GELEDÉS Instituto da Mulher Negra was founded on April 30, 1988. It is a civil society organization that stands in defense of women and blacks because it understands that these two social segments suffer from disadvantages and discrimination in access to social opportunities due to racism and sexism in force in Brazilian society.

It is also positioned against all other forms of discrimination that limit the realization of full citizenship, such as lesbophobia, homophobia, regional, creed, opinion, and social class prejudices.

From this perspective, the priority areas for Geledés' political and social action are racial issues, gender issues, the implications of these issues for human rights, education, health, communication, the labor market, academic research, and public policies.

In all of these topics, Geledés develops their own projects or in partnership with other organizations that defend citizenship rights, in addition to monitoring the public debate on each of them in Brazil and in the world on the Geledés Portal.

On the racial issue, Geledés joins the struggles of black movements for the effective criminalization of racism and racial discrimination in its multiple manifestations in Brazilian society and defends affirmative action policies in the different fields of public policies as a way of eliminating racial inequalities and promotion and social enhancement of the black population.

On gender issues, Geledés is aligned with the feminist agenda, acting against domestic and sexual violence against women, for the achievement of equality in the labor market, in defense of women's reproductive and sexual rights, for the decriminalization of abortion, against the stereotypes and stigmas that are reproduced about women in the media. On the theme of violence against women, it developed the PLP 2.0 App, to help women in situations of violence.

In relation to human rights, the Human Rights Program de Geledés historically constitutes an instrument of visibility of the racial dimension that the problem of human rights has in Brazilian society. Human rights violations in Brazil combine social and racial exclusion to shape the patterns of violation of rights, of human dignity that disproportionately affect the black population. From this perspective, they've developed coping strategies using legal instruments available to assist victims of racism, empowering community leaders to exercise citizenship rights, systematizing and producing knowledge that allows the political incidence of black women in Brazilian society through an educational strategy that emphasizes the interdependence and indivisibility of human, civil, political,

In the area of education, it is conceived as a human right, and the Geledés Education Program guides its action to protect, ensure, and expand the educational rights of black women and men. To understand education as a human right is to identify that it is up to the Brazilian State to guarantee and enforce the right to education and that education systems develop an education appropriate to all people, thus fulfilling the obligations determined by national and international legislation.

To ensure the effectiveness of these standards, it operates in a network, with various sectors of civil society, at the national level, for the defense of quality public education and for more investments in the area of ​​education.

They've developed projects for the implementation of Law 10639/03 that changed the LDB; training of education professionals and publication of teaching materials aimed at combating racism and sexism.

Communication is a human right, and from this perspective, the Geledés Communication Program includes the subject as a vital issue for social movements in general and black women in particular, as well as visibility tool, the communication is handled as a nexus of empowerment. In this sense, it invests in the training of black women in communication, media, and advocacy, and in networking through Black Communicators, a strategy for training in communication and the empowerment of activists and institutions of social movements.

Regarding the health theme, the Geledés Health Program carries out political articulation with other non-governmental organizations and the social movement, to interfere in the elaboration and implementation of public policies in the area of ​​health and sexual and reproductive rights, which meet the needs and interests of black women in particular and the black population in general. It develops health prevention and promotion projects and works to implement the National Health Plan for the Black Population, as a way of reducing the higher standards of morbidity and mortality found in the black population when compared to the white population.

Geledés participates in various initiatives of civil society for Monitoring and Advocacy in Public Policies, at the municipal, state, and federal levels, acting in various instances of social control, aimed at promoting gender and race equality. While waiting internationally, they work on UN initiatives and monitors the work of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; participates in the efforts of various civil society organizations in the Americas to approve the Inter-American Convention on Sexual Rights and Reproductive Rights. Geledés has consultative status with the Organization of American States-OAS.