Definition of crimes against indigenous communities
Introduction
This question is present in discussions on the new Brazilian Penal
Code. The following paragraphs were edited based on a text written in
July 1998 by Juliana Santilli (Public Prosecutor of the Federal District-
Promotor de Justiça do DF and a collaborator of the
ISA Environmental law Program- Programa Direito Socioambiental/ ISA):
The prevailing Penal Code was implemented in 1940. It is characterized
essentially by defining crimes against property (theft, robbery, etc.)
and crimes against persons, against their life, honor or individual
freedom. Little attention is paid to crimes against social or environmental
assets or property, against collective nature, and there are no direct
economic or patrimonial repercussions.
This omission was partially corrected by the Law of Environmental Crimes.
Now there is an effort to revise it more adequately in a draft of a
bill for the new Penal Code, prepared by a commission of jurists established
by the Ministry of Justice.
The draft of the Bill contains various innovations in the definition of
crimes against humanity, against citizenship, ethnic, religious and social
minorities. Although the draft of the bill, in a somewhat incomplete
manner, creates new crimes, which do not appear in the Civil Code of
1940, the Code currently in force, it seeks to classify as criminal
those forms of conduct that violate social rights.
Based on the bill, the following crimes are defined regarding the relationship
between indigenous and non-indigenous persons, specifically, or in those
drafts of bills where these relations are included:
Crimes against indigenous communities
- invasion of indigenous lands: subject to two
to five years of imprisonment and fine;
- conducting research, assays or mining
operations on indigenous lands without legal authorization; subject to
imprisonment from two to five years;
- illegal exploration and exploitation of natural resources of indigenous
community lands, or inducing the indigenous communities to explore
them; Subject to two to five years imprisonment and fine.
Crimes against citizenship
- violation of the
right to free expression and manifestation (impeding peaceful
manifestations of parties or political, ethnic, racial, cultural or
religious groups: subject to one to four years’ imprisonment;
- discriminatory violation of a fundamental
right or guarantee (impeding by any form of discrimination or
prejudice, the free exercise of the right assured by the
Constitution); subject to one to four years’ imprisonment;
- discriminatory association (organize an
association to preach or disseminate discrimination or prejudice):
subject to one to four years’ imprisonment;
- manufacture, sale, of symbols, emblems, decals or advertisements
or propaganda with a racist content or containing messages that violate
freedoms: subject to imprisonment from one to four years.
Crimes against humanity
Aside from the crime of genocide, stipulated in specific law:
: c(Juliana Santilli - July/ 1998).Além do crime de genocídio, já previsto
em lei específica:
- torture (torture someone with the use of
violence or serious threat, causing physical or mental suffering):
subject to imprisonment from four to eight years;
- condescending with torture and failing to provide information (failure
of prisoner to communicate to the judge when one person is transferred
to another establishment or to another location) subject to imprisonment
from six months to two years (Juliana Santilli – jul/ 1998).
