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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Brazilian
Government Threatens Indian Rights
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
May 29,
1995
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE
The
much delayed demarcation of Indian lands in Brazil appears to
be
further delayed as the Brazilian government moves to put up
further
administrative hurdles to land actually being demarcated.
Invaders
of Indian lands may be granted further appeals despite
Brazilian
constitutional protection that provides Indians with the
right
to their land. The following item was
posted in econet's
rainfor.general
conference.
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/*
Written 6:49 AM May 15, 1995 by ax:cimi in
igc:rainfor.genera
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/*
---------- "Brazilian Government threatens ind" ---------- */
Newsletter
n. 158
BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT THREATENS
INDIAN RIGHTS
Contrarily to what the president of Brazil
publicly declared
during
his international visits, the Brazilian government will not
spare
efforts to restrict Indian rights. That is what the minister
of
Justice, Nelson Jobim, made clear at a public audience granted
this
week to the National Defense Commission of the Chamber of
Deputies.
For two hours, the minister expounded points of the
official
Indianist policy and government plans to modify decree n.
22/91,
which provides for the administrative procedure to be
adopted
in relation to the demarcation of Indian lands, and to
amend a
bill which provides for the Charter of Indian Societies,
so as
to include in it a provision for the adoption of the
adversary
system - so as to allow invaders interested in remaining
in
Indian lands to be heard. Before the end of this month, the
ministry
of Justice will submit a proposal to this end to
president
Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jobim assured.
Supporting the position of several
deputies who are against
the
demarcation of Indian lands, Jobim resorted to false arguments
to
justify the use of the adversary system and defended its
inclusion
in the administrative procedure for the demarcation as
the
only means to solve conflicts between different interests
which
usually arise whenever lands are demarcated. It is not the
first
time that an attempt is made to incorporate that principle.
In 1990
and 1991, the Collor administration tried to have a
similar
measure approved when the text of decree n. 22 was being
discussed.
The rights to contest and to defend oneself is
constitutionally
ensured in judicial or administrative procedures.
In the opinion of the Indianist Missionary
Council - CIMI -,
the
demarcation is an administrative procedure to which the
adversary
system does not apply in any way. Various judges,
lawyers
and district attorneys who support this point of view
argue
that it is not the demarcation procedure that provides
Indians
with the right to a land to live in, because this right
has
been already recognized in the Brazilian Constitution.
Therefore,
the introduction of the adversary system is nothing but
a
neoliberal approach to the Indianist policy aimed at pleasing
private
interests.
CIMI believes that the Brazilian
Government is trying to shirk
its
constitutional responsibility of ensuring the demarcation of
Indian
lands. The Council has been doing all within its power to
prevent
the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration from applying
that
legal mechanism. To his end, it will demand measures in tune
with
what the minister of Justice himself said as he closed the
public
audience: "The demarcation of Indian lands is a means to
ensure
citizenship rights."
Brasilia, May 11,
1995.
Indianist Missionary Council
- CIMI
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