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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
ACTION ALERT--Brazil's "Genocide Decree" Attacks Indian Rights
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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
March 12, 1996
OVERVIEW AND SOURCE
The Rainforest Action Network continues to intensify the campaign
of protest regarding Brazil's recent legislation which backslides
on demarcation of Indian lands. "The just-signed Decree #1775
delays the demarcation of new indigenous reserves, and challenges
the legitimacy of existing ones." The knowledge of dozens of
indigenous cultures, as well as the ecology of the Amazon, is at
stake. So please help continue to broaden and deepen our appeal
for culturally and ecologically sensitive development in the
Amazon, the largest of the Earth's ecological engines. Please
espond to this action alert to contact U.S. governmental officials
as well as Ecological Enterprises previous alert which asked for
World Bank officials to be contacted.
This item is from Rainforest Action Network's excellent WWW
server, and by accessing the URL for this alert you can send
emails in protest to dozens of relevant officials with a few
strokes. So please surf over to:
http://www.ran.org/ran/info_center/aa/aa118.html
Note that Ecological Enterprises' Gaia Forest Archives have
moved to:
http://forests.lic.wisc.edu/forests/gaia.html
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Rainforest Action Network
Action Alert 118 - March, 1996
Genocide Decree Attacks Indian Rights
"Brazil is backsliding on its commitment to indigenous people, and
recent legislation passed there can have deadly effect. The just-
signed Decree #1775 delays the demarcation of new indigenous
reserves, and challenges the legitimacy of existing ones. It's the
Wild West all over again, only this time it's in the rainforest.
We must do all we can to overturn this fearful decree before we
lose whole indigenous cultures."
--Beto Borges, Amazon Campaign
On January 8, Brazil's President Fernando Henrique Cardoso signed
Decree #1775 into law. The decree--dubbed the "Genocide Decree" by
human rights activists--allows commercial interests to protest
indigenous land titles, and undermines the rights of Indians to
their traditional territories as guaranteed in Brazil's
Constitution. It could also take natural resources, which the
local communities depend on for survival, out of their control.
In 1988, the Brazilian Congress incorporated the progressive
Article #231 into the Constitution. This revolutionary legislation
recognized the inalienable right of indigenous people to their
ancestral lands and natural resources, and guaranteed their right
to exist as distinct cultures. 1991's Decree #22 further
delineated the primacy of indigenous rights over competing
interests. The decree insured that title to indigenous land would
be based on aboriginal habitation alone, and parties with
secondary title would be compensated for their losses.
In addition, the Government adopted a timetable that these
territories be demarcated by October 5, 1993. To date, Brazil has
granted only 210 indigenous land titles out of 554 acknowledged
claims. Decree #1775 will derail this process, already over two
years behind schedule.
Brazil's Minister of Justice, Nelson Jobim, worked to revoke
Decree #22 since its inception, and successfully argued that the
law is unconstitutional because it does not incorporate an
adversarial process. The Genocide Decree gives private commercial
interests "the right to contest," and effectively annuls Decree
#22. Already, monied interests are filing injunctions to reverse
indigenous land titles. The farming conglomerate Agropecuaria
Sattin was the first to act, and is contesting the Guarani-Kaiowa
territory of Sete Cerros, in Mato Grosso.
Pirate mahogany loggers and gold miners have taken the Genocide
Decree as a sign of government sanction, and have already moved
their operations into Indian lands. The Indigenist Missionary
Council (CIMI)--a human rights monitoring group of Christian
missionaries--reports that eight Indian areas have been invaded in
the few weeks since Decree #1775 became law.
In another twist, Decree #1775 opens previously demarcated areas
to revision, including the gold-rich lands of the Yanomami people.
In response, the Yanomami held an assembly to organize resistance
to politicians and economic interests, and decried the devastating
effects of continued invasion by gold miners who pollute the
rivers and forests, as well as introduce disease. Since 1987,
nearly twenty-five percent of the Yanomami population has been
killed by contagions carried by the unwanted colonists.
The Genocide Decree feeds the fire of privatization currently
underway in the Amazon. By rewriting the law, the Brazilian
government is making it possible for industry to invade indigenous
territories for cattle ranching, mahogany logging, and oil and
mineral extraction. These types of unsustainable forest practices
demand roads and infrastructure developments, and historically
bring an onslaught of settlers to remote and pristine areas that
have long been the sacred homeland of indigenous peoples.
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What Can You Do?
E-mail letters to members of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, the House International Relations Committee, and Vice
President Al Gore and encourage them to do all they can to
pressure Brazil to revoke the Genocide Decree!
**Sample Letter body:**
Brazil's government recently issued a law that overturns the hard-
won constitutional rights of Brazil's indigenous peoples. Decree
#1775 removes protection for over half of the lands reserved for
indigenous people. Indigenous lands are already being invaded by
loggers and miners. Decree #1775 will lead to the death of
rainforest peoples and extinction of their cultures, as well as
irreversible destruction of the Amazon.
I urge you to do all you can to persuade Brazilian President
Cardoso to revoke Decree #1775.
Sincerely,
**Suggested United States Officials to Email**
Vice President Al Gore, vice.president@whitehouse.gov
Senator John Ashcroft, john_ashcroft@ashcroft.senate.gov
Senator Joe Biden, joe_biden@biden.senate.gov
Senator Hank Brown, senator_brown@brown.senate.gov
Senator Paul Coverdell, senator_coverdell@coverdell.senate.gov
Senator Christopher Dodd, sen_dodd@dodd.senate.gov
Senator Russ Feingold, russell_feingold@feingold.senate.gov
Senator Diane Feinstein, senator@feinstein.senate.gov
Senator John Kerry, john_kerry@kerry.senate.gov
Senator Richard Lugar, lugar@iquest.net
Senator Chuck Robb, senator_robb@robb.senate.gov
Senator Paul Sarbanes, senator@sarbanes.senate.gov
Congressperson Robert E. Andrews, randrews@hr.house.gov
Congressperson Thomas C. Ballenger, cassmail@hr.house.gov
Congressperson Sam Brownback, brownbak@hr.house.gov
Congressperson Eliot L. Engel, engeline@hr.house.gov
Congressperson David Funderburk, funnc02@hr.house.gov
Congressperson Samuel Gejdenson, bozrah@hr.house.gov
Congressperson Lee H. Hamilton, hamilton@hr.house.gov
Congressperson Alcee L. Hastings, hastings@hr.house.gov
Congressperson Thomas Lantos, talk2tom@hr.house.gov
Congressperson Toby Roth, roth08@hr.house.gov
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