The mission of ANIS: Instituto de Bioética, Direitos Humanos e Gênero, or the Institute of Bioethics, Human Rights, and Gender, is to promote bioethics and human rights in a feminist matrix of social justice. One of ANIS’ founders, Debora Diniz, now serves on the Board of Directors of IWHC. IWHC has supported ANIS since 2005.

 "ANIS is a fellowship forum for knowledge-building and social intervention in public policy and human rights." --Debora Diniz, co-founder

Projects

ANIS organizes its work through two programs supported by four Support Hubs.

• Court Observatory Program: Aimed at proposing measures to the judiciary, particularly the Federal Supreme Court, and participating in actions under way put forward by other entities.
  
• Policy Observatory Program: Provides advising on public and social policy changes and proposes new policy designs. ANIS’s lines of research and intervention are sexual rights, reproductive rights, human rights, secularity, HIV/AIDS, genetics, right to health, mental health, and disabilities.
  

Support Hubs:

• LetrasLivres [FreeLetters] Hub: The publishing arm that publishes books with research findings and implements program activities.
• ImagensLivres [FreeImages] Hub: The audiovisual arm that produces documentaries and videos with a view to providing evidence for program actions. Six films have already been produced, garnering 50 awards and screened at 77 festivals and on five television channels.
  
• IdeaisLivres [FreeIdeas] Hub: Disseminates ANIS’s work and research, increasing its membership through training courses in bioethics and human rights, as well as to reach the general public through weekly podcasts. It also offers outreach and specialization courses and workshops on human rights and bioethics throughout the country in partnership with research institutes and universities. 
• Information and Documentation Center Hub: The organizational arm for institutional information and scientific communication and surveys sources of information for research. It provides support for all institutional actions.  

Impact

ANIS’s main campaign in the last five years proposes the right to abortion in cases of anencephalic fetuses. ANIS was a party to a case before the Federal Supreme Court (STF) that requested a guarantee for the right to abort in such cases. Since 2004, it has already produced two subsidy petitions to justices on the STF, two documentaries and a video on the topic, and three books. More than a thousand people signed the online petition to raise the awareness of STF justices. More than two million people viewed the films in Brazil and abroad. In terms of its impact, the campaign reached every woman who received a diagnosis of anencephaly and currently has to turn to the justice system to interrupt gestation on a case-by-case basis. 

To learn more about ANIS:

• Visit their website
• Follow them on Twitter
• Check out their YouTube channel

Watch advocacy videos made by ANIS:

• Uma História Severina [The Story of Severina] - trailer and full-length
  
• Quem São Elas? [Who Are These Women?] - trailer and full-length
• Habeas Corpus - trailer and full-length
• À Margem do Corpo [Alongside the Body] - trailer and full-length
• Solitário Anônimo [Anonymous and Alone] - trailer and full-length
• A Casa dos Mortos [The House of the Dead] - trailer
• Anencefalia [Anencephaly]- short
  

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