Gustavo Miranda Coutinho

Gustavo Miranda Coutinho (he/him) is a Brazilian lawyer, researcher and human rights activist focused on LGBTI+ rights, racial equality and the protection of human rights defenders.

He began his career at the LGBTI+ Human Rights Center of Bahia, where he worked on severe human rights violations. He then worked as a lawyer for the Federal Program for the Protection of Threatened Victims and Witnesses where he began to articulate protection policies in Brazil. He has been a member of several coalitions, including the Brazilian Committee of Human Rights Defenders. He is currently a consultant to the Brazilian Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship.

He was vice president and president of the Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians, Transvestites, Transsexuals and Intersexuals (ABGLT), where he coordinated a network of 350 civil society organizations and advanced ABGLT’s strategic litigation and advocacy. He is currently the operations coordinator of the International Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Intersex Association - Latin America and the Caribbean (ILGALAC) where he is developing the organization's programmatic areas and advocacy in the Inter-American human rights system.

He holds a master’s degree in Constitutional Law which he earned on the Diogo Sant'Anna Scholarship for Black Students at the Brazilian Institute of Education and Research.

He was recognized for writing the best dissertation in 2023, “Anti-gender human rights: The revision of the rationality of human rights by the Bolsonaro government in LGBTI+ policies (2019-2022).”

Gustavo is a participant in the 2024-25 Human Rights Advocates Program at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University.