On January 1st, when President Lula (Workers’ Party) took office to start his third term leading the country, he invited representatives of eight segments of civil society to walk up the ramp of the Planalto Palace with him: a leader of artisans, a recyclable waste picker, a teacher, a metallurgy worker, a cook, a 10-year-old athlete, an anti-ableism militant and the iconic 90-year-old Indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire, one of the most relevant voices of the Indigenous movement in Brazil, known all around the world.
A year after the scene that marked the country’s history, Brasil de Fato talked with people from some of the abovementioned groups to hear from them what they think about the Workers’ Party government until now, considering aspects such as advancements, challenges and eventual setbacks.
People with disabilities
A well-known activist for disabled people, Rubens Linhares attentively followed the federal administration's steps in its first year. Among other things, he was part of the government transition team on human rights after the 2022 elections, responsible for managing the segment’s agenda. He works in the Association of People with Disabilities from Pirambu, in Fortaleza, Ceará’s capital city, and in the Association of People with Disabilities from Maracanaú, also in Ceará state. Linhares says that, in 2023, a “perspective of advancement” on inclusive public policies has emerged, which are considered priorities in the human rights sector.
“We see it happening in the inclusive education issue at the Ministry of Education and biopsychosocial assessment – about which the government has been developing studies – care policies (also debated by the administration) and the Living Without Limits Plan II [Plano Viver sem Limites II, I Portuguese]. It is all a package [of measures] that shows a horizon for a new era, a new time for people with disabilities.”
Rubens Linhares, known as "Rubinho", is a little person from Ceará state who works to improve the lives of people with disabilities. / Divulgação
Linhares also mentions the resume of the National Conference on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which discusses and suggests public policies and whose most recent edition was in April 2016. In April 2023, the event was the focus of an ordinance by the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship determining deadlines for municipal and state conferences to take place so that the event's national edition can take place in July 2024. “We have a motto: ‘nothing about us without us.’ The national conference is in line with the idea of our participation [in decision-making processes],” he said.
He also highlights that there are challenges still lacking incisive measures by the government in the so-called “Specialized Educational Service”, a policy that provides for the development of pedagogical and inclusive resources to overcome difficulties in maintaining students with disabilities in the regular educational system. “It’s hard to hear from a mother that when she arrives at school, her son is alone in the middle of the sports court or in the library. The formation process of inclusive education needs to improve. Unfortunately, the current scenario leaves a lot to be desired. Even training at universities has to improve so that educators conclude the courses prepared to deal with this,” argues Rubens Linhares.
Black movement
The National Coordination for the Articulation of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (Conaq, in Portuguese) says that the federal government took positive steps by adopting measures such as launching the Aquilomba Brasil Program, in March. The policy is coordinated by the Ministry of Racial Equality, recreated by Lula in January, which promotes intersectoral measures that favor Black people's rights.
The entity also counts on the advancement in some areas of the National Supply Company (Conab, in Portuguese) and the public call for the National Rural Housing Program, one of the initiatives of My House, My Life (Minha Casa, Minha Vida), which seeks to subsidize the production or restoration of properties for rural workers. Despite this, the organization considers there is a lack of "political will" from the government to move in other directions.
Biko Rodrigues, Conaq’s coordinator, says the segment has been calling for normative instructions from the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra, in Portuguese) that make it difficult for regularizing quilombola lands, but to no avail. Among the demands are Normative Instruction 57/2009, from Lula’s second presidential term and Normative Instruction 128/2022, inherited from the Bolsonaro government.
We understand that the current moment is marked by the budget the previous government left. However, we need to advance agendas that don't require money [to happen], but rather political will,” Biko said. Among the 5,994 quilombola territories in the country, 97% are still to be regularized. Biko says there are unresolved demands for the inclusion of quilombola territories in the registry of the National Agrarian Reform Program (PNRA, in Portuguese).
Minister Anielle Franco, from the Ministry of Racial Equality. / EVARISTO SA / AFP
"Quilombola communities have been involved in agrarian reform since 2004, but even so, there is a stance within Incra of not accepting quilombola communities as stakeholders in agrarian reform. Today, we are the largest public to be supported by the program, according to the rules of the Single Registry (CadÚnico, in Portuguese). Therefore, we need to advance it", highlights the Conaq leader.
The Black Coalition for Rights, which brings together 292 civil society organizations interested in the racial equality agenda, adds some aspects to the assessment of the first year of Lula's government. The return of the Ministry of Racial Equality, founded in 2003 by Lula and extinguished in 2016 by Michel Temer (MDB Party), at a stage in which it had already merged with other secretariats in the human rights sector by decision of Dilma Rousseff (Workers’ Party), is considered a high point. The Coalition, however, says the department lacks transparency.
"Some say the budget is a big problem for the ministry, but the truth is that this issue has never been publicly explained from the point of view of its magnitude. I criticize the fact that we never know how much we need and how much we still don't have. However, the budget cannot justify not doing certain things,” says historian and consultant Wania Sant'Anna, who is part of the coalition. She ponders that the federal Executive's actions in the search for racial equality also lack political will on some fronts.
“In 2023, we made a campaign to convince President Lula to choose a Black woman for the Supreme Court. Nobody [from the government] talked to us, and I'm sure his political peers knew about the campaign. The question that remains unanswered is why there was no dialog. I don't want to say we would necessarily have results, but the conversation is important."
Indigenous peoples
Last year was also marked by an intense institutional relationship between the government and the organized Indigenous movement. In addition to officially creating the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, something never seen in the federal Executive’s administrative architecture, the Lula government invited Sônia Guajajara (PSOL), a member of the summit of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib, in Portuguese), the most relevant entity representing Indigenous peoples in the country. Dinaman Tuxá, from the organization's executive coordination, sees the creation of the ministry as "positive".
Among other things, he explains that having a ministry contributed to calling attention to important aspects of the Indigenous agenda, for instance, the recognition of the humanitarian crisis in the Yanomami Indigenous Land, in Roraima state. In January, the federal government declared a state of public calamity in the area and started to promote supportive actions to help the local population. Another highlight was Sônia Guajajara's trips to different territories throughout 2023, which ended years of no dialog between the federal government and the Indigenous peoples.
“The minister's visit to these locations ends up mobilizing the state to assist Indigenous peoples with what they need. The demarcation of [Indigenous] lands is a federal jurisdiction, but there are other things that can be started by other agents because we are citizens, so much so that we also participate in the electoral process,” Tuxá explains. He highlights, however, that the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples' budgetary limitations ended up dictating the rhythm and design of the ministry’s actions.
The time frame limitation thesis became a sore spot for the government, especially at the end of the year, when Congress overturned Lula's vetoes on the approved bill; Apib points out inaction by Workers' Party government on the agenda/ Leopoldo Silva/Agência Senado
"The institutional space within a state structure at a high level is very positive if it has the means to act. As it was not within the budget, the ministry was unable to develop actions that were reflected in the territories. In this first year, we saw there was a ministry of articulation, of mobilization within the state structure, but not of implementation. We have not seen actions carried out by the ministry, nor in partnership with other departments, within the lands. It is not yet a ministry that has managed to implement public policies."
Apib also cited other issues. “We had difficulties dialoguing with the new government and implementing what was promised during the electoral campaign. There was progress with the demarcation of six [Indigenous] lands. We must recognize it. However, there are things to be improved. Simple things could have been done but haven’t, such as repealing opinions and ordinances,” Tuxá says.
As an example, he cites the maintenance of Opinion No. 001/2017, from the Attorney General's Office (AGU, in Portuguese), which provides arguments in defense of the time frame limitation thesis for demarcating Indigenous lands. The document was edited by the Michel Temer government and then assigned, at the time, to the Supreme Court to establish a position in the debate on the topic.
Tuxá adds that the Workers’ Party government’s stance towards the bill displeased Apib. Despite the president having vetoed part of the text approved by the National Congress, the entity considers that there was a lack of interest on the part of the government in preventing the vetoes from being overturned when parliamentarians voted again on the agenda, on December 14.
"We could have had greater engagement from the Planalto Palace regarding the permanence of vetoes in the Congress vote. That did not happen, which is why we had a setback in our rights. On several occasions, we tried to talk with the Chief of Staff and other ministries to articulate with them a strategy to maintain the vetoes, but they didn't even respond to our emails. We are allies of the government, but we are not submissive to it, hence the importance of highlighting it,” emphasizes the Apib representative.
Recyclable waste pickers
Regarding the agenda of recyclable waste pickers, they mention the recreation of the Pró-Catador program, extinguished by the Bolsonaro government, and the institution of the Diogo Sant'Ana Pro-Recyclable Waste Pickers for Popular Recycling Program. The policy aims to articulate, at all federal levels, public administration projects that promote human rights in this segment. The Lula administration also put an end to Recicla+, a project created by the previous government. The National Movement of Recyclable Waste Pickers (MNCR, in Portuguese) states that the extinction of the policy was a demand they had.
"It was a project built by the Bolsonaro government with private companies and, for example, they talked about closing landfills, but they didn't talk about including waste pickers in it. Before closing down dumps, it is necessary to include waste pickers, implement selective collectives and warehouses recycling, but none of this was foreseen," says Alex Cardoso, from the MNCR national articulation team. The organization encompasses a total of 1,590 cooperatives and associations in the sector, bringing together 89 thousand workers.
A 2022 survey, Cataki platform showed that autonomous pickers collect 1,6 times more recyclable material in São Paulo than he Ciy Hall initiative. Ravena Rosa/Agência Brasil
The year was also marked by the recreation of the Interministerial Committee for Socioeconomic Inclusion of Collectors of Reusable and Recyclable Materials, responsible for monitoring Pró-Catador. When asked about the progress of these and other policies, the MNCR says it understands that the year was a phase of reviving the category's agenda. The entity highlights that the lack of budget was an obstacle to actions aimed at the sector.
"The first measure was the creation of the program and, with it, [the area] was able to start receiving resources, but, as there was a huge difficulty in terms of investment funds, we kept building projects, and now, at Christmas for the pickers [in December 22], is that the government signed one of the first projects with specific resources for waste pickers, which was the Cataforte program", says the leader, citing one of the areas of action of a recently announced agreement that includes different actions aimed at the segment. Cataforte plans a notice – yet to be launched – to encourage the training of collectors.
"Given the difficulty of obtaining resources for the area, this was a year of much more articulation. We had many agendas with the government, for example. We have agendas again, in this case, because in the previous administration, there was nothing in relation to pickers, since our entire agenda wasn't considered. Seeing the pickers as part of the State was the most important thing. For next year, one of the challenges is for us to advance the agenda that provides for pickers to receive payment for environmental services", concludes Alex Cardoso.
Edited by: Nicolau Soares
