IACHR to analyze claims for Brazil’s ancestral lands

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) will analyze the case of the Quilombola communities of Alcântara, in northeastern Brazil, who suffered expropriations decades ago, it announced Wednesday, January 12.

The court will rule “on the affectation to the collective property of 152 communities, due to the lack of issuance of land titles, the installation of an aerospace base without due consultation and prior consent, the expropriation of their lands and territories, and the lack of judicial measures” to redress it, the IACHR said in a statement.

In 1980, then ruled by a military dictatorship, Brazil declared 52,000 hectares of territory inhabited by 32 quilombola communities to be of “public utility.” It expropriated them and resettled their inhabitants to build the Alcântara Launch Center (CLA) for the development of a national space program.

The IACHR, a body of the Organization of American States (OAS), claims to have filed the case with the Court on January 5.

The commission considers that the Brazilian State has “obligations” with the traditional property of the quilombola communities.

TIME FRAME THESIS

However, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro supports the so-called “time frame” thesis, according to which only lands occupied by these peoples when the Constitution was promulgated in 1988 should be recognized as ancestral lands.

The non-resettled communities of Alcântara do not have collective property titles “despite the steps taken” and those resettled have been prejudiced because “the right to property (…) and to prior consultation” was not respected, nor were they granted “full compensation,” according to the IACHR.

In its report, the commission concludes that “the State is responsible for the violation of the rights to personal integrity, legal guarantees, freedom of expression and association, protection of the family, property, political rights, equality before the law, judicial protection and economic, social and cultural rights of the American Convention.”

The organization recommends that Brazil adopt measures for “the delimitation, demarcation and complete land titling of ancestral territory” and ensure that the resettled communities can live according to their traditions in “the alternative lands currently occupied.”

It also urges the government to “fully redress the consequences of the declared violations.”

The report considers that the populations’ way of life has been disrupted because they do not have access to decent housing, the alternative lands are of poor quality, water is scarce and environmental degradation, partly due to logging, affects agriculture, hunting and fishing.

All of this “exacerbates the systematic discrimination” of which they are victims, the statement adds.