World News for Students of English

26-09-2023 07:00

Brazil’s supreme court has delivered a historic win for Indigenous land rights by rejecting a move backed by agribusiness to limit those rights.

The court’s decision, with nine out of 11 judges voting against it, prevented the enforcement of a ‘time limit trick’ aimed at preventing Indigenous communities from claiming land they hadn’t physically occupied in 1988. The ruling was celebrated across Brazil, especially in the Amazon region, home to half of the country’s 1.7 million Indigenous citizens. Indigenous leaders and activists expressed their joy and relief, emphasizing the importance of this victory for their history and rights.

Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who had been accused of undermining Indigenous protections, had appointed the only two judges who voted in favor of the time limit thesis. The rejected proposal could have hindered legitimate land claims and threatened uncontacted tribes.

Difficult words: agribusiness (large-scale agricultural companies), undermine (lessen the power or effectiveness), hinder (make it difficult for someone to do something or for something to happen), thesis (an idea or theory).

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