Tortura Nunca Mais

(Rio de Janeiro)

   / Torture-Never Again

   A human-rights nongovernmental organization in Brazil. It was founded in 1985 by former political prisoners and by relatives of the dead and missing (desaparecidos). Its objectives are to fight human-rights violations of all kinds; to support people who fight for human rights in the world; to collaborate with national and international human-rights organizations; to offer assistance—both physical and psychological—to victims of organized violence; and to ensure that the human-rights violations of Brazil’s military dictatorship are not forgotten, especially the imprisonments, tortures, deaths, and disappearances. Because of its efforts, torturers have been removed from public office, health professionals who collaborated with torturers—by issuing false reports, for example—have lost their licenses, and victims have been honored by having roads and schools named after them. Each year it awards the Chico Mendes medal to people or organizations that struggle for human rights in Brazil or elsewhere. It also denounces cases of torture, both old and new, and urges that the violators be brought to justice.