UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: Violence and the Violation of Rights of Isolated Indigenous Peoples in Brazil

Date: April 26

Time: 11:30-1:00 (US Eastern)

Languages: Portuguese, English

Registration: https://bit.ly/37Dw4H1

Organizers: The Observatory of Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact (OPI), The Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), União das Organizações Indígenas do Vale do Javari (UNIVAJA)

Sponsors: Nia Tero, Tribal Link Foundation

Event Description:

The side event aims to present information and promote a discussion among Indigenous organizations and partners on the current violence and violation of rights faced by isolated Indigenous peoples in Brazil.

The Brazilian Amazon has the largest number of isolated Indigenous peoples on the planet. Although Brazil has been a leader in terms of public policy for the protection of these peoples and their lands, in recent years under the Bolsonaro government there has been a dramatic dismantling of this policy, along with land incursions and expropriation of territories where isolated peoples live. These attacks have been encouraged by the federal government, by both its executive branch and by members of Congress aligned with agribusiness and religious missionaries.

The immediate consequences have the weakening of administrative tools for the protection of Indigenous lands and the invasion of these territories by miners, land grabbers, ranchers, loggers and, in some cases, large-scale criminal organizations. The result has been alarming deforestation rates in several of these territories over the last 3 years.

Speakers will seek to give both an overview of the isolated indigenous peoples in Brazil and to detail specific cases in several Brazilian states.