WASHINGTON - March 23 - In an historic step for the indian rights movement, Brazil’s first female, Indigenous lawyer will present her own people’s case to the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington, DC.

On March 29 the 30-year-old Wapichana indian will petition this branch of the Organization of American States to intervene in a landmark battle for ancestral land known as Raposa Serra do Sol.

In a sign of the sophistication of the modern, indian warrior, Joênia Batista de Carvalho will ask the IACHR to pressure Brazilian President Luíz Inácio da Silva to keep a campaign promise to protect Indigenous rights. After decades of harassment, assassinations, and endless court battles, the territory’s 15 thousand Indigenous residents decided it was time to send Joênia to Washington, instead of Brasilia, for results.

Joênia is a recipient of this year’s Reebok Human Rights Award for her ground-breaking work to advance her people’s cause, which is part of a growing movement for ancestral land rights around the world. She will be available for interviews from March 26 March 31.

BACKGROUND:

The Raposa Serra do Sol territory is home to the Macuxi, Patamona, Ingaricó, Wapichana, and Taurepang peoples. It is also the heart of a landmark Indigenous struggle for land rights.

Since authorities in Roraima are close to the mining, ranching, and agricultural industries, the atmosphere is rabidly anti-Indigenous. As one human rights advocate testified, “In Roraima, it’s not a crime to kill an indian.”

Between 1981 and 1999, 20 Indigenous people were killed; 54 received death threats; 21 were seriously assaulted; and 51 were physically assaulted. Eighty Indigenous homes were destroyed, and 71 people were illegally arrested. Last year, another Raposa Serra do Sol resident was found dead, shot execution-style in the back.

As the sole lawyer for the communities’ association, the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR), Joênia brings modern sophistication to the struggle for ancestral land. As a human rights hero, she is the real thing an Indigenous lawyer and mother working at great risk and personal sacrifice. In 2002 alone, following a community workshop led by Joênia, three participants were run off the road and killed.

This January a human rights crisis erupted when vigilante mobs initiated a campaign of terror against the Indigenous residents of Raposa Serra do Sol. A well-organized rampage took three hostages, blocked all major highways, and threatened to shut down the airport in the capital of Boa Vista. The mobs were responding to a government announcement that the territory would be officially recognized demarcated as indian land by the end of the month.

The demarcation never happened, but the human rights situation remains tense. After exhausting all recourse in Brazil, Joênia is turning to the international community for help.

The Rainforest Foundation US (RF-US) is co-filing the IACHR petition with CIR. Joênia’s work is fully supported by RF-US, a nonprofit organization based in NYC that has fought for Indigenous land rights in Latin America since 1989. (see www.rainforestfoundation.org)

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