Anderson Freitas

Anderson Freitas is a district attorney for the Public Ministry of the State of Bahia, Brazil, an independent state agency responsible for the public prosecution. He has extensive experience as a trial attorney, having investigated and prosecuted a broad range of cases, including police misconduct charges and corruption cases within the public administration. In 2007, Anderson was selected by the Fulbright Scholarship Board to attend the Hubert H. Humphrey Program at American University – Washington College of Law, in Washington D.C. Particularly interested in justice sector reform and in community-based justice initiatives, Anderson has developed a low-cost, audiovisual system of documenting judicial hearings procedures that have substantially reduced time spent with proceedings in several criminal courts around his home state. He is also a member of a high-level interagency state committee on public security and has coordinated a working group on community-based law enforcement strategies. More recently, Anderson was appointed to head a newly-established regional office that specializes in the prosecution and prevention of environmental violations. He intends to apply his experiences as a Rotary Peace Fellow to advance sustainable development in his jurisdiction – comprising one of the state’s fastest growing regions – by developing a culture of conflict-solving, social participation and environmental justice. Anderson also plans to get involved in continuing education, by designing and implementing innovative training programs for his fellow prosecutors in Brazil.