State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 - Brazil

The ongoing challenges experienced by Brazil's indigenous peoples were highlighted at the beginning of 2014 with the publication online of images of one of the country's few 'uncontacted' communities. The photographs, taken illegally on a reconnaissance flight monitoring the intrusion of criminal groups in the area, provoked widespread debate over the protection of these communities from outside interference. The pictures, taken in March, showed indigenous inhabitants in a state of fear as the low-lying plane passed by.

Though a significant portion of the country's indigenous population are now urban, the majority still reside in rural areas and are often vulnerable to the effects of urbanization, particularly when Brazil's cities develop against a backdrop of unregulated or illegal land encroachment and resource exploitation. Their location in often remote and undeveloped areas rich in forestry and minerals has placed them at particular risk of logging, mining and other activities. The Awá people have been especially affected by displacement from their ancestral land by illegal loggers settling forcibly in the area. While the government has been slow to respond to address their predicament, growing national and international pressure led to the government's announcement in January that illegal settlers would have to leave the area by 9 March. This is one of the few documented instances of the government stepping in with security forces to prevent resource extraction on indigenous lands. In early 2015, reports again emerged, however, of renewed rights abuse and violence against Awá associated with illicit logging. Meanwhile, in December, a group of uncontacted Awá were brought out of the forest after having been surrounded by loggers; at the time of going to press one woman had contracted a severe respiratory illness – highlighting the extreme vulnerability of uncontacted communities.

Yet often it is government-sponsored megaprojects themselves that are displacing or otherwise affecting local communities, such as the controversial hydroelectric Belo Monte Dam currently being built on the edge of indigenous territory. This development, besides undermining the lives of local inhabitants long dependent on the Xingu River, is also encouraging mass migration of labourers into the region. This rapid urban development and the indirect effects of sudden, unregulated investment have reportedly devastated some indigenous communities, whose traditional livelihoods and organizational structures have been threatened by these changes.

The year 2014 was also an important one for Brazil as it hosted the FIFA World Cup. This event, amid high-profile construction in cities across the country, shone a spotlight on the struggle of indigenous peoples to protect their lands from unsustainable uncontrolled development. In particular, attention focused on the stadium in Manaus, built in the Amazon rainforest. The stadium drew heavy criticism from all sides because its construction cost millions of reais, put a heavy strain on local riverways and is unlikely to be much used in the near future. To make matters worse, the stadium's interwoven design draws on indigenous patterns, with little sign of any other more meaningful inclusion. Indigenous peoples in the area took the opportunity to highlight their struggle with a government more focused on tourism than indigenous peoples' rights.

Indigenous peoples live in every state of Brazil and represent 305 different ethnic groups and 274 indigenous languages. The north and north-east of Brazil have the largest populations of indigenous peoples, and some towns and small cities in Amazonas, Roraima and Rio Negro are largely populated by indigenous displaced people or migrants, who live in basic conditions and experience urban poverty in all its aspects of poor access to water and sanitation, violence, and women being forced into the sex trade.

In this context, displaced indigenous communities may end up struggling to integrate while maintaining their traditional cultures, particularly in larger cities such as Rio de Janeiro, where a large proportion of the thousands of indigenous residents are concentrated in the favelas. In some cases, residents may also find themselves increasingly alienated from their home towns as well. Yet much of the urban indigenous population is situated in smaller urban areas, including towns in remote regions where strong links remain with the rural hinterlands, with indigenous people travelling back and forth from remote areas, and using the towns for provisions and communication. Large numbers of indigenous people travel by boat or canoe to the Amazonian town of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, for example, for products they cannot access in their villages and for services such as health care. The town is also largely populated by indigenous people, often displaced from their land by illegal and violent loggers.

Numerically, Brazil's Afro-Brazilian population is no longer a minority: for the first time, in the 2010 census peoples self-identifying as black or 'pardo' ('brown' – to denote mixed ancestry) exceeded the population of Brazilians self-identifying as white. Yet despite their sizeable demographic, Afro-Brazilians still face major disadvantages and institutionalized discrimination. There is massive inequality in their access to education and other services, with many forced to reside in the most dangerous urban areas. With little opportunity to improve their lives, young Afro-Brazilian men in particular have been drawn into drug gangs and violence – an acute issue in a country where, according to the Mexico-based organization Seguridad, Justicia y Paz, 19 of the 50 most violent cities in the world are located.

Afro-descendant youth have been disproportionately exposed to these threats. In March 2015, petitioners from Associação Nacional dos Centros de Defesa da Criança e do Adolescente (ANCDCA) brought a case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), to bring further attention to the extraordinary rates of homicide, harassment and murder experienced by young Brazilians of African descent. Homicide remains the main cause of death among Brazilian youth, particularly affecting young black males living in favelas and urban areas. Faced with situations of extreme violence, police and state security forces frequently resort to the use of lethal force in an effort to curb the violence. The ANCDCA accused police of disproportionately targeting young Afro-Brazilian men, stating that of the 56,000 homicides in 2012, around 30,000 of those killed were children, 77 per cent of whom were Afro-Brazilian.

Cities can also provide the space and freedom for minority and indigenous communities to engage in cultural expression and activism. One well-known example of this is the annual Carnival in Rio, offering a vivid glimpse of the city's vibrant Afro-Brazilian heritage. The February 2015 celebrations, besides showcasing the country's rich traditions of samba and tribal art, included floats that addressed issues relating to ethnic discrimination and the fight for equality.