Supremo Tribunal Federal (Brazil) | Good News For Humankind

Brazilian judge orders seizure of illegally cleared lands in the Amazon

By Peter Schulte / April 29, 2025 / Good news links

Justice Flávio Dino of the Brazilian Supreme Court has directed the government to seize private lands where forests have been illegally razed. By one estimate, more than half of the forest lost in the Brazilian Amazon has been on private lands. The ruling also calls for halting the process known as regularization, by which land grabbers are granted title to stolen lands, even when they have illegally destroyed forest on those lands. The decision, which may be appealed, further requires the government to seek compensation from landowners who have destroyed forest.

Brazil’s Supreme Court decriminalizes possession of marijuana for personal use

By Peter Schulte / June 26, 2024 / Good news links

The Supreme Court’s ruling has long been sought by activists and legal scholars in a country where the prison population has become the third largest in the world. Critics of current legislation say users caught with even small amounts of drugs are regularly convicted on trafficking charges and locked up in overcrowded jails, where they are forced to join prison gangs.

Brazil’s top court boosts Indigenous rights in landmark ruling

By Peter Schulte / September 21, 2023 / Good news links

Six of the 11 justices have ruled in favor of restoring territory to the Xokleng people, from which they were evicted. The ruling sets a precedent for hundreds of Indigenous land claims and is expected to have widespread consequences for Indigenous land rights throughout the country.

Brazil court upholds ban on missionaries trying to contact isolated Indigenous

By Peter Schulte / October 8, 2021 / Good news links

Although the country’s official policy since 1987 has been to not engage in any contact, a federal law passed in July 2020 allows religious missionaries to remain inside reserves with isolated #Indigenous groups.