Displaying items by tag: indigenous rights

The 1988 Brazilian constitution recognises indigenous peoples' right to pursue traditional ways of life and the permanent, exclusive possession of their ‘traditional lands’, demarcated as Indigenous Territories. When Jair Bolsonaro became president on 1 January, he vowed that not another centimetre of indigenous land would be protected under his leadership, and he would forcibly ‘integrate’ them, adding it was ‘a shame that the Brazilian cavalry wasn’t as efficient as the Americans, who exterminated the Indians’. Indigenous peoples are fearful. His administration has launched an unprecedented attack on them, with the explicit aim of destroying their way of life and plundering their land. On 28 June 2,000+ people occupied the capital holding banners and arrows, marching to the ministry of health and the ministry of justice. Pray for the restoration of healthcare access to indigenous people; and that they will have more land rights and access to public services. See

Social injustice occurs nationally, regionally and locally from unequal wealth and resource distribution, and unfair treatment of individuals of differing race or culture with laws that support exclusion. On 25 August an indigenous people living on Peru's largest oil-field concession threatened to block the government from accessing their territories, and to halt production unless a rights law is implemented within twenty days. They fear big oil concerns taking and destroying their homes while unequal government regulation considers profit of more value than people. The so-called ‘prior consultation law’, passed in 2011, requires the Peruvian government to seek free, prior and informed consent from indigenous groups before approving any development plans which might affect them. Tribal leaders accuse the government of refusing to carry out the consultation process while it negotiates a new thirty-year contract for Block 192 in the Peruvian Amazon with a Canadian firm whose current agreement expires in August.