Federal Chamber must vote this Tuesday (29)

Indian people

Article withdraws demarcation of lands from indigenous peoples from the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai) and returns attribution to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security

Brasilia DF) – This Tuesday (30), the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies may vote 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 promulgation of the Federal Constitution, on October 5, 1988.

Under discussion in the Chamber since 2007, the text had its analysis accelerated after the 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, stop being 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.

*With information from Agência Brasil

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