human rights
Brazil: Legislative initiative could disadvantage indigenous people
“Climate emergency – the answer is us” reads the placard (r) of an indigenous demonstrator who is protesting in Brasilia against the draft law designating protected areas. photo
© Gustavo Moreno/AP
During the election campaign, Brazil’s current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promised to prioritize the protection of indigenous peoples. Now a sharply criticized law lands on his desk.
Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies has approved a law intended to limit the designation of protected areas for indigenous people, which the left-wing government has criticized as an instrument of genocide. Yesterday, 283 parliamentarians voted in favor of the initiative, 155 against.
The approval in the Chamber of Deputies was seen as a defeat for the government. The text will now go to the Senate for confirmation before being presented to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who can still veto it.
The law provides that only land inhabited by indigenous peoples on the day the constitution was promulgated, October 5, 1988, can be designated as a protected area. Critics complain that indigenous peoples would then no longer be able to get back tribal areas from which they were previously expelled. In addition, invaders who had to give back indigenous lands could claim compensation. Furthermore, in the future there could be a legal basis for contacting isolated indigenous peoples, for example to “enforce government measures of public benefit.”
The Minister for Indigenous Peoples, Sônia Guajajara, criticized the legislative initiative. “The project constitutes lawful genocide because it directly affects isolated peoples. It allows third parties access to areas inhabited by people who have not had any contact with society,” she said.