Brazil: Recognize Indigenous Land Rights

April 12, 2023 10:30AM EDT
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Indigenous people call for greater protection of their land and rights at the Acampamento Terra Livre (Free Land Camp) in Brasilia, an annual protest held by Indigenous peoples from throughout Brazil, April 6, 2022. © 2022 Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images



(São Paulo, April 12, 2023) – Brazil should not impose an arbitrary cutoff date that curtails the land rights of Indigenous peoples, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Solicitor General Jorge Messias.

His office should immediately review a harmful legal opinion that Indigenous communities cannot obtain formal recognition of their lands if they were not physically present on them on October 5, 1988, the day Brazil’s Constitution was enacted, or if they had not initiated legal claims by that date.

“During the campaign and after being elected President Lula promised to defend Indigenous rights,” said Maria Laura Canineu, Brazil director at Human Rights Watch. “The Lula administration should deliver on that promise by rejecting, without delay, the harmful rule used by the Temer and Bolsonaro administrations to arbitrarily block land claims by many Indigenous people.”

Thousands of Indigenous peoples are preparing for an annual mobilization in Brasília between April 24 and 28, 2023, called Free Land Camp (“Acampamento Terra Livre” in Portuguese). As they gather in Brasilia, they will demand protection of their rights, including demarcation of their territories. This procedure sets out what land belongs to Indigenous peoples and provides them with secure collective legal rights over that land.

More:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/04/12/brazil-recognize-indigenous-land-rights