Restorative Justice for Brazilian indigenous people: The TRC and the question of demarcation of lands

Abstract

This dissertation aim is to display the definition of restorative justice and a brief history about the Brazilian natives. The objective of this dissertation is to understand if restorative justice, in specific TRCs, are an effective tool to be used by these communities to achieve the goal of the demarcation of lands. The investigation was developed through a Survey and an Interview with a specialist in indigenous rights. The research method is explained using the ‘’Research Onion’’ model developed by Mark Saunders, and the methodology is a mix of quantitative and qualitative analyses. The Survey analyses conclude that the majority of the target population have an acceptable understanding of history and indigenous rights, raising the question of the need of the TRC as a mean to raise awareness, however the limitation of the method do not offered an answer to this particular question. The Interview analyses concluded that for the specialist interviewed the possibility of the realization of a TRC in Brazil depends mostly on the political power, especially depending on the results of the 2022 elections in Brazil, however the specialist did not position his impression about its efficiency which it was one of the three research questions. The final conclusion is that the TRC can be an appropriated tool to approach the conflict, but its limitations have been proved to be an obstacle to the efficiency of said tool for the regularization of demarcation of lands in Brazil.

Key words: Restorative Justice, Brazilian indigenous people, Demarcation of Lands, TRCs.