Chamber approves time frame for demarcation of indigenous lands

The Chamber of Deputies approved, on Tuesday night (30), Bill 490/2007, which makes law the thesis on the time frame for the demarcation of indigenous lands. There were 283 votes in favor, 155 against and 1 abstention. The text now goes to the Senate for deliberation.

Last week, the deputies approved the urgency for voting on the project, by 324 votes in favor, which allowed the matter to be deliberated directly by the Plenary, without the need for analysis by the committees. The mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), stated that the project had already passed through the commissions previously, and that it was important to consider the matter before the Federal Supreme Court (STF) dealt with the subject.

In May, the President of the Supreme Court, Minister Rosa Weber, announced that the plenary of the Court could resume the judgment on the time frame for the demarcation of indigenous lands on June 7th. Part of the parliamentarians defend that the theme should be defined by the Legislature.

In a press conference this Tuesday afternoon, the president of the Parliamentary Front for Agriculture (FPA), deputy Pedro Lupion (PP-PR), said that the agro bench has been talking to ministers of the STF about the project, and that “ the Chamber has highlighted that it is fulfilling its role of legislating”. According to Lupion, the Chamber is only regulating an issue that the Supreme Court itself defined.

Deputy Célia Xakriabá (Psol-MG) once again went to the podium to protest against the vote and the definition of the time frame, which according to her means a setback. “How are you going to justify to your children, your grandchildren, that you are the new Pedro Álvares Cabral”, questioned the deputy.

Time frame

The Temporal Framework defines the date of October 5, 1988 as the limit for the demarcation of indigenous lands in the country. That is, only the communities that were in the claimed areas up to that date, when the Federal Constitution was enacted, will have the right to ownership.

The STF defined this date in the judgment of 2009 on the demarcation of the Raposa Serra do Sol reserve, in Roraima, establishing several conditions for the demarcation. At the time, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the indigenous people and against rice farmers who arrived in the region in the 1990s – after the promulgation of the Constitution.

The rapporteur for the project, Deputy Arthur Oliveira Maia (União-BA), stated, shortly before the vote in plenary, that since 1988, 14% of the country’s territory has been given to indigenous peoples. “We have an obligation to establish the limit so that the Constitution can prevail”, guaranteed the rapporteur. He also said that the project guarantees legal certainty.