A court in Brazil has granted the Kinja indigenous people an unprecedented right of reply to racist invective, in a move that legal experts say could be a game changer against rising discrimination by the government of President Jair Bolsonaro.
In her ruling, Manaus-based federal judge Raffaela Cássia de Sousa ordered official government websites to publish a letter from the Kinja indigenous people (also called Waimiri-Atroari) for 30 days, among other measures. The decision, issued on March 30, follows a series of offensive statements by government officials over the indigenous group’s resistance to the planned construction of a 720-kilometer (450-mile) power transmission line that will cut through their Waimiri-Atroari Indigenous Reserve in the Amazon rainforest.
“For the first time they will be given space on the presidential website,” said Jonas Fontelle, a lawyer at the Waimiri-Atroari Indigenous Association. “They want to be heard.”
