Raquely Portela is a human rights lawyer and activist from Amazonas, Brazil.
In 2018, she co-founded the Commission on Refugees and Immigrants’ Rights (CODRI) of the Brazilian Bar Association of Amazonas. Since then, Raquely has been leading a group of 12 lawyers who have impacted more than 3,088 lives from Venezuela, Colombia, Lebanon, Haiti, among other nationalities. The Commission helps refugees to rebuild their lives in peace and security through free legal orientation, support with document issuing and diploma revalidation, relocation of homeless refugees to the city shelters, offering free language courses and lectures on Brazilian legislation to refugees, in addition to launching awareness campaigns about the importance of refugee’s inclusion in Brazil.
As a result of the work done at CODRI, Raquely received two Motions of Congratulations from the Legislative Assembly of Amazonas and a Certificate of Honor presented at the City Council of Manaus. She was the first Brazilian to win the Outstanding Youth Delegate Award at the Youth Assembly (2019) and was a Diana Award recipient (2021) – the highest accolade a young person can win for their humanitarian work in honor of the people’s Princess.
Raquely works as Field Assistant at the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Brazil. She recently founded “SDGs in Schools”, a youth-led project that aims to empower young people to become agents of positive change in their communities, by giving lectures and disseminating information about the Sustainable Development Goals, leadership and international youth opportunities.