The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IDH) will judge complaints presented by quilombola communities that accuse the Brazilian State of having committed violations during the construction of the Alcântara Launch Center, located in Maranhão. For the first time, Brazil will be judged by a case involving quilombolas. The hearings will take place this Wednesday (26) and Thursday (27) at the Court’s traveling session in Santiago, Chile, at 3:30 pm (Brasília time) and at 10 am, respectively. Victims, State representatives, witnesses and experts will be heard. The complaint was presented in 2001 by towns, unions and social movements to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The complaint was accepted in 2006 by the commission and only taken to the Court in January 2022. “The judgment is of historic importance. It is the first time in the country’s history that Brazil will be tried in an international court for crimes committed against quilombolas. In addition, it constitutes an important opportunity for the Inter-American Court itself to consolidate jurisprudence for the protection of the ancestral territories of Afro-descendant communities in the region,” said Danilo Serejo, a quilombola from Alcântara and legal advisor to the Movement of People Affected by the Space Base (Mabe), in a note released by the Global Justice organization. The complainants want the Court to determine that the Brazilian government grant the definitive title to the quilombola territory, pay compensation to the communities removed and those that remained in the place, create a community development fund together with the quilombola families and carry out a study of the environmental and cultural impact . “The imposition of the State to build the Alcântara Launch Center in a traditional territory, deteriorating ways of life, family ties and trying to erase a part of our history, shows how environmental racism guided the policy. Therefore, Brazil has a duty, before the Inter-American Court, to recognize its responsibility as an actor in the violations against the Quilombolas of Alcântara, as well as to immediately proceed with the titling of the territory. What is at stake in the Court, in the coming days, is the real commitment of the Brazilian State to confront racism”, said the executive director of Justiça Global, Glaucia Marinho. For the deputy minister of Human Rights and Citizenship, Rita Oliveira, who will compose the government delegation, the audience will serve to rebuild the relationship between the State and the remnants of the quilombos. “We have learned along this path that scientific and technological development is not incompatible with the defense and promotion of human rights. Only development based on its principles legitimizes advances in science and technology with ethno-environmental sustainability and public integrity”, she assesses, according to a note published by the folder. The delegation will also include members of the Attorney General’s Office (AGU), the Air Force Command, the Alcântara Launch Center and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MRE), Defense and Racial Equality. Understand the case The Alcântara Launch Center was built near the capital São Luís, in the 1980s by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), as a base for launching rockets. At the time of construction, 312 quilombola families, from 32 villages, were removed from the site and resettled in seven agrovillages. Some groups remained in the territory and, according to the complainants, suffer from the constant threat of expulsion to expand the base. In 2001, representatives of quilombola communities in Maranhão, the Movement of People Affected by the Base of Alcântara (Mabe), Global Justice, the Maranhão Society of Human Rights (SMDH), the Federation of Agricultural Workers of the State of Maranhão (Fetaema), the Alcântara Rural Workers Union (STTR) and the Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU) filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The group accuses the Brazilian State of having committed violations with the installation of the center, with expropriation and compulsory removal of quilombola families. According to the complaint, the loss of territory had an impact on the right of these communities to culture, food, education, health and free movement. In addition, the quilombolas were not granted definitive property titles. In 2004, the Palmares Foundation certified the territory. The National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) identified and delimited the area in 2008. Five years after the presentation of the complaint, the commission considered it admissible. In a 2020 report, after hearings held in 2008 and 2019, the group recommended that the Brazilian government title the traditional territory, prior consultation with the quilombolas about the agreement signed by Brazil and the United States (which allows space activities by companies north -Americans at Alcantâra Base, called technological safeguards agreement) in the previous year, financial compensation for those removed and public apology. The recommendations were not followed by the Brazilian government. Thus, the commission took the case to the Court in January 2022.
Agência Brasil
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