Washington. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) and the Office for South America of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights denounce the slow progress in the demarcation of indigenous territories in Brazil.
In a joint appeal, they emphasize that these delays would fuel violence against indigenous communities. They are urgently calling on the state to accelerate the process in order to stop the ongoing legal uncertainty and thus the escalation of violence.
The state must take urgent measures to ensure the demarcation and titling of indigenous areas. In addition, the right to collective ownership must be respected without applying the thesis of the Marco Temporal deadline regulation. This cut-off date rule is a legal interpretation that states that indigenous peoples are only entitled to land that they actually occupied on the day the Brazilian Constitution was promulgated, October 5, 1988.
The two international organizations made their statement after increasing reports of attacks by private individuals and law enforcement on indigenous communities in Brazil in recent months. The situation has led to the “forced displacement of communities and the deaths of several of their members who were defending their lands,” it said.
The leaders of the Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe people, Lucas Santos de Oliveira and Maria de Fátima Muniz de Andrade, as well as Neri Ramos da Silva, a young indigenous man from the Guaraní Kaiowá people, were killed between December 2023 and September 2024 .
According to the authorities, this wave of violence was exacerbated by Law No. 14,701, which aims to finally establish the Marco Temporal legally. Critics say that 500 years Land grab should be legalized once again.
Congress passed the law in October 2023 despite an executive veto and an initial declaration of unconstitutionality. However, the Supreme Court’s final decision on the unconstitutionality of the law is still pending.
In this context, the CIDH and the UN Human Rights Office recall the special attachment of indigenous peoples to their territories and the obligation of States to guarantee their human rights: “Indigenous peoples have the right to special protection of their physical, psychological and cultural integrity, including the protection of their culture, their territory and their right to self-determination, as well as the right to a life free from violence, discrimination and exploitation.”
Consequently, Brazil must take immediate and effective measures to prevent, investigate and punish acts that threaten the integrity of indigenous communities, whether committed by third parties or by representatives of the state.
This must be in addition to protective measures for indigenous communities that are under immediate threat, the organizations said.
