Brazil Senate passes amendment limiting Indigenous land claims to 1988 occupants
Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.
The Senate approved PEC 48/2023 on 9 December 2025, writing the 5 October 1988 cut-off into the constitution and requiring advance compensation for occupiers. Indigenous land recognition is at stake, and the Supreme Court had again ruled the time limit unconstitutional that month.
- Occupiers of Indigenous land — Advance compensation before Indigenous land is recognised, under the amendment Senado Notícias (Federal Senate of Brazil)
- Indigenous peoples with land claims — Recognition of land made conditional on compensation to occupiers, under the amendment Senado Notícias (Federal Senate of Brazil)
- Guajajara people in Maranhão — 81 Guajajara killed 1991–2023 according to the source; no one tried for the killings
What happened
Congress passed Law 14.701/2023, limiting Indigenous land recognition to lands occupied on 5 October 1988.
The Supreme Court voted 9 to 2 against the time limit in 2023, and found it unconstitutional again in December 2025.
On 9 December 2025 the Senate approved PEC 48/2023 by 52 votes to 14 and 52 to 15 in two rounds. The amendment would require advance compensation to occupiers.
The amendment was sent to the Chamber of Deputies.
In court and with insurers
Lawsuits and rulings
- 2025-12Overturned on appealMarco temporal time-limit case (Law 14.701/2023)Supreme Federal Court (STF) · constitutional · Not stated in the sources reviewed → Not stated in the sources reviewed
The court found the time limit unconstitutional in December 2025, after a 9 to 2 vote in 2023. Mayer Brown
Insurers
What we don't know
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Record
- None on record Status of the amendment in the Chamber of Deputies is not confirmed beyond its referral.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: Congress restated the time limit in law a week after the 2023 court vote.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: one study found that formal title for Indigenous land cut border deforestation by about 75% in the Brazilian Amazon.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: illegal gold mining reached more than 20,000 miners on Yanomami land in 2021–2023.
Did the harm stop?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Who paid?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Sources
Press and investigations
- Senado Notícias: amendment on the marco temporal approved in two rounds, goes to the ChamberSenado Notícias (Federal Senate of Brazil) · 2025-12-09