Joel Holden Filártiga Ferreira (15 August 1932 – 5 July 2019) was a Paraguayan doctor, artist and human rights activist.
He became known for his human rights activism after his son, Joelito Filártiga, was killed by the police during the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner in 1976.
[2][3] He was a delegate of the Student Center of the Faculty of Medicine before the University Federation of Paraguay, from where he participated in the struggle against the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner.
[4] Filártiga initially became known for offering health care to poor and indigenous peasants in a clinic that he opened in 1959 in the town of Ybycuí, in Paraguarí.
Police claimed the murder was the result of a "crime of passion", committed by a neighborhood's policeman when he caught Joelito with his wife.