National Congress Threatens Rights of Indians and Quilombolas

 

Fonte: Agencia Senando                                                                                                                               

 

They made us many promises, more than I can

remember, but they never kept but one: they

promised to take our land, and they took it.

Anonymous Indian. (1)

 The biggest event of the century in the fields of sustainability and law was recorded in Brazil this week, with the rejection of the so-called Marco Temporal coup, engineered by the National Congress, which threatens and rejects the rights of Indians and quilombolas, in favor of corporations and landowners.

Not only the Indians, but the entire Brazilian society and the entire world must celebrate such a victory for democracy, human rights, citizenship, and social justice. Finally, the country's largest Court of Justice (STF) set an example to the world that law and sustainability can eliminate barbarism and face the biggest crisis of this century - climate change. 

What has become very important for all Brazilians is that, in the judgment of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), the legal, moral, and ethical right to the recognition of the claims of Indians and quilombolas, undeniably exists.

How the demands will be protected and satisfied must ultimately be determined by the Government and the natives and quilombolas of Brazil. Unfortunately, we have the most ultra-conservative Congress in the country's history which, in a climate of threats, at the service of corporations and landowners, is not in favor of the rights of the Indians.

Soon after the judgment in favor of the Indians, some jurists pointed out some incidents that could happen, provoked by the National Congress against the legal rights of the Indians. This only increases legal uncertainty.

What caused frustration in this trial was that some ministers talked about compensation for those who occupied indigenous lands unduly, but there was no talk about compensation for the Indians for the theft of their lands over hundreds of years. Even though there was a record of a decimated population, no compensation for them was considered.

It turns out that Indians can make a substantive claim for compensation for having been deprived of their rights unchallenged for centuries, but the legal impediments to such claims appear to be formidable. However, for illegal occupants of their land, there appears to be no impediment.

In countries like Canada and the United States, the notion that natives do not have a legal claim to their land, but only a moral and ethical claim, has already been refuted. After two centuries of political and judicial decisions, their right was conclusively demonstrated, in a substantive and exceptional way.

The maneuvers of the National Congress in not wanting to accept the STF's judgment, insinuating changes to laws or the Constitution itself, are unacceptable, disrespecting the STF itself, the UN, and other international institutions.

(1) This quote comes from D. Brown's book – “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”. The place called Wounded Knee, in South Dakota (USA), is where there was a great massacre of around 200 Indians, including many children, carried out by American forces. The American Indian warrior named Crazy Horse was buried there in September 1877.