Conciliation at the STF maintains time frame for indigenous lands

The Federal Supreme Court (STF) held this Monday (23) the last meeting of the conciliation commission convened by Minister Gilmar Mendes on the time frame for the demarcation of indigenous lands .

After nine months of work, a draft was drawn up with suggestions for a preliminary draft that will be sent to the National Congress to amend Law 14,701 of 2023 , a law that, despite dealing with the rights of indigenous peoples, inserted the time frame for demarcations .

According to the temporal framework thesis, indigenous people only have the right to lands that were in their possession on October 5, 1988, the date of the promulgation of the Federal Constitution, or that were under legal dispute at the time.

The issue of the time frame was not changed because there was no consensus .

Furthermore, last year, Gilmar Mendes denied an injunction against the suspension of the rule and sent the case to conciliation.

There is also no consensus on the procedure for compensating landowners after it is recognized that they occupy indigenous land.

The rules are being drawn up by the Attorney General's Office (AGU) and must be filed with the STF by Thursday (26).

The draft presents points of consensus among representatives of the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies, the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (MPI), the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai) and states and municipalities.

The approval did not have the broad participation of indigenous peoples.

In August of last year, representatives of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples (Apib) withdrew from the conciliation . The entity understood that the rights of indigenous people are non-negotiable and there is no parity in the debate.

>> See the minutes below:

The document deals with consensual points that, in some cases, are already included in Law 14.701/2323 and were made explicit, such as permission for tourism in indigenous areas, as long as it is authorized by the indigenous people, in addition to the mandatory participation of states and municipalities in the demarcation process.

The draft also provides that the demarcation process, which is carried out by Funai, must be public, and the acts must be widely publicized.

In December 2022, the National Congress overturned President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's veto of the bill that validated the framework .

In September, before the parliamentarians' decision, the Supreme Court ruled against the framework. The Court's decision was taken into account by the Planalto Palace's legal team to justify the presidential veto.