COHRE - Centre On Housing Rights and Evictions

Brazil Quilombos Project English

Versão Portugues

Definition: A quilombo (from a Kimbundu word) is a hinterland settlement originally created by runaway slaves in Brazil and sometimes included a minority of marginalised Portuguese, indigenous Native Americans and other non-black, non-slave Brazilians.

Housing Rights and the Quilombos Communities

The national campaign “A Matter of Social Justice: Regularising Land Ownership in the Quilombos Territories” was launched on 3 June 2004 and is promoted by COHRE (Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions), CONAQ (National Coordination of Quilombos Communities) and ACONERUQ (Association of Rural Negro Quilombos Communities). It aims to protect and guarantee the right to land and adequate housing of the Quilombos communities.

The proposed activities consist of campaign actions, debating and advocacy in order to streamline land regularisation and titling in the areas traditionally occupied by these communities. Legal training and capacity-building activities will be conducted to empower the communities to lobby the Brazilian government for the achievement of their demands regarding land titling.

With the purpose of consolidating the Quilombos communities’ legal security of tenure, the principal demands of the Quilombos Movement supported by the campaign are:

that Brazil’s federal, state and municipal governments provide technical, legal, financial and budgetary resources to contribute to the regularisation and titling of Quilombos communities
streamlining of the titling process for Quilombos lands, including prioritising a solution to the land conflicts that threaten the communities’ security of tenure and their access to public investments and policies promoting social inclusion
that communities remain in their territories and not to be moved without their consent and consultation (forced displacement has been caused by construction and development projects such as the Space Launch Center in Alcântara, the expansion of agriculture, the exploitation of natural resources and other mega-projects)
the participation of CONAQ and the communities involved in all stages of identification, recognition, delimitation and titling processes in their territories
that the State ensures appropriate rights for the members of all Afro-descent groups and develops good governance in heterogeneous societies (in this context good governance means legal, administrative and territorial arrangements which allow the existence of peaceful and constructive group accommodation and equality in dignity and rights for all)

Comunicacion_OIT_Alcantara

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COHRE's Partners

COHRE's Américas is working on this campaign in conjunction with the groups below.

COHRE Américas
Rua Jerônimo Coelho, 102 /31
Porto Alegre, RS Brasil
Tel: + 55 + 51 3212-1904 / 8179.5235
cohreamericas@cohre.org

CONAQ
National Coordination of Quilombos Communities was created in 1996 in Bom Jesus da Lapa, Bahia, Brazil, and represents the Quilombos communities of 18 States of Brazil.

ACONERUQ
Association of Rural Negro Quilombos Communities of Maranhão is a not-for-profit civil society organization. It is located in São Luís, State of Maranhão, and has 246 communities associated with it.

CONAQ/ACONERUQ
Rua do Sol, 363
65.20-590 São Luís/MA
Fone: 98.2329298 Fax: 98.231.8941
conaq@ig.com.br
aconeruq@ig.com.br

The following groups are supporters:

SELAVIP – Latin American and Asiatic Service for Popular Housing
Ford Foundation/Rio de Janeiro

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