A proposed constitutional change would move Brazil backwards on indigenous land rights, a UN official said

By Chris Arsenault

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Brazil's interim government is moving ahead with plans for a constitutional amendment that would weaken indigenous land rights and pave the way for new plantations and dams to encroach on lands inhabited by native peoples, a United Nations official said.

Erika Yamada, a member of the U.N's Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a human rights advisory body, said the proposed constitutional change would result in Brazil moving backwards on indigenous land rights.

The procedures used to identify and indigenous territories could be altered to give lawmakers more power to decide which territories belong to native peoples, she said.

Brazil uses a series of technical studies at present to ascertain which lands or territories are needed by indigenous peoples to assure the maintenance of traditional cultural and economic activities.

"They (lawmakers) will try and move forward with changes to the constitution that would make it much harder to defend indigenous rights," Yamada told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview this week.

"I think they will also weaken the process of authorization for large development projects with great social and environmental impact for traditional communities."

However, changing the constitution would be a complicated process, she said, adding that previous governments have attempted similar measures.

Brazilian indigenous people who lose access to their traditional territories often join the ranks of the landless urban poor or become contract laborers on large plantations, Yamada said.

The interim government, which came to power earlier this month following the suspension of President Dilma Rousseff in the wake of a corruption scandal, has promised to kick-start economic growth in recession-hit Brazil.

Drawing support from the agribusiness lobby and evangelical Christian lawmakers, the interim government backs large rural development projects including new dams and plantations on lands where indigenous peoples live, Yamada said.

The previous government, led by Rousseff, was also criticized by U.N. officials for its policies on indigenous land rights.

Land set aside for indigenous people covers about 13 percent of Brazil's territory.

But these areas are often not respected by agribusiness firms, along with illegal loggers and miners, Yamaha said.

Indigenous people comprise less than one percent of Brazil's population, according to a government census, and are disproportionately affected by poverty and other social problems.

(Reporting By Chris Arsenault; Editing by Paola Totaro and Astrid Zweynert.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.