Imminent eviction of residents of Jane Julia camp
On 25 June 2019, a public hearing was held at the Agrarian Court of Redenção, to discuss the eviction of land rights defenders and residents of the Jane Julia Camp. The hearing resulted on the temporary suspension of the preliminary ruling that allowed the eviction, until after an inspection that was scheduled by the Judge of the Agrarian Court to take place on 8 August 2019.
The Jane Julia camp is a rural settlement of land rights defenders and peasant workers at the Fazenda Santa Lúcia, in the south east of Pará. Over 200 families live in the settlement and they are responsible for most of the produce sold and consumed in the region. The residents have remained in the area despite the high levels of violence associated with land grabbing and forced displacement encouraged by local agribusiness elites.
On 25 June 2019, a public hearing was held at the Agrarian Court of Redenção, to discuss the eviction of land rights defenders and residents of the Jane Julia Camp. The hearing resulted on the temporary suspension of the preliminary ruling that allowed the eviction, until after an inspection that was scheduled by the Judge of the Agrarian Court to take place on 8 August 2019.
The preliminary decision, which allowed the eviction of the more than 200 families who live in the camp, had been granted without a complete evaluation of the evidence and in the absence of a clear definition of the ownership titles and possession rights over the land, questioned since 2002. The previous judicial decisions failed to acknowledge the implications of the suspension of the investigations into the Pau d’Arco Massacre. The decisions furthermore disregarded the implications of this on the protection of human rights defenders and survivors of the massacre living in the Jane Julia Camp. This results in an increase on the risk of violence in the area.
Front Line Defenders remains extremely concerned that an eviction of human rights defenders and residents of the Jane Julia Camp is still possible after 8 August, which would leave more than 200 families displaced. Front Line Defenders also remains worried at the impunity and lack of access to justice and reparations for Jane Julia Camp residents following the Pau d’Arco Massacre.
On 25 June 2019, a public hearing is due to be held at the Agrarian Court of Redenção to discuss the eviction of human rights defenders and residents of the Jane Julia camp, located on the Santa Lúcia farm in south-eastern Pará.
The Jane Julia camp is a rural settlement of land rights defenders and peasant workers at the Fazenda Santa Lúcia, in the south east of Pará. Over 200 families live in the settlement and they are responsible for most of the produce sold and consumed in the region. The residents have remained in the area despite the high levels of violence associated with land grabbing and forced displacement encouraged by local agribusiness elites.
On 25 June 2019, the forced eviction of those in the Jane Julia camp is due to be discussed in a public hearing at the Agrarian Court of Redenção, and the date of the eviction will almost certainly be decided.
On 24 May 2017, 10 human rights defenders were killed on the Santa Lúcia farm, including Jane Julia, the woman human rights defender who acted as the camp leader. The human rights defenders were members of the Liga de Campesinos Pobres (LCP), a movement of rural workers who protect the land rights of their communities against land grabbing and the associated violence. The Pau d'Arco Massacre, as this incident became known, involved 17 members of the civilian and military police. To this day, only the material perpetrators have faced criminal accusations. The intellectual authors of the massacre have not yet been identified.
The possession and ownership of one of the areas where the massacre took place, the Jane Julia camp, remains under dispute. The titles of ownership have been questioned since 2002, as the sale of the land had previously been agreed with the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária), for the purpose of creating an agrarian reform settlement. However, due to recent cuts in the Institute’s budget, a judge from the Agrarian Court of Redenção has reinstated the process of land dispossession and set a hearing to evict residents from the area.
This is the latest in a series of planned evictions of at least 11 communities in the south and south-east of Pará, in areas with disputed ownership or which are undergoing the process of agrarian reform. Among these locations, there are areas of consolidated occupation of over 10 years, such as Camp Dalcidio Jurandir (Maria Bonita farm), in Eldorado dos Carajás, as well as sites of massacres which are still under investigation, such as Camp Jane Julia.
Front Line Defenders remains extremely concerned at the imminent eviction of over 200 families in the Jane Julia camp, as well as at the risk of displacement that they are facing, as the land titles to the Santa Lúcia farm are still being disputed and the intellectual authors of a previous massacre relating to the farm remain at large.
Front Line Defenders has visited the area on previous occasions and has condemned the situation in Para. Front Line Defenders remains concerned about the impunity for crimes committed against human rights defenders and rural workers and the lack of an effective government structure that could effectively respond to threats and attacks against human rights defenders.
