Lígia Batista

Guest Author

Lígia Batista (@ligiamedb) is a human rights lawyer and executive director of Instituto Marielle Franco, a Brazilian organization created by the family of the former politician and human rights activist murdered in March 2018. Batista is a Master’s candidate at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Public Policy and Human Rights, investigating strategies to overcome the barriers posed to political representation of Black women in Brazil. For six years, she was part of the Research and Advocacy Team at Amnesty International Brazil, addressing human rights violations in the context of police operations, conflict over land and natural resources, forced evictions and repression to peaceful protests. She previously led impactful initiatives as racial justice programme officer for Latin American at Open Society Foundations, aimed at strengthening Black women’s movements in the region. Batista has ten years of experience in promoting racial and gender justice in Brazil and Latin America through research, advocacy, network-building and philanthropy. She is also on LinkedIn.