|
 It took over 14 years and a lot of pressure of Brazil's indigenous movement, but finally the Câmara dos Deputados (Brazilian House of Representatives) resumed the legislative process for the Statute of the Indigenous Peoples.
It was the approval of Recurso (appeal) No. 182 that finally unlocked the lawmaking process again. This Recurso had been presented on December 6, 1994, after a previous Recurso had locked it - causing the Statute to disappear way down in the drawers of the parliamentarians.
Now the leadership of the Câmara can set the calendar for debates on what is formally knows as Bill (Projeto de Lei) 2057/91.
The president of the Câmara, Deputy Michael Temer, announced the news during a meeting with the representatives of the National Commission of Indigenist Policy (CNPI-Comissão Nacional de Política Indigenista).
Over the last few years the CNPI has worked to create a new, modernized proposal for the Statute, involving intensive nationwide discussion among the over 220 different indigenous peoples in Brazil.
The final result was approved off by over 1000 indigenous leaders in May, 2009 and is also supported by various organisms of the federal government that take part in the CNPI.
On August 6, the Minister of Justice, Tarso Genro and Márcio Meira, the president of the National Foundation of Indigenous Affairs (Funai- Fundação Nacional do Índio) delivered the proposal to Temer.
Now the Bill joins the original proposals of the Indigenous Statute, as an amendment. The indigenous peoples press for analysis and approval of this and other amendments by a special commission composed of deputies that are familiar with indigenous matters.
"There are many proposals discussed in parliament that are bad for the indigenous. For that reason I hope that you look at this statute, because it was created by us, indigenous", the Kayapó leader Akyaboro stressed.
The president of the Câmara noted that the parliament is a space for debates, therefore there would be divergences, but affirmed that, "this Statute will only be born if the indigenous peoples are in agreement over it."
Anastácio Peralta, Guarani Kaiowá, emphasized that the Statute would serve as parameter for relations of the federal government, states and municipalities with the indigenous peoples. It would eliminate the uncertainties that exist today and improve the execution of public policies.
"We, the indigenous appear a lot in the negative discussion, for example about suicide, assassination of indigenous... Now we want to appear as participating in the creation of this law, showing the legislators co-operating with us."
Cimi
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.