September 30, 2021

09:09

Cassandra Castro – from Cenarium

BRASILIA – Four Brazilian entities have denounced to the international community attacks to indigenous people who are under the crosshairs of a series of bills in the National Congress and that, in the evaluation of the organizations and the indigenous people themselves, weaken even more the mechanisms of protection to the environment and to the native people.

The denunciation portrays a Brazil different from the one described by president Jair Bolsonaro (without party) during his speech at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly (UN), last September 21. There, Bolsonaro minimized the deforestation numbers and stated that “no country in the world has an environmental legislation as complete as Brazil’s”, he said at the occasion.

The information was revealed during the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, at the UN Human Rights Council. The organizations Articulation of the Indigenous People of Brazil (Apib), Conectas Human Rights, Socio-environmental Institute (ISA) and Climate Observatory signed the document. The indigenous representative and lawyer from APIB, Samara Pataxó, was the group’s spokesperson at the United Nations.

Threats

Among the projects pointed out by the organizations as being harmful to indigenous people are the PL 490/2007, which institutes the end of the demarcation of indigenous lands and allows predatory activities in those territories; the PL of the General Law of Environmental Licensing (2159/2021) and the PL of Grilagem (PL 2633/2020).

There is also the Legislative Decree Project – PDL 177/2021, which, if approved, would disoblige Brazil to comply with the provisions of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 169, one of the main international frameworks for protecting the rights of indigenous people, quilombolas, and traditional communities.

“Once again the indigenous people of Brazil call attention to the serious situation of human and socio-environmental rights that we face. As pointed out by the High Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, indigenous people are under physical and institutional attack in Brazil”, highlighted the representative of Apib during the online meeting.

The entities request that the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (DEM-MG) and the president of the House of Representatives, Arthur Lira (PP/AL), prevent the advancement of the proposals and “act to protect the climate, the environment and the guarantee the rights of indigenous people and traditional communities in Brazil.