Alessandra Devulsky, advisor to the Respect for Humanity Office of the Université de Montréal and HEC Montréal, has been elected to a three-year term on the Advisory Committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council, representing Latin America and the Caribbean. Originally from Brazil, she studied to become a lawyer in her native country. She then came to Quebec to carry out research funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, where she has remained ever since.
Brazil nominated the woman who has been working to preserve the human rights of the most vulnerable in her home country for over 20 years.
Vulnerable communities often see their rights violated because, for example, certain projects jeopardize their traditional way of life by destroying the natural resources on which they depend," she explains. Brazil is home to the largest African diaspora and was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery, in 1888. I also work a great deal with the black community, which experiences a great deal of discrimination and violence.
In 2006, Alessandra Devulsky co-founded the Instituto Luiz Gama in Brazil, a human rights organization that provides popular education and training.
In Quebec, before arriving at UdeM, she worked in the community, where she was able to familiarize herself with the local reality. "Unfortunately, when you look at human rights abuses in Brazil and Canada, it’s very similar, especially with regard to the aboriginal and black communities," she says.
Then, as a lecturer in law at the Université du Québec à Montréal, she worked to create links between these communities in Canada and Latin America, so that they could share their strategies.
Alessandra Devulsky has written numerous articles and the book Colorismo - Le colorisme in French. He talks about the hierarchy that exists between racialized people: the closer they are to phenotypical traits associated with Africanness such as frizzy hair and dark skin, the more they are discriminated against. "This stems from colonization processes and we see it in Latin America, but also in the United States, Europe and Canada," she points out. A decolonial approach to human rights is the only way to deal with these issues."
A voice for the voiceless
While remaining at UdeM, Alessandra Devulsky will be examining various problem situations as a member of the Advisory Committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council. She will be able to make proposals, draw up reports, request investigations and so on. Action can then be taken."I’ve always worked in the field of human rights, but doing so within a UN structure will give my actions a wider reach. States can be mobilized to change laws, public policies, etc.", she says.
For the daughter of Brazilian human rights lawyer and environmentalist Augusto Mario da Silva, there could be no greater mission. "I’ll be drawing attention to the situation of people who don’t have much economic power, very vulnerable communities who only have the international system to defend themselves," she says. My role will be to give a voice to those who are not heard."
