Afro-Descendent Property Rights in Brazil
A fisherman at Gamboa de Baixe Brazil.
Quilombos face an increasing threat of encroachment and, without formal title, the communities that live on the lands have little or no protection against displacement.
As part of a multi-year project on Afro-descendant and indigenous land rights in Latin America, the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice coordinated a spring break fact-finding delegation to Brazil to investigate and gather information on the status of collective lands claims by Afro-Brazilian communities.
Learn more about the 2008 spring break project. Read the press release, "Brazil Fails to Protect the Rights of Afro-Brazilian Communities" (24 September 2008). You can read the report and executive summary, in both English and Portuguese, produced by our interdisciplinary delegation below.
Report and Executive Summary
Between the Law and Their Land: Afro-Brazilian Quilombo Communities’ Struggle for Land Rights (.pdf)
Entre o direito e as suas terras: A luta das comunidades quilombolas pelo seu direito à terra (Portuguese translation of our report) (.pdf)
SINTESE: Entre o direito e as suas terras: A luta das comunidades quilombolas pelo seu direito à terra (Portuguese translation of report summary) (.pdf)
