Victory for Indigenous Rights as Brazil’s Supreme Court Rejects Government Proposal To Limit Land Rights
▻http://amazonwatch.org/news/2017/0817-victory-for-indigenous-rights-as-brazils-supreme-court-rejects-lim
A much-anticipated decision by Brazil’s Supreme Court yesterday handed a critical victory to the country’s indigenous peoples. In unanimous rulings on two disputed indigenous land-titling cases, the Court dismissed a legal opinion issued by the Attorney General and endorsed by President Michel Temer, which argued for the rejection of land claims by indigenous peoples unless they inhabited their traditional territories at the time Brazil’s 1988 Constitution was ratified.
“This is a very important victory for our people and our family...who are fighting for health and territory,” said Adilio Benites, a Guarani Kaiowá leader celebrating the decision in Brasilia, after holding an all-night vigil outside of the Supreme Court.