Brazil and the Netherlands: together for equal rights

News item | 16-05-2025 | 07:59

Around the world, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people and people with diverse gender identities and sexualities (LGBTIQ+ people) face discrimination and violence. This is wrong. Everyone should have the right to be themselves. It doesn't matter who you are or whom you love. That is why the Netherlands promotes equal rights for LGBTIQ+ people worldwide.

Brazil recognises the basic rights of LGBTIQ+ people, which are properly safeguarded. Homosexuality has not been criminalised under modern Brazilian law since 1830, when the country adopted a new penal code that explicitly repealed the ‘sodomy laws’ inherited from Portugal. This made Brazil one of the first countries to decriminalise same-sex activity. More recently, same-sex marriage has been legalised.

However, there is a big difference in the degree of acceptance of LGBTIQ+ people between the countryside and the big cities. Acceptance of homosexuality is increasing in Brazil among young, highly educated and even religious people, but like in the Netherlands, here too there is a significant difference between urban and rural areas.

 

There is still a lot of violence against LGBTIQ+-persons. In 2025, Brazil marks its 17th consecutive year as the country with the highest number of trans killings in the world. The profile of the victims is alarming: it is mostly aimed at black transwomen from the North-East of Brazil, living in poverty, who are being murdered in the most cruel ways in public spaces. We also see violence against LGBTIQ+ persons in the Netherlands, although currently on a smaller scale. Therefore we understand the complexity of implementing law in practice. That’s why we keep working together with NGO’s, human rights activists and the Brazilian authorities to ensure the safety of LGBTIQ+-persons and aim for acceptance among all groups, regardless of identity or background.

What we do 

We support many projects and efforts that contribute to this goal. For one of the projects we have been collaborating with the Associação de Travestis, Transexuais e Transgeneros do Estado de Roraima (Association of Transvestites, Transsexuals and Transgender People of Roraimo State – ATERR). This project’s main goal is to develop community-based action to support the most vulnerable LGBTIQ+ groups, such as homeless migrants living with HIV. The project defends LGBTIQ+ human rights and strives for equity in care in public shelters and health services. 

Project activities:

  • Community-based action in places where LGBTIQ+ people socialise in cities in Roraima State, in order to promote the dissemination of legal information on basic civil documentation, provide guidance to promote citizenship, and raise LGBTIQ+ people’s awareness of their rights. 
  • Training people in the community to promote and defend LGBTIQ+ rights, disseminate knowledge and eliminate the everyday violence that accompanies the denial of rights. 
  • Visiting migrant shelters as sites of community-based action to inform LGBTIQ+ migrants of their rights.
  • Organising in public service centres, such as health clinics, to defend people’s right to have their gender identity respected.

Project results: 

  • Community rights defenders are able to pass on information about LGBTIQ+ human rights where people are based.
  • Public health services in cities in Roraima are serving LGBTIQ+ people with dignity and respect.
  • Community-based action is informing the general population about LGBTIQ+ rights .
  • The quality of information provided to the LGBTIQ+ community about their rights has improved. 
  • LGBTIQ+ migrants in shelters are more receptive to the activities.

To learn more about this project or collaborate with the Dutch embassy on an LGBTIQ+ initiative in Brazil, get in touch.