Elisa Beatriz Barrios
Elisa Beatriz Barrios is a woman human rights defender from Paraguay and a member of human rights organisation Rebeldes del Sur (Rebels of the South), where she assists on the promotion of the rights to adequate housing, women’s rights, and the right to self-determination. Elisa Barrios is locally recognised for her human rights work in the marginalised neighborhood of Bañado Sur, in the outskirts of Asunción, where she lives with her family.
Women human rights defenders in Paraguay working to secure sexual and reproductive rights face considerable risks as a result of their human rights work. Land rights defenders have faced particularly violent repression. In 2012, one of the lead figures of the land rights movement, Mr Vidal Vega, former head of the Campesinos sin Tierra (Peasants without Land) and a key witness into the Curuguaty massacre, was assassinated in front of his family.
