Eunice Paiva

Maria Lucrécia Eunice Facciolla Paiva was a Brazilian lawyer and activist who challenged the Brazilian military dictatorship. After Brazil's military dictatorship caused the disappearance of her husband, the former federal deputy Rubens Paiva, without a word as to his whereabouts, Eunice confronted a dire need to support herself and her five children; she enrolled and graduated from the Faculty of Law at Mackenzie Presbyterian University, then built a career as a prominent advocate for the human rights of the victims of political repression, doggedly campaigned to open the military dictatorship's closed records, and then championed the rights of Brazil's indigenous peoples.