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	Controversial Brazil law curbing Indigenous rights comes into force by OHCHR, HRW, Mongabay, agencies Brazil   July 2024   Brazil must protect Indigenous Peoples’ lands, territories and resources, says UN Special Rapporteur.   A human rights expert has called on the Brazilian Supreme Court and Senate to secure the rights of Indigenous Peoples to lands, territories and natural resources and suspend applicability of a constitutionally challenged law that risks depriving or evicting them from traditional lands. The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Jose Francisco Cali Tzay, issued the following statement:   “While I commend the Supreme Court of Brazil for its ruling rejecting the ‘Marco Temporal’ doctrine, I am particularly concerned by the short time that elapsed between the ruling concluded in September 2023, and the Congress’ adoption of Law 14.701/2023 on December 2023 that implements this doctrine.   It remained unclear what could justify a re-discussion of the legal understanding already determined by the Supreme Court, given this short period of time. I am also concerned about new legislative initiatives at the Senate that aim at consolidating the ‘Marco Temporal’ doctrine in the Constitution.   The Marco Temporal (‘Temporal Framework’) establishes that the demarcation of indigenous territories is conditioned on the occupation of the lands claimed at the time Brazil’s constitution was adopted on 5 October 1988.   On several occasions, my mandate has criticised the implementation of the Marco Temporal doctrine and its acceptance by the highest court of Brazil would have resulted in a violation of international human rights standards that recognise Indigenous Peoples rights to their lands based on traditional use and possession without temporal limitation.   Law 14.701/2023 regulating the Temporal Framework doctrine is challenged before the Supreme Court of Brazil through five legal processes seeking a declaration of unconstitutionality. On 22 April 2024, the Supreme Court suspended these legal processes and suggested instead a process of mediation and conciliation of Indigenous Peoples’ and agribusinesses’ interests.   I am concerned that this suspension is aimed at legal processes that discuss the constitutionality of Law 14.701 but it does not prevent the questioned law from being applied to all the ongoing demarcation processes, which can lead to irreparable harm.   The rights of Indigenous Peoples are upheld and guaranteed by international legal standards, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the ILO Convention No. 169, and they are not alienable and cannot be negotiated.   Indigenous Peoples rights must be recognised, applied and respected at both federal and state levels – whether through demarcation processes and protection of indigenous lands and territories, or through the implementation of national policies to ensure the right to life, health and security of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil.   I remind the Brazilian State that lands and territories traditionally owned or occupied by Indigenous Peoples are the defining elements of their identity, and culture and their relationship with ancestors and future generations.   Opening the path for extractive policies solely for business interests will legitimise violence against Indigenous Peoples and violate their rights to traditional lands, territories and natural resources.   In the context of climate change, the lands traditionally owned or occupied by Indigenous Peoples are vital for the protection of biodiversity contributing to climate balance due to the harmonious and spiritual relationship that they maintain with nature.   Allowing mining activities, gold exploitation and cattle breeding would also formalise a complete environmental setback, compromising the fulfilment of the goals assumed by Brazil under international treaties aimed at reversing climate change as a matter of urgency.   I call on the Supreme Court of Brazil to suspend the application of Law 14.701 until a ruling on its constitutionality has been adopted. This suspension could prevent an imminent risk to the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil of being deprived or evicted of their traditional lands under Law 14.701, currently in force. I also call on the Senate to respect international human rights standards that recognise Indigenous Peoples rights to their lands and territories without temporal limitation.”   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/07/brazil-must-protect-indigenous-peoples-lands-territories-and-resources-says   Dec. 2023   Controversial Brazil law curbing Indigenous rights comes into force, by Constance Malleret in Rio de Janeiro.   A controversial law curtailing Indigenous rights in Brazil has come into force, marking a victory for the powerful agribusiness caucus in congress.   The new legislation upholds the so-called “time marker” theory (marco temporal), which establishes that Indigenous peoples can only lay claim to land they physically occupied as of October 1988, when the current constitution was promulgated.   Critics say this fails to acknowledge that many Indigenous groups had been displaced from their ancestral lands before that date, notably during Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship, and will invalidate scores of legitimate claims for Indigenous land demarcation.   Brazil’s supreme court vindicated such claims when it ruled that the time marker thesis was unconstitutional in a 9-2 vote in September. But less than a week later the senate voted to enshrine the theory into law.   President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva went on to veto several parts of the bill, but the conservative-dominated congress overrode his veto by a wide margin earlier in December. The final law was published in the official gazette on Thursday.   “The promulgation is an attack on Indigenous communities and the environment. The law will have a negative impact on the conservation of forests, the fight against climate change, and the future of generations to come,” the Indigenous congresswoman Celia Xakriaba said.   Dubbed “the Indigenous genocide law” by the Climate Observatory environmental watchdog, the new legislation opens the door to activities such as road-building, mining, dam construction and agricultural projects on Indigenous lands – protected territories which serve as an important safeguard against deforestation.   Three of Lula’s vetoes were maintained by congress as a result of a political deal struck between the government and the opposition: the final law does not authorise contact with isolated groups, nor does it permit the use of genetically modified crops on Indigenous territories or give the government permission to reclaim land from groups whose cultural traits are deemed to have changed.   Activists warn that the law nonetheless represents a clear attack on Indigenous rights and exposes Native Brazilians to the risk of further violence.   Indigenous organisations and leftist political parties have said they are preparing to challenge the law in the supreme court.   The minister for Indigenous peoples, Sonia Guajajara, told the Folha de S Paulo newspaper her office would also appeal to the country’s top court to block legislation which “goes completely against the climate agreements that Brazil has been building internationally … and puts the rights and protection of Indigenous peoples and territories at risk”.   Speaking in a government broadcast last week, Guajajara said she remained optimistic: “The supreme court has already declared the thesis unconstitutional, it is hardly going to go back on its own decision. So there is still hope.”   http://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/28/brazil-law-indigenous-land-rights-claim-time-marker http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/07/brazil-must-protect-indigenous-peoples-lands-territories-and-resources-says http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2023/09/brazil-supreme-court-ruling-favour-ancestral-land-rights http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/sep/25/we-defended-our-right-to-the-land-brazils-indigenous-people-hail-supreme-court-victory http://www.context.news/nature/indigenous-brazilians-cheer-land-claims-win-but-fight-goes-on http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2023/06/brazil-un-expert-concerned-about-legal-doctrine-threatening http://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/majority-of-brazils-congress-votes-against-indigenous-land-rights/ http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/13693 http://www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/29/brazil-reject-harmful-bill-indigenous-rights http://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/the-counterstrike-brazilian-congress-moves-to-block-lulas-environmental-agenda/   June 2023   Jump in child deaths reveals impact of industrialisation on Amazon’s Indigenous peoples, by Flavia Milhorance in Rio de Janeiro.   The infant mortality rate among the Indigenous peoples of Brazil jumped by 16% last year, according to new data, as experts warn that the expansion of legal and illegal extractive industries in the Amazon rainforest has had profound effects on the health and quality of life of Indigenous people living in unprotected areas.   Over the past 50 years, the Amazon’s landscape has changed dramatically, with about 17% of the primary forest now gone, replaced by towns, roads, cattle ranches, mines and vast fields of soya beans.   But the Indigenous people who have inhabited the Amazon for millennia have benefited little from this development boom. Instead, these groups reflect the country’s lowest levels of social progress, particularly those who live outside protected territories.   “It is clear that Indigenous lands that are demarcated and protected by the state have greater self-sufficiency, greater health and sustainability for communities,” said Ricardo Weibe Tapeba, the secretary for Indigenous health in Brazil.   However, the failure of the state in recent years to recognise and oversee Indigenous territories has allowed invasions of loggers, illegal “wildcat” miners and drug gangs, as well as land speculation by agricultural and extractive businesses.   “The lack of state presence can lead to chaos and a health emergency, as we’ve recently seen,” said Tapeba.   Appointed after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took over Brazil’s presidency in January, Tapeba referred in particular to the crisis in the Yanomami territory, close to the borders of Venezuela. The community, in particular children, have been struggling with hunger and disease.   Data provided by the health ministry to the Guardian shows that the Yanomami health district has the worst Indigenous infant mortality in the country, at almost 80 deaths per 1,000 live births. This is more than seven times the Brazilian average, and 20 times the rate of England and Wales.   Infant mortality is a common indicator for assessing a country’s quality of life, according to the health ministry. In the case of the Indigenous areas, the rate is “also directly linked to deficient land management and external influences, such as illegal mining”, Tapeba said.   As in several Indigenous communities in the Amazon, large numbers of outsiders began entering the Yanomami’s land in the early 1970s, after Brazil’s military dictatorship opened roads through the region, driving environmental destruction and epidemics.   But the latest Yanomami crisis has been brewing since 2019, driven by the rising price of gold in international markets along with the dismantling of environmental enforcement under the government of the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.   The Indigenous groups in the Tapajos region, in the eastern Brazilian part of the Amazon, also face complex problems. Both legal and illegal mining are expanding in the area, and health authorities are struggling to deal with rising infectious disease, mercury contamination and children dying from preventable causes, according to the health ministry’s data and recent research. An aggravating factor is the pending demarcation of various Indigenous territories.   Alessandra Korap is an Indigenous leader of the Munduruku people from Sawre Muybu, an undemarcated territory in the Tapajos. The legal recognition of their land, which had been halted for seven years, moved one step closer in April. “The demarcation is critical for us,” said Korap, who hopes that this will help curb the predatory activities of outsiders and improve the health of her people.   Korap got the news when she was preparing to receive this year’s Goldman Environmental prize in New York. The award acknowledged her efforts for more than a decade in battling against mining activities in Sawre Muybu.   The Sawre Muybu is a 178,000-hectare (440,000-acre) rainforest in Itaituba, the region with the largest mining area in Brazil, according to Mapbiomas, which monitors land use. However, the activity has brought little progress to Itaituba, which ranks low in the Amazon’s social and environmental health.   “We must question if the last 70 years of mining exploitation are really making the Tapajos richer,” said Caetano Scannavino, co-founder of Projeto Saude e Alegria (Health and Happiness Project).   His organisation helped supply clean water to Sawre Muybu and other riverside and Indigenous villages in the Tapajos basin. Scannavino said waterborne diseases were common in these communities – and the main cause of children’s deaths.   Indigenous infant mortality has historically been higher than Brazil’s overall rate. Preliminary data by the health ministry pointed to 31 deaths of Indigenous children for every 1,000 live births across Brazil in 2022, a 16% increase on the previous year and the highest since 2010. This is the same rate for the Tapajos health district.   The health ministry said acute diarrhoea has been affecting Indigenous people for many years, indicating the territories’ low levels of health and development. Among 34 Indigenous health districts, the Tapajos has the third-worst levels of diarrhoeal disease, behind only the Yanomami and the Solimões regions, in northern Brazil close to the borders of Peru.   “In the third millennium, losing a child for something as silly as diarrhoea – something that could have been prevented – can’t be accepted, can’t be normalised,” said Scannavino.   Along with environmental destruction, malaria has also risen around the Tapajos region, according to the health ministry. In 2022, the infection affected 4,687 people, the highest figure in a decade. Research had shown that Amazon deforestation increases the transmission of malaria, and recent evidence suggests the disease appears near mining sites, where wildcat miners clear the forest and leave pools in the soil, making it easier for mosquitoes to breed.   In 2021, illegal mining and deforestation were so intense that they changed the water colour of the Tapajós basin, as a police investigation found. “These people lived by a river known for its green and crystalline waters, but today it is muddy – mainly due to gold mining,” said Scannavino, who added that urbanisation moved faster through the region than sanitation.   Illegal mining is contaminating not only the Tapajos River but its riverside and Indigenous communities. Paulo Basta, a researcher from Brazil’s Fiocruz biomedical research institute, led a series of studies that found mercury levels above safe thresholds in Indigenous people.   “The material we have so far is unequivocal evidence of the negative impacts caused by the indiscriminate use of mercury by mining activity,” he said.   His team also found neurological disabilities in people with high levels of mercury. They will now investigate the rising number of children born with congenital malformations in the region, following Indigenous women from pregnancy until their children are two years old.   The work has attracted the attention of Kunihiko Yoshida, a lawyer and professor at Hokkaido University in Japan, who visited Sawre Muybu in March and is tracing cases of Minamata disease around the world.   The disease is a severe form of mercury poisoning that gained recognition in the late 1950s after a plant discharged contaminants into streams, contaminating fish that was later eaten by the population of the Japanese city of Minamata. Yoshida’s plan is to set up an international alliance to support victims, some of whom potentially will come from the Amazon.   “We have the negative legacy about the Minamata disease, but our knowledge might be helpful,” Yoshida said. “In the Amazon, I guess that the closer an Indigenous community is to illegal mining sites, the more serious their symptoms might be.”   http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/jun/05/jump-in-child-deaths-reveals-mining-impact-on-amazon-indigenous-peoples http://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/25/brazil-congress-environment-indigenous-ministry-powers http://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/more-evidence-backs-indigenous-territories-as-best-safeguard-against-amazon-deforestation/   22 Jan. 2023   Lula accuses Bolsonaro of genocide against Yanomami in Amazon   Brazil’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has accused Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right administration of committing genocide against the Yanomami people of the Amazon, amid public outrage over a humanitarian catastrophe in the country’s largest Indigenous territory.   Lula visited the Amazon state of Roraima on Saturday to denounce the plight of the Yanomami, whose supposedly protected lands have been plunged into crisis by government neglect and the explosion of illegal mining.   “More than a humanitarian crisis, what I saw in Roraima was a genocide. A premeditated crime against the Yanomami, committed by a government impervious to the suffering of the Brazilian people,” Lula tweeted on Sunday, one day after visiting an overcrowded clinic for Yanomami patients in Roraima’s capital, Boa Vista.   Lula’s justice minister, Flávio Dino, said he would order a federal police investigation into “strong indications” the Yanomami had suffered crimes including genocide – meaning the deliberate attempt to partially or completely destroy an ethnic, national, racial or religious group.   Horrifying photographs of emaciated Yanomami children and adults emerged on the eve of Lula’s trip, laying bare the scale of the health crisis facing the territory’s estimated 30,000 Indigenous inhabitants.   “The photos really shook me because it’s impossible to understand how a country like Brazil neglects our Indigenous citizens to such an extent,” the president told reporters in Boa Vista.   Lula, who became president on 1 January, blamed his far-right predecessor for forsaking Indigenous communities and emboldening the thousands of wildcat miners who flooded the Portugal-sized Yanomami enclave during Bolsonaro’s 2019-2022 government.   Those miners contaminated rivers and wrecked forests, depriving remote Yanomami communities of key food sources – fish and other animals such as monkeys and wild boars – while simultaneously spreading malaria and hampering the efforts of government health workers.   “As well as the disregard and neglect of the last government the main cause of this genocide is the invasion of 20,000 illegal miners, whose presence was encouraged by the ex-president. These miners poison rivers with mercury, causing destruction and death,” Lula wrote, pledging: “There will be no more genocides.”   Speaking before flying to Roraima with Lula, the minister of Indigenous peoples, Sônia Guajajara, said that protecting Yanomami children from outrageous levels of malaria, verminosis, malnutrition and diarrhoea was her absolute priority.   “Every 72 hours a child is dying from one of these illnesses, according to the information we’ve received,” Guajajara said, calling for the expulsion of the miners in the next three months.   Former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, said the 570 Yanomami children who had reportedly died of hunger or mercury poisoning since 2019 were proof of the “Yanomami genocide”.   “There is a motive: the greed of the miners who invaded their lands. And there is a perpetrator: Jair Bolsonaro, who championed this invasion and denied medical assistance to the Indigenous,” Rousseff said.   “All of those who are responsible, Bolsonaro included, must be prosecuted, judged and punished for genocide,” Rousseff added.   Yanomami leader Júnior Hekurari said he had sent 50 written pleas for help to Bolsonaro’s government as a result of the gold mining invasion and soaring levels of malnutrition, malaria and deaths. “He ignored our cries for help,” the activist said.   http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/13599 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/22/lula-accuses-jair-bolsonaro-genocide-yanomami-indigenous-amazon http://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/10/brazil-record-deforestation-amazon-rainforest-lula-bolsonaro http://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/lula-government-scrambles-to-overcome-yanomami-crisis-but-hurdles-remain/ http://bit.ly/3F3mbj4 http://www.hrw.org/video-photos/interactive/2023/01/26/rainforest-ashes http://www.climatechangenews.com/2022/07/01/my-people-have-been-living-in-the-amazon-for-6000-years-you-need-to-listen-to-us/ Visit the related web page
	Respect for Indigenous Peoples rights is not optional, neither for states nor for business by International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs   In the context of Indigenous Peoples' participation in the 11th UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, the Indigenous Caucus made statements at both the opening plenary and closing sessions warning that Indigenous Peoples’ survival as distinct peoples is under threat.   While the implementation of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights has helped to raise awareness on and attention to Indigenous Peoples' rights and concerns in relation to business endeavours, more decisive action by states and companies, especially at national and local levels, is urgently needed.   The Caucus noted that Indigenous lands and territories are under extreme pressure and that Indigenous fundamental human rights continue to be violated amidst corporate operations, with Indigenous Peoples having little to no protection by states and no access to redress and justice.   The Caucus also disagreed with claims by the business community and some states that they should be "less ambitious" and "practical" in implementing the Guiding Principles.   "Respect for Indigenous Peoples rights is not optional, neither for states nor for business. These rights are enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and in international human rights law. National legislation on corporate activities cannot dilute our rights over our lands, forests, seas and oceans, over our cultural heritage and our rights to participation and free prior and informed consent," warns the Caucus’ closing statement.   Furthermore, both statements drew particular attention to the increasing cases of intimidation and criminalisation when facing corporate operations: More than 2000 Indigenous rights defenders have been killed worldwide for defending their land rights in the last 24 months.   "States have adopted legislation to protect companies and investments that is not in line with their human rights obligations. In some cases, security forces are deployed in our territories increasing violence and human rights violations," notes the closing document.   Against this backdrop, the Caucus stressed that strong accountability and grievance mechanisms are needed, with clear parameters on access to information and justice in different jurisdictions, and clear processes for fair redress when violations of Indigenous rights occur.   "Due to their economic power and strong influence over states, companies are often not held accountable for their involvement in human rights violations, including land grabbing or violation of the obligation to free, prior and informed consent of affected Indigenous Peoples, among others," noted the opening statement.   Moreover, it called for ensuring the meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples and the inclusion of their collective rights in National Action Plans (NAPs): "As evidenced in the first decade of implementation, the ongoing invisibility of Indigenous Peoples in the preparation and implementation of NAPs is not only alarming, but also blatantly violates the spirit of the Guiding Principles".   http://www.iwgia.org/en/news/4975-respect-indigenous-peoples-rights-not-optional-neither-states-nor-business.html http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a77183-impact-toxic-substances-human-rights-indigenous-peoples-report http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2023/07/indigenous-peoples-can-lead-us-all-through-turbulence-and-risks-our-era-turk http://www.ohchr.org/en/topic/indigenous-peoples http://ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_735575/lang--en/index.htm http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/resource-publication/global-analysis-2022 http://media.un.org/en/asset/k1w/k1wb1ge1se Visit the related web page
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