"Brazil top court rejects time limit on Indigenous land claims", 22 September 2023

...A majority on Brazil's Supreme Court overwhelmingly voted on Thursday against a cut-off date limiting Indigenous land claims, a restriction sought by the powerful farm lobby to block rights to land that Indigenous people did not live on in 1988.

The court said 9 of its 11 justices rejected the deadline because it countered constitutional guarantees on Indigenous rights to ancestral lands. Two judges voted for the limit to end land conflicts and give farmers security on lands settled over the years in Brazil's fast expanding agricultural frontier...

"This is a momentous, historic victory for Brazil's Indigenous peoples, and a massive defeat for the agribusiness lobby," said Survival International Advocacy Director Fiona Watson, who said the time limit was an attempt to legalize the theft of millions of hectares of Indigenous land.

It was also a win for global efforts against climate change as Indigenous reservations preserve their forests, she added.

Indigenous leaders said the Supreme Court ruling was vital to resolve some 300 pending land recognition claims that would protect their communities from land-grabbers and invasion by illegal loggers and wildcat gold miners...

The court decision will give President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva grounds to veto a bill farm interests are rushing through Congress to limit new reservations to land that was occupied by native communities in 1988 when Brazil passed its Constitution...