Alejandra Ancheita is a lawyer and one of the leading voices in the human rights movement in Latin America. She leads the fight for the rights of the migrant, worker, and indigenous communities in Mexico.
After attending the Human Rights Advocates Program in 2005, Ancheita returned to Mexico and founded ProDESC (Project of Economic, Cultural, and Social Rights), a human rights NGO based in Mexico City whose primary goal is to defend the economic, social, and cultural rights of Mexico’s most marginalized people by fostering the enforcement of and accountability for these rights on a systematic level.
Ancheita has worked on strategic litigation and defense of human rights advocates and local communities. She has also argued cases before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court, and several national courts.
In 2014, she was honored with the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, an annual prize for human rights defenders established in 1993. It is a collaboration of ten of the world’s leading human rights organizations and is often considered akin to a “Nobel Prize for human rights.” The Award provides recognition, protection, and support to human rights defenders who are at risk. She recently attended the Martin Ennals Award 25th anniversary celebration (pictured 2nd from right).
