BRASILIA: Brazilian lawmakers moved closer Tuesday toward changing the constitution to limit Indigenous peoples’ rights over their ancestral lands, despite expert claims that they are a key bulwark against global warming.
Land rights for native peoples have been a point of contention in Brazil for years due to the country’s powerful agricultural sector and its allies in the predominantly conservative parliament.
The country has already curbed land claims through the so-called “time frame” rule that means Indigenous peoples can only have protected reserves on lands they physically occupied when the constitution was enacted in 1988.
Proponents say the measure will resolve uncertainty about land demarcation, while opponents say it will open native peoples’ lands to economic exploitation.
The Senate advanced Tuesday a proposed amendment, by 52 votes to 15, that would enshrine the time frame rule in the constitution itself.
The text now moves to the Chamber of Deputies for approval.
The vote came ahead of the start of a Supreme Court case centered on the application of the time frame rule in demarcating Indigenous lands.
The court declared the rule unconstitutional in 2023, in a victory for Indigenous movements.
But Congress passed it into law anyway, despite that decision and the vetoes of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Brazil is home to 1.7 million Indigenous people, out of a total population of over 200 million.
Indigenous communities argue that many of Brazil’s native inhabitants were expelled from ancestral homelands throughout the country’s history, particularly during its military dictatorship of 1964 to 1985.
Since returning to power in 2023, Lula has approved 16 Indigenous territories, granting native peoples the right to occupy and exclusively use their natural resources.
Experts say that such territories work as a shield against climate-related threats like deforestation and fires.
Brazil moves closer to curbing Indigenous land claims in constitution
https://arab.news/pdbtv
Brazil moves closer to curbing Indigenous land claims in constitution
- Proponents say the measure will resolve uncertainty about land demarcation, while opponents say it will open native peoples’ lands to economic exploitation
Philippine lawmakers start VP Duterte impeachment hearings
- The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds
MANILA: A Philippine congressional committee began impeachment hearings Monday that could dash Vice President Sara Duterte’s run for the country’s top job.
The daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who recently announced her candidacy for the 2028 presidential election, was impeached by the country’s House of Representatives last year only to see the Supreme Court toss the case out over procedural issues.
The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds while in office and will see the House justice committee debate three such complaints.
A fourth case was dropped by complainants who hoped to speed up the process.
Duterte also stands accused of making a death threat against her former ally and current President Ferdinand Marcos, with whom she is engaged in an explosive political feud.
Under the Philippine constitution, an impeachment triggers a Senate trial. A guilty verdict would result in Duterte being barred from politics and sidelined from the 2028 presidential race.
The latest impeachment bid faces a changed environment with the vice president ahead in recent polls, analysts told AFP.
“The political context will be very different, especially now that Sara declared her candidacy,” University of the Philippines political science professor Jean Franco said.
“It’s definitely going to weigh on the minds of the members of the House of Representatives,” Franco said, adding that a vote for impeachment would effectively see a lawmaker’s career “marked for death.”
Anthony Lawrence Borja, an associate professor of political science at De La Salle University agreed saying: “It is ultimately a question of whether the patronage of the current administration outweighs their fear of Duterte’s condemnation.”
The same committee hearing the case against Duterte last month tossed out a pair of impeachment complaints against Marcos, ruling that allegations of corruption over a scandal involving bogus flood control projects lacked substance.
Michael Wesley Poa, spokesman for Duterte’s defense team, told AFP they were closely monitoring deliberations and trusted “the same standards” used in the Marcos hearing would be applied.
