordination with independent activists, groups, and civil society organizations. Among her most prominent campaigns is #LesbianasCedaw and Generación Z; the first was part of a coalition of human rights organizations and the second, part of a project by UNICEF, Promundo, and Movimiento Manuela Ramos.
Luz has a B.A. in Journalism and Communication from the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC).
lgbticomms@raceandequality.org
Angélica Ricaurte
Angélica is a consultant for the Legal Program for Colombia of the Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights. Collaborates with strategic litigation actions before the Inter-American Human Rights System (SIDH) and the Universal System, and supports the Racial Justice line of the Institute in Colombia through national and international advocacy actions and the strengthening of the capacities of organizations of Afro-Colombian civil society.
Before joining Raza y Igualdad, Angélica worked as a consultant on human trafficking in Panama, Costa Rica and Colombia for the Justice Education Society and as a Latin America Advisor for the Minority Rights Group. She has been a legal and human rights advisor to various territorial entities in Colombia and a Young Researcher for the Colombian Ministry of Science and the Colombian Caribbean Observatory. She was also an intern at the Tippecanoe County Courthouse Public Defense Office in Indiana, United States.
Angélica graduated as a lawyer from the University of Cartagena and has an LL.M. from Pennsylvania State University with a concentration in race and equity studies which she completed as a Fulbright scholarship recipient. She has been an opinion columnist in Colombia and a speaker at various national and international conferences on human rights, receiving recognition and distinctions for her research work.
ricaurte@raceandequality.org
Sara Sánchez
In this role, Sara is in charge of coordinating the administrative, financial, and logistical policies of the Race and Equality office in Colombia.
Before joining Race and Equality, she worked as an Administrative Assistant at the Feminist Kolective Corporation. She also worked at the Humanas Corporation as administrator of the project “Support for the construction of public policies with a gender approach in Colombia”, financed by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation.
Sara is a Business Administrator from the Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia (UNAD), and has extensive experience in planning, executing and optimizing financial resources, mastery in establishing excellent business relationships and office management.
logistic@raceandequality.org
Lina María Velásquez
Lina is a junior researcher in the line of research and advocacy activities against racist police violence in Colombia. She is a Sociologist from the Universidad del Valle.
Before joining Raza e Igualdad, Lina was a research assistant at the Universidad del Valle in the Ethnic-Racial Studies and Labor Studies research group in its different social components in projects related to affirmative action, higher education, and job placement for Afro-descendant populations. and indigenous women, processes of economic strengthening and social leadership of indigenous women, internationalization and characterization of Colombian Universities and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) of the United States.
Lina has participated in the Afro-descendant Foundation for Social and Sexual Diversities SOMOS IDENTIDAD in activities related to training processes from a gender and ethnic-racial approach, in activities to accompany and disseminate affirmative actions for the Afro-descendant population in higher education. She was a scholarship holder of the Martin Luther King program carried out by USAID, Embassy of the United States and Colombo Americano. In 2017 she participated in the School for Advanced Studies in Ethnic-racial Inequalities: dialogues between Africa, America and Europe at the Universidad del Valle.
investigacioncali@raceandequality.org
