Latest News
- [ April 14, 2025 ] ‘I Was Up All Night, Like Every Summer’: Storm Deepens Climate Anxiety and Sparks Outrage Among Favela Residents Across Greater Rio de Janeiro, Say #VoicesFromSocialMedia #MediaWatch
- [ April 7, 2025 ] ‘Temporary’ Housing in Santa Cruz Turns 60: Reflecting on Cesarão, the First Housing Complex, and Favela do Aço #EvictionsWatch
- [ March 30, 2025 ] Meet Dona Nete: The Acari Artisan Turning Waste Into Fashion and Championing Zero Waste in the Favela *Highlight
- [ March 27, 2025 ] ‘It’s a Right! Without Water, We’ll Die’: World Water Day Protest Demands the Right to Water in the Favelas of Greater Rio *Highlight
- [ March 24, 2025 ] Storm Hits Model Community Agroecology Project, Exposing Lack of Environmental Policy and Neglect of Favela-Based Climate Solutions in Rio de Janeiro *Highlight
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#InterventionWatch
Latest Articles
#MediaWatch
‘I Was Up All Night, Like Every Summer’: Storm Deepens Climate Anxiety and Sparks Outrage Among Favela Residents Across Greater Rio de Janeiro, Say #VoicesFromSocialMedia
Clique aqui para Português This article is part of RioOnWatch’s ongoing #VoicesFromSocialMedia series, which compiles perspectives posted on social media by favela residents and activists about events and societal themes that arise. Year after year, the problem persists: […]
#EvictionsWatch
‘Temporary’ Housing in Santa Cruz Turns 60: Reflecting on Cesarão, the First Housing Complex, and Favela do Aço
Clique aqui para Português The history of the city of Rio de Janeiro is marked by experiments in segregationist housing policies, which intensified during the Military Dictatorship (1964–1985). Over the course of those decades, the […]
*Highlight
Meet Dona Nete: The Acari Artisan Turning Waste Into Fashion and Championing Zero Waste in the Favela
Clique aqui para Português Since 2022, March 30 has been designated International Day of Zero Waste by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. The date draws attention to the need for sustainable waste management in […]
*Highlight
‘It’s a Right! Without Water, We’ll Die’: World Water Day Protest Demands the Right to Water in the Favelas of Greater Rio
Clique aqui para Português On March 20, just days before World Water Day, popular movements and members of civil society gathered in front of private water utility Águas do Rio to demand the right to […]
*Highlight
Storm Hits Model Community Agroecology Project, Exposing Lack of Environmental Policy and Neglect of Favela-Based Climate Solutions in Rio de Janeiro
Clique aqui para Português The heavy storm that hit Rio de Janeiro on March 12, 2025, caused flooding, fallen trees, and other impacts across Greater Rio. One of the affected areas was the most forested […]
#InterventionWatch
While Population Suffers Impacts of Poor Infrastructure, Greater Rio de Janeiro’s Flood Containment Program Is Delayed and Over Budget
Clique aqui para Português This article is part of a series created in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, to produce articles for the Digital Brazil Project on environmental justice in the favelas […]
RIP ‘Subnormal Agglomerations’
#HousingWatch
Brazilian Government Formally Recognizes ‘Favelas and Urban Communities’ As the Official Term for Informal Settlements Nationwide
By Carmen Nery, IBGE press release, Vinícius Britto, IBGE press release • Translation by Hannah McKenzie • January 31, 2024
Clique aqui para Português For the original press release in Portuguese, published by Brazil’s census bureau, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), click here. The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) is […]
Event Reports
RIP ‘Subnormal Agglomerations,’ Part 3: Peripheral Epistemology in the Design of the Census and Presentation of a New Nomenclature
Clique aqui para Português This is the final article in a series of three about how Brazil’s census bureau, IBGE, held an unprecedented week-long workshop to debate how to change the term “subnormal agglomeration” used […]
Event Reports
RIP ‘Subnormal Agglomerations,’ Part 2: Housing Rights and Favela Stigma in the Official Nomenclature
Clique aqui para Português This is the second article in a series of three about how Brazil’s census bureau, IBGE, held an unprecedented week-long workshop to debate how to change the term “subnormal agglomeration” used […]
Climate Memory in the Favelas
When Memories Collide: ‘Favela Climate Memory’ Exhibition Launched by Rio de Janeiro’s Sustainable Favela Network [VIDEO]
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Favela Climate Memory Circles, Part 5: Vidigal Memories Nucleus Pleads ‘People Need a Place to Live!’
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Favela Climate Memory Circles, Part 4: The Favela Museum in Cantagalo Makes Clear ‘We Need to Change Our Relationship With Garbage’
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Favela Climate Memory Circles, Part 3: NOPH in Antares, Santa Cruz, Where ‘No One Was Supposed to Stay, but 40 Years Went by and They Never Took Action’
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Favela Climate Memory Circles, Part 2: Sankofa Museum in Rocinha Shows That ‘When We Fight Together, We Win’
Videos: Favelas 101
What is a Favela?
Favela as a Sustainable Model
What is a Favela Community Land Trust?
Videos: Human Rights
Rio de Janeiro Street Vendors’ Battle for Rights: My Informal Work Matters
Just One More Step on My Journey: Youth Talk About the Favela During the Pandemic
Quilombo dos Palmares: Living Resistance
Videos: Climate Justice
Favela on Outskirts of Rio Gets Solar! Grassroots Women’s Group & SFN Launch Photovoltaics
Favela Climate Memory Circles 2023—Voices from Maré, Rocinha, Antares, PPG and Vidigal
Get to Know the Course: ‘Researching and Monitoring Water and Energy Justice in the Favelas’
Housing Rights
#EvictionsWatch
‘Temporary’ Housing in Santa Cruz Turns 60: Reflecting on Cesarão, the First Housing Complex, and Favela do Aço
Clique aqui para Português The history of the city of Rio de Janeiro is marked by experiments in segregationist housing policies, which intensified during the Military Dictatorship (1964–1985). Over the course of those decades, the […]
#EvictionsWatch
Without Dialogue or Compensation, Rio de Janeiro City Hall Gives 10 Days Notice to Forcibly Evict the Santa Luzia Community, Which Over Decades Has Fought—And Won—Housing Rights Battles
Clique aqui para Português On January 8, 2025, residents of the Santa Luzia favela, located between the neighborhoods of Vargem Pequena and Vargem Grande in Rio de Janeiro’s West Zone, were blindsided by a ten-day […]
*Highlight
Get to Know Candidates from Favelas for Rio de Janeiro’s City Council
Clique aqui para Português The city of Rio de Janeiro has 5,009,373 registered voters, according to data from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), out of an estimated 6,211,223 people, based on the 2022 national census. […]
Anti-racism
*Highlight
Samba Abstrato Exposes the Whitening of Samba Schools [OPINION]
Clique aqui para Português Launched in 2016, the Samba Abstrato (Abstract Samba) Facebook page was created to document the appropriation and whitening of Brazilian carnival samba schools, as well as to confront the invasion of […]
*Highlight
Queen Diambi Kabatusuila of Congo Visits Rio de Janeiro’s Camorim Quilombo Offering Reconnection Across the Diaspora
Clique aqui para Português During Brazilian Black Awareness Month in 2024, some of Rio de Janeiro’s most important spaces for Black culture were graced with a visit from Her Royal Majesty Queen Diambi Kabatusuila, known […]
*Highlight
Powerful Afro-Brazilian Cultural Event ‘Pedreira de Xangô in Serrinha’ Celebrates 80 Years [IMAGES]
Clique aqui para Português This article is part of RioOnWatch‘s series on Memories of Favela Power, which documents and celebrates the history of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas through narratives and reports from residents’ collective memory, in […]
Human Rights
*Highlight
2024 Retrospective of Top International Reporting on Rio’s Favelas
By Kincaid Cummings • December 26, 2024
Clique aqui para Português From 2013 to 2023, RioOnWatch ran the Best and Worst International Reporting on Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas series. It began, quite symptomatically, with the Worst International Reporting on Rio’s Favelas: 2013, […]
#UPPWatch
Violence Is Literally Sickening: A Mother’s Testimony Corroborates Research Showing That Police Violence and the Denial of the Right to Grieve Cause Physical and Mental Illness in Brazil
Clique aqui para Português “There are days when we just want to cry, to stay in bed, and not speak to anyone because we don’t have our children to hug anymore.” — Gilsara Mendes, mother […]
*Highlight
Get to Know Candidates from Favelas for Rio de Janeiro’s City Council
Clique aqui para Português The city of Rio de Janeiro has 5,009,373 registered voters, according to data from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), out of an estimated 6,211,223 people, based on the 2022 national census. […]
Energy Justice
*Highlight
Understanding Energy Justice and Efficiency in Rio’s Favelas [VIDEO]
Watch the video that summarizes the Energy Justice and Efficiency Series with English subtitles here: Clique aqui para Português This article and the video above offer a summary and conclusion to the series ‘Energy […]
*Highlight
Pedra Branca and the Energy Dilemmas of Rio’s Urbanization: From Charcoal to Electricity
Clique aqui para Português This article is part of a series on energy justice and efficiency in Rio’s favelas. It is also the latest contribution to our year-long reporting project, “Rooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas: Deconstructing […]
*Highlight
Energy That Comes From Waste: Biodigester Turns Sewage into Biogas in Vale Encantado Favela [VIDEO]
Clique aqui para Português This English subtitled documentary is the latest contribution to our series on energy justice and efficiency in Rio’s favelas. It is also part of a series created in partnership with […]
Climate Justice
#MediaWatch
‘I Was Up All Night, Like Every Summer’: Storm Deepens Climate Anxiety and Sparks Outrage Among Favela Residents Across Greater Rio de Janeiro, Say #VoicesFromSocialMedia
Clique aqui para Português This article is part of RioOnWatch’s ongoing #VoicesFromSocialMedia series, which compiles perspectives posted on social media by favela residents and activists about events and societal themes that arise. Year after year, the problem persists: […]
#InterventionWatch
While Population Suffers Impacts of Poor Infrastructure, Greater Rio de Janeiro’s Flood Containment Program Is Delayed and Over Budget
Clique aqui para Português This article is part of a series created in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, to produce articles for the Digital Brazil Project on environmental justice in the favelas […]
#UPPWatch
In Rio de Janeiro, of Two Favelas at Risk of Landslides in the Same Environmental Protection Area, Only One Receives Preventative Measures From the City
Clique aqui para Português This article is part of a series created in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, to produce articles for the Digital Brazil Project on environmental justice in the favelas […]
Podcasts
*Highlight
Between the Political Right and Left, I Choose the Quilombo! [OPINION]
Clique aqui para Português This article is the latest contribution to our award-winning reporting project, Rooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas: Deconstructing Social Narratives About Racism in Rio de Janeiro. We hear about “right” and “left” all the time. […]
*Highlight
A Deeply Personal In-Depth Account of the Typical Racism of Domestic Work in Brazil
Clique aqui para Português This article is the latest contribution to our award-winning reporting project, Rooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas: Deconstructing Social Narratives About Racism in Rio de Janeiro. This story, told by writer and former domestic worker […]
*Highlight
I Want To Read Black Authors: When Will We See Proper Representation in Brazilian Schools and Universities? [OPINION]
Clique aqui para Português This is our latest article in a series created in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, to produce articles for the Digital Brazil Project on climate impacts and affirmative action in […]
From the Archives: 2010-2025
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#Rio2016Gold Medalist Rafaela Silva Welcomed Home in City of God [SLIDESHOW | VIDEO]
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#GentrificationWatchHousing Policy Lessons from Rio’s Favelas Part 3: Distrust, Gentrification and Titling
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#CommunityMediaRio Issues Crisis Alert After Devastating Torrential Rain, Rocinha and Vidigal Hard Hit [VIDEO]
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*HighlightFirst ‘Energy Efficiency in the Favelas’ Report Reveals New Insights About the Impacts of Energy Inefficient Services and Use on Poverty and the Exacerbation of Inequalities
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#GentrificationWatchQuilombo da Gamboa Resists and Demands Social Housing Project in Central Rio
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*Highlight‘Color of Mobility’ Project Addresses the Impacts of Racism on How Black Brazilians Transit Through Cities
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PerceptionsWorld Cup Fans Share Perceptions of Rio’s Favelas
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#EvictionsWatchResidents of Parque Carioca Relocation Housing Express Discontent After Move from Vila Autódromo [IMAGES]
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#EvictionsWatchTemer’s Land Regularization Law, One Year On: Assessing the Impact on Favelas
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Civil SocietyFela Day: A Celebration of Fela Kuti and Black Resistance in Acari