In historical decision, STF orders federal government to adopt measures to protect indigenous peoples

Alita Falcão – From Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – Fully accepting the request of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib), the minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Edson Fachin ordered the federal government to take all necessary measures to ensure the protection of life and territories with the presence of isolated indigenous peoples and recent contact.

The decision was released on Thursday, 24, by the Observatory of Human Rights of Isolated Indigenous Peoples and Recent Contact (Opi), which supported with technical and legal subsidies the Argument for breach of fundamental precept (ADPF) moved by Apib.

“It considers the action a milestone in the defence of the rights of these indigenous groups and also a continuation of the work of the organisation’s founder, the indigenist Bruno Pereira, murdered in June 2022 in Vale do Javari”, the Observatory highlighted in a text published on its official website.

The action lists seven obligations imposed on the Union, the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) and the National Council of Justice (CNJ), all of which were accepted by Fachin. The minister considered the legitimacy of ADPF 991, for being based on the fulfillment of specific policy to isolated indigenous peoples and recent contact.

“I ponder that this case demonstrates precisely that the separation between Powers and democratic politics are often invoked as excuses to prevent action, especially in the face of intentional and systematic inertia of the other Powers, of who should guard the Constitution” considered Fachin.

Isolated indigenous peoples are those who do not maintain intense or constant contact with people outside their groups. They generally choose to live far from outside society because they suffered persecution and massacres during the occupation and colonization processes in the Amazon region.

The peoples of recent contact, on the other hand, are those who maintain occasional, intermittent or permanent contact with segments of the national society, but retain significant sociocultural autonomy.

According to the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, historically these peoples have suffered genocide and ethnocide, and are subject to vulnerabilities that put their very existence at risk.

“Many territories with the presence of isolated groups present unjustified delays in demarcation, depending on precarious administrative acts such as the brief validity of use restriction ordinances. In the same way, the Bases and Fronts for Ethnoenvironmental Protection are threatened on a daily basis by the presence of a wide variety of invaders in indigenous territories, including loggers, miners, fishermen, hunters, drug traffickers, missionaries, landowners and squatters”, said Apib in the lawsuit.

Decision

In all, in the process, seven precautionary measures were granted. Minister Edson Fachin considered that public policies for the protection of indigenous peoples are not being effectively carried out.

“I understand the provocation of this Court as the last trench of guardianship of these most basic rights to dignified survival is fitting. It is not a matter of using the Judiciary and the STF as a permanent constituent space, but rather as a power that acts in the majority to guard the Constitution and protect fundamental rights that are being systematically violated by the powers that should make them concrete”, he wrote in his order.

Finally, the minister gave the Union ten days to provide information about the situation of the indigenous Tanaru people known as the ‘Indio do Buraco’ who died recently in their territory. Supporting documents should be made available for the expert examination in order to prove the procedures used and the result of the autopsy performed on the indigenous corpse as well as the destination that is intended to be given to the Tanaru Indigenous Land.

See Fachin’s decision in full: