June 3, 2022

08:06

Marcela Leiros- Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The Federal Supreme Court (STF) confirmed that the Union has the obligation to provide health care to the indigenous Tembé people of the Indigenous Land (TI) Jeju e Areal, of Santa Maria do Pará, in the State of Pará. The Tembé population of the TI, although duly identified and recognized as indigenous, does not have its territory demarcated by the National Foundation of the Indian (Funai).

The Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health (Sesai), of the Ministry of Health, refused in several cases to attend to indigenous populations that do not live in demarcated territories, according to the Federal Public Ministry (MPF). Before going to the STF, the Union had already appealed to the Federal Court in Pará and the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF-1), and obtained the same result.

Read also: ‘They killed his body and are trying to kill his memory,’ says Tembé people about the death of a young indigenous leader

The decision by Minister Nunes Marques reinforces that the public authorities are responsible for providing conditions for guaranteeing the indigenous community’s right to life and health. “It is, therefore, the constitutional responsibility of the Union to guarantee the rights pleaded in the present public civil action,” the minister claimed.

To the STF, the Union claimed that the previous rulings violated principles of separation of powers and budget limitations. The Court ruled against the appeal alleging that the “State cannot exempt itself from fulfilling its institutional duties under the allegation of violation of the principle of the ‘reserve of the possible’ and that the violation of the separation of powers is “nonexistent”.

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Since 2004, the families of the Jeju and Areal Indigenous Lands have been trying to receive the differentiated health care to which they have the right for being indigenous. In the ruling of the case, the Federal Court ordered the Special Indigenous Health Secretariat (Sesai), through the Special Indigenous Health District Guamá-Tocantins (Dsei Guatoc), to register and start serving the indigenous people within 60 days.