Human Rights, Citizenship and Justice for traditional maroon communities: promoting territorial rights
The project developed by Terra de Direitos refers to a set of legal and policy strategic interventions, coordinated and implemented at multiple geopolitical levels (three different regions of Brazil), and replicated nationally, aimed at ensuring the human right of black slave-descendant communities (maroons) to traditional land regulation.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Jackeline
Last Name
Florêncio
Website
Country
Brazil, PE
Section 2: About Your Organization
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Organization Name
Terra de Direitos
Organization Website
Organization Phone
+55 41 32324660
Organization Address
Rua Des. Ermelino de Leão, 15 - cj. 72 - Centro Curitiba, PR — 80410-230
Organization Country
Brazil
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Your idea
Name your project.
Human Rights, Citizenship and Justice for traditional maroon communities: promoting territorial rights
Describe Your Idea
The project developed by Terra de Direitos refers to a set of legal and policy strategic interventions, coordinated and implemented at multiple geopolitical levels (three different regions of Brazil), and replicated nationally, aimed at ensuring the human right of black slave-descendant communities (maroons) to traditional land regulation.
Country your work focuses on
Brazil
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
The multilevel performance (local, regional and national) guided by the perspective of the diffusion of a new culture of land and territorial rights, with the support of qualified attorneys in moments of social tension, represents, without a doubt, the differential performance of Terra de Direitos. In regions where we have offices (Paraná, southern region, Pernambuco, Northeast and Pará, Amazon, northern region), the organization tracks dozens of administrative procedures for maroon land titling, lawsuits concerning disputes over land and natural resources used by these communities, cases of community-leaders' criminalization and performing constant dialogues and meetings with relevant public agencies to meet the demands of these groups. The option for continuous in situ monitoring of conflicts and territorial demands of maroon communities reflects the institutional view that any contribution to the effective human dignity should be preceded by concrete knowledge of the reality of denial experienced by many sectors of Brazilian society. The experience gained with this action in individual cases, in three different regions of the country, led Terra de Direitos to a different vision for the implementation of land regulation public policies, which subsidizes the intervention, nationwide, in structural measures of such policies and of the judiciary system. Through this advocacy and the national variety of local instruments of action, the organization promotes subsidized actions, coordinated and comprehensive, which makes the proposal an innovative action.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
No
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
It is possible to speak in specific social impacts, consistent with the reality of each local reality as well as global social impacts, resulting from the impact at the national level, which affects the maroon issue as a whole. On the specific scope, the organization provides legal advice to 25 maroon communities in three regions where it operates, boosting administrative procedures for land regulation. These activities have already caused the publication of two decrees of recognition and the production of seven anthropological reports. It also promotes political and legal training, empowering the maroons, who act as multipliers, for community development and qualification of their interventions. Thereby, courses were held for forty in Santarém-PA, one hundred in Parana, and forty in Pernambuco. In advocacy, Terra de Direitos led to the opening of four investigations against the slowness of the oficial land regulation process, and against irregularities in the construction of large infrastructure projects that directly impact the communities and may deprive them from their terrotiry. Besides that, the organization fosters the political articulation of maroon and assists the actions arising from their self-determination, such as political and legal support to set up their own organizations. Nationally, along with other organizations, influenced public policy through a lawsuit against the 4.887/2003 Decree. We also supported the creation of the Statute of Racial Equality. This way we simultaneously help the return of this incidence to the maroon communities, closing the cycle that begins and ends in the communities themselves.
Problem
The problem to be faced is the lack of effectiveness of public policies on access to land by the maroon communities. Only recently have the right to maroon territories been stated in national statutes, such as the art. 68 ADCT of Brazilian Constitution in 1988, and the ratification of Convention 169 of WLO. Yet, there still exists a gap between the achievements and the concrete dimension of legal titles, because of its residual character, such policies are implemented slowly & do not have enough budget forecast for execution. From 2003 to 2009, only eight received their land titles by maroons from INCRA (federal body in charge of land regulation). Legal norms that aim to regulate land titling makes the process slow, costly and difficult to conclude. In addition, INCRA has no sufficient technical staff nor anthropologists to map and regulate more than 1,100 recongized communitites. The people's ignorance in the formal aspects of the procedure also makes it difficult to access and impact on justice. Our proposal aims to reduce the gap between the formal guarantee of title and its implementation, helping communities to overcome bureaucratic barriers & fighting racial discrimination.
Actions
The actions defined by Terra de Direitos articulates regional activities, which consider the specific localities, with national activities, which involves maroon rights in their totality. Among them are: 1) legal advice on the ground to maroon communities, with follow-up processes of land titling, mediation of territorial conflicts, 2) legal advice on a national level, as in 3239-9 Decree, serving in the defense of the laws governing the titling of maroon areas against the revocation requests from business and agrarian sectors, and 3) political and legal training of maroons, promoting a qualified public policy incidence and access to justice, 4) incidence and advocacy with the local, regional and national public agencies regarding strategic issues for the national field of maroon rights, and the monitoring and participation of Law projects concerning the subject, in the National Congress, and organs responsible for maroon land titling (INCRA, state land agencies), 5) realization of complaints about violations of the territory and the criminalization of maroon leaders.
Results
1) We have completed legal advice in situ for about 25 maroon communities directly in the three regions where the Terra de Direitos operates, doing follow up of around 25 administrative procedures, which will benefit approximately 2,500 families; nationwide, primarily in the Supreme Federal Court, we have contributed to monitor law regulations, 2) We have completed training in human rights of former slaves, totaling a minimum of 6 activities per year, through workshops, brochures and informational meetings for guidance, demystifying the technical terms and formal procedures and creating joint strategies to tackle the barriers to titration, 3) we have influenced federal, state and municipal agencies responsible for ensuring the right to territories of rural black communities (Palmares Cultural Foundation, INCRA, Instituto de Terras state / PA) and National Congress, through the preparation of reports, intervention and monitoring of infrastructure projects that directly and indirectly affect the maroon communities as well as conflict mediation.
How many people will your project serve annually?
101‐1000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$100 ‐ 1000
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If so, how?
The influence is through the impact with the local and national government agencies responsible for titling, INCRA and the State Institute of Land / PA, pushing for the Administrative Procedures to move forward. Likewise, it promotes the incidence in the Public Ministry, the Human Rights Secretariat and the Palmares Cultural Foundation, to intervene with the state and national spaces, seeking to give effect to the titration. Terra de Direitos also influences public policy in that way, enables and empowers young people and leaders, instructing on the legal and political character of government, and at the same time qualifies them to have impact, to get to know the structures, the ordinance, technical procedures, so that they can be more effective. More, it prevents relapses in the laws that establish the landmarks of the titration process in coordination with other civil society actors, disseminating successful experiences of INCRA and other government agencies, allowing them to be replicated elsewhere.
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for more than 5 years
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with businesses?
No
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your innovation.
The partnerships with civil society organizations working with human rights issues of traditional black communities and joint actions strengthen the incidence on government agencies responsible for land regulation public policies as well as expands the exchange of experiences and pro-activeness. Likewise, the maroon associations themselves are considered partners of the innovation proposed here, in that the maroons in front of the autonomy that we encouraged at Terra de Direitos, help, search and demand the state's duty towards the regulation of their territories. Thus, the maroon associations are, dialogically, recipients of the innovative actions of Terra de Direitos, and also propel them to the extent that, by replicating the methodology of the experiments, they perpetuate their action in another region, replicating, for their benefit, their success in the titling process.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
The implementation of the action deals with the performance of three lawyers, one in each state (PA / PE / PR), summing $ 50,824.00 / year toward the cost of individual expenses. The lawyers are responsible for the actions of legal advice, training and incidence. Estimated revenues for maintenance of physical structures totaling the amount of $ 14,118.00 per year. The training activities require the incidence and estimates of revenue to fund other expenditure items, as listed below: 6 Meetings / workshops / year publishing and printing Pamphlets 1000 - $ 5,600.00 / three years. Tickets: $ 6,353.00 / Annual Room and board: $ 5,083.00 (60.00 x 24 persons x 6 meetings / workshops) Instructional materials: U.S. $ 1,411.00 (20 participants x 20.00 x 6 Meeting / workshops). Travel expenses for visits to communities, monitoring procedures, participation in hearings from public bodies: Airfares: $ 3,353.00 / year (6 tickets x 950.00) Land transportation: $ 2,942.00 ( 20 tickets x 250.00); Room and board: $ 1942.00 / year (30 per day x 110.00). The total share is $ 86,026.00 / year or $ 263,678.00 / three years. The prize offered by Changemakers competition represdents approximately 20% of three-year revenue forecast. For these actions, the plan must rely on the revenue contribution of institutional design equivalent to the remaining 80%.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
Terra de Direitos was established in August 2002 by the initiative of a group of lawyers, university professors, researchers and leaders of social movements, who felt the need to have an organization that promoted human rights, especially through the popular legal aid in cases of rights violations on grounds of violence, incriminations, absence or ineffectiveness of public policies on access to land, territory, justice and biodiversity. The organization develops its work on four lines of action: Politics and Culture of Human Rights; Justiciability of Human Rights and Democratization of Justice, Land, Territory and Socio-Spatial Fairness, and Biodiversity and Food Sovereignty. Briefly, we can say that our work is the defense, repair and promotion of human rights through the popular legal aid, which includes activities in litigation (law itself), the incidence and advocacy with public bodies, mediation of conflicts, and training / capacity building of communities about their rights.
Since its founding, the organization is constantly evaluating its performance lines to adapt them to economic social and political groups with which it operates. Work with maroon communities has been intensified since the beginning of 2003, when several cases of violations of the territory came to the organization through requests from the communities, seeking to empower the legal mechanisms, expand their knowledge about the policies for access to the territories, especially with the emergence of the federal program called Brazil Quilombola. The action planning always takes into consideration the reflections of the communities, the transformative potential of the activities, challenges and obstacles of the scene and identifying the tools and spaces for advocacy. One can therefore say that since the beginning of 2003, with the emergence of Brazil Quilombola program and with the demands of diverse communities, Terra de Direitos felt the need and importance of developing a plan of action aimed at defending the human rights of these traditional groups. Thereafter, the shares were being improved by the innovation that we propose today, which has a multiplying potential because it applies in different regions of the country, builds a reasoned dialogue to focus on public policy in their areas, county and national, and includes several partnerships - tens of maroon communities, human rights organizations, public officials committed to human rights, etc.. - which guarantees sustainability for the future.
Tell us about the social innovator—the person—behind this idea.
The innovative action was designed by the Terra de Direitos’s team which operates in the line of action: Land, Territory and Socio-Spatial Equity. The coordination of this area is performed by Darci Frigo, who composes the executive coordination of the organization. Darci is a lawyer since 1992, graduated from Catholic University of Parana. He is a renowned advocate of human rights in Brazil, awarded by the Robert Kennedy Foundation. He has been acting with land issues for almost 30 years. He worked in the Pastoral Land Commission and was a founder of Terra de Direitos. Is also part of the design team, the executive coordinator Luciana Pivato, attorneys Fernando Prioste, Florencio Jackie, Caroline and John Caraiba Camerini. Luciana works for Terra de Direitos since she was a law student. She graduated in 2003 and in 2005 she specialized in Criminal Law and Critical Criminology. She is the organization's lawyer in the offices of Parana and Pernambuco. She has always worked with human rights defenders, such as landless workers and maroons. Fernando Prioste began his work at Terra de Direitos in 2006, the office of Pernambuco, where the main objective of the project is to provide legal advice to rural social movements and maroon communities. Since 2009, Fernando took over as general counsel and is one of those responsible for the Land and Territory line of action. Carolina graduated from the Federal University of Parana, where she also completed her Masters. She works at Terra de Direitos since 2008, where she began doing legal counseling to defend the right of communities to land and urban socio-spatial equity. In 2009, she worked in the office of Para, where the organization offers legal counseling to fight for land movements, peoples and traditional communities. John began his work at Terra de Direitos in 2009, when he also completed his master's degree from EMU; has extensive knowledge about the right to environment and traditional land. His performance also occurs in the office of Para. Jackie also began his career as an intern in the organization of law. In 2009 he graduated in law at the Federal University of Pernambuco and took the advocacy role. His performance also focuses on legal advice to communities and maroon traditional rural social movements. Finally, we note that all lawyers are activists in the area of human rights, with knowledge and ability to work with social movements and traditional communities. Because it is a collective idea, the action becomes even more consistent because it encompasses the knowledge and the accumulation of several people, including many not mentioned here, as is the case of directors, partners and employees of the organization.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Newsletter from Changemakers
If through another source, please provide the information.
(até 50 palavras)
Additional
Which (if any) of the following strategies apply to your organization or company (check as many as apply)
Formalizing and documenting property rights (i.e. titling, leasing or certification), Legal education and awareness.
Please explain how your work furthers one or many of the above strategies (if you selected “other”, please explain your strategy)
The provision of collective title to the maroon territory is driven by the impact on public agencies responsible for the titling as well as by the legal advice held by lawyers of the organization. Legal education in human rights happens through political-legal trainings, with workshops, seminars, events and distribution of textbooks and teaching materials.
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