The plenary of the Chamber of Deputies may vote this Tuesday (30) on the bill for the time frame for the demarcation of indigenous lands (PL 490/2007). The proposal determines that only indigenous lands traditionally occupied by these peoples will be demarcated on the date of enactment of the Federal Constitution, on October 5, 1988. Under discussion in the Chamber since 2007, the text had its analysis accelerated after approval of an urgent request, by 324 votes in favor and 131 against, last week. The article withdraws the demarcation of lands from indigenous peoples from the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai) and returns the attribution to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. The proposal establishes that, in order to be considered traditionally occupied lands, it must be objectively proven that they, on the date of enactment of the Constitution, were, at the same time, permanently inhabited, used for productive activities and necessary for the preservation of environmental resources and the physical and cultural reproduction. The rapporteur for the proposal, Deputy Arthur Oliveira Maia (União-BA), argues that the text seeks to “make it clear that indigenous peoples must be respected in their socio-cultural specificities, without this serving as an impediment to the exercise of their other fundamental rights”. “Thus, seeing indigenous peoples as Brazilian citizens that they are, we intend to grant them the legal conditions so that, if they wish, they have different degrees of interaction with the rest of society, exercising the most diverse jobs, inside and outside their lands, without who, of course, cease to be indigenous”, says the deputy. The text provides, among other points, that the expansion of already demarcated indigenous lands is prohibited, in addition to annulling the demarcation that does not comply with the precepts of the law. The administrative processes for the demarcation of indigenous lands that have not yet been completed will be in line with the provisions of the new legislation. “Institutionalization of genocide” At a hearing in the Chamber of Deputies, the legal advisor of the Terena People’s Council, Priscila Terena, cited 156 lands, eight ethnic groups and more than 80,000 impacted indigenous people, in case of approval of these texts. “Approval is the declaration of our extermination and the beginning of the institutionalization of our genocide,” she said. The president of the Amazon Commission and coordinator of the Parliamentary Front in Defense of Indigenous Peoples, deputy Célia Xakriabá (PSOL-MG), stated that the proposal would facilitate, among other points, land grabbing by allowing works without consulting indigenous people. “It is about transforming the time frame into law, with the aim of making the demarcation of indigenous territories unfeasible; allows the construction of highways, hydroelectric plants and other works on indigenous lands without free, prior and informed consultation with the affected peoples, facilitating land grabbing on indigenous lands”, she pointed out. In the assessment of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, the text could “make demarcations of indigenous lands unfeasible, threaten territories that have already been ratified and deprive constitutional rights, becoming one of the most serious threats to indigenous peoples in Brazil today”. Defensoria The Public Defender’s Office of the Union (DPU) pointed out the need to completely reject the bill on the temporal framework for the demarcation of indigenous lands. The recommendation was forwarded by the acting federal general public defender, Fernando Mauro Junior, to the mayor, deputy Arthur Lira (PP-AL). According to the document, the Constitution cannot be used as a reference for indigenous occupation, which has parameters different from the requirements of possession under civil law. “What is known is that the territory – when transformed into land – is the physical space necessary for a certain indigenous society to develop its social, political and economic relations, according to its own cultural bases. It is the subjective bond of indigenous peoples with their traditional territory that allows them to be who they are and, this time, space has real value to ensure physical and cultural survival, and is therefore of vital importance for the execution of their fundamental rights”, underscores the document. Understand The thesis on the time frame for demarcation emerged in 2009, in an opinion by the Attorney General’s Office (AGU) on the demarcation of the Raposa Serra do Sol reserve, in Roraima, when this criterion was used. The Federal Supreme Court (STF) is discussing the issue due to the dispute over the Ibirama-Laklãnõ Indigenous Land. Part of the 80,000 square meter (m²) area, occupied by the Xokleng indigenous people, is questioned by the government of Santa Catarina. The state argues that there was no occupation in the area on the date of promulgation of the Constitution. On the other hand, indigenous people argue that, at that time, they had been expelled from the place. The Attorney General of the State of Santa Catarina, Márcio Vicari, defended that the reality of Santa Catarina is different from that of other federative units. “There are places where the demarcation involves a single-owner landholding, but, in our state, this impacts the reality of hundreds of families, many of them rural producers. Therefore, on June 7th, we will be in Brasilia to, as determined by Governor Jorginho Mello, defend the thesis of a temporal framework”, he said, during a hearing at the Legislative Assembly of Santa Catarina (Alesc). On June 7, the Court will analyze whether or not the time frame is valid throughout the country, which will reach more than 80 similar cases and more than 300 pending processes for the demarcation of indigenous lands. *With information from the Chamber Agency
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