Judge upholds demarcation of Raposa Serra do Sol Territory.
In a packed Supreme Court in Brazil, a key judge voted to uphold the demarcation of the indigenous territory Raposa-Serra do Sol. The case was adjourned at the request of another judge, and a final ruling is expected later this year.
Greengrants supported the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR) in 2001 (grant 01-265) in its campaign to demarcate the RSS territory (an early step in the land titling process). CIR’s lawyer, Joenia Batista de Carvalho, who is Wapishana—Brazil’s first female indigenous lawyer—brought RSS’s case to the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights and won the Reebok Human Rights Award in 2004.
For more in-depth information about this ruling and the conflicts that led up to it, we recommend you visit these sources: Raposa-Serra do Sol and International Herald Tribune.
The second article also mentions two other Greengrants grantees working to resolve conflicts with indigenous people protesting dams on the Xingu River in Brazil: Movimento de Mulheres Trabalhadoras de Altamira Campo e Cidade enabled 90 women to participate in a conference to protect the Xingu River from a proposed series of mega dams, and Associação HOPEP dos Ândios Tramai held a forum to discuss the negative impacts of six proposed dams in the indigenous Xingu territory, especially the Paranatinga Dam.