The Chamber is assessing the Constitutional Amendment Bill 303/08, proposed by the Deputy Pompeo de Mattos (PDT-RS), which conditions the respect to indigenous rights of social organization, habits, languages, beliefs and traditions to the respect to life. According to the author, its intention is to inhibit the practice of ethnical-cultural infanticide, be it in the form of abortion or murder of newborns.

Right to life
According to the Deputy Pompeo de Mattos’ understanding, “enforcing the respect to the right to human life among Indigenous peoples does not constitute any disrespect or offense to their culture, but, in the opposite, shows respect to their cultural particularity in the scope of Brazilian society, which, by means of the 1988 Constitutional Chart, considers the right to life of all Brazilians, including indigenous and foreigners inviolable.”

By not reinforcing the respect to the right to life in Article 231, which addresses indigenous rights, the Federal Constitution gives way to the understanding that the homicide practices in a specific ethnical-cultural context, such as infanticide, are accepted by the constitutional ordainment, argues the author.

Procedure
The bill will be reviewed regarding its admissibility by the Committee on the Constitution and Justice and Citizenship. If it is approved, it will be examined by a special committee, and, later, needs to be voted in two turns by the House Floor.

Report - Vania Alves
Editing - Marcos Rossi
Translation - Positive Idiomas Ltda

Further information:
Indigenous tradition