Threats to indigenous groups
Organizations alert UN experts to attacks on traditional peoples
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, have been alerted by Brazilian organizations to threats of setbacks in the protection of indigenous peoples in the country. According to 30 indigenous, environmental and human rights organizations, among them Conectas and APIB (Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil), at least 13 initiatives adopted by the federal government violate commitments made by Brazil in the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The complaint was lodged on March 31, exactly a year after Tauli-Corpuz’s visit to Brazil. Among the measures listed by the organizations is Constitutional Amendment 215, which transfers to Congress the responsibility for the demarcation of indigenous lands. They also highlighted the attempts to criminalize indigenous leadership, the dismantling of governmental institutions such as Funai (National Indian Foundation) and Sesai (Special Office for Indigenous Health of the Ministry of Health) and the lack of dialogue, engagement and consultation with indigenous communities.
The organizations ended the letter by asking the Office of the Rapporteur to continue monitoring the situation in Brazil. They also made an appeal for the Office to consider the pertinence of an urgent alert and to question the State on the reasons for so many setbacks: “we ask for your attention and engagement with the State, in order to prevent a new cycle of extermination of indigenous peoples and their cultures in Brazil”.
Click here to read the letter in Spanish and here for the Portuguese translation.
