Country Report: Brazil July 2026
- Renata Lampert | Genocide Watch
- Aug 4
- 3 min read
By Renata Lampert
Brazil is home to more than 200 million people, of whom 56% identify as Black or Brown. Structural racism remains a major problem in Brazil. Black people account for 82% of the deaths from police operations. Additionally, 79% of murder victims and 53.6% of victims of feminicide are also Black. Recently, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the João Pinheiro Foundation published the Municipal Human Development Index Radar. Although Brazil has reached the “very high human development” level for the first time, significant disparities between White and Black populations remain. Black people still consistently rank one development level lower than White people, though this difference has decreased from 14% in 2012 to 9% in 2024.
A similar pattern of structural violence persists among Brazil’s Indigenous peoples. According to a report by the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI), an intense wave of violence against the Indigenous peoples marked 2024 in Brazil, with 211 murders of Indigenous people, one of the highest figures in the last decade. The implementation of the controversial “Marco Temporal” legislation largely fueled this violence. The law severely restricts the territories Indigenous peoples can claim, denying many the possibility of claiming the lands from which the state or private actors evicted them during and before Brazil’s dictatorship. In January 2026, the Supreme Federal Court declared the law’s central provisions unconstitutional, preventing the application of the law for the time being. Other institutional barriers remain, as some 857 Indigenous lands are pending regularization. Roughly 63% of the cases have completely stalled, with no administrative progress. The 2025 U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP30) highlighted tensions surrounding Indigenous rights. Despite the largest Indigenous participation in COP history, critics saw government actions, such as issuing decrees for 10 new Indigenous territories, as diplomatic public relations rather than systemic reform, revealing the institutional prejudice that focuses on diplomatic optics over enforcing protections in practice.
Structural violence along the agrarian frontier constitutes a critical context in which genocidal dynamics emerge, particularly targeting land and environmental defenders who oppose resource extraction and agro-industrial expansion. This violence becomes genocidal not only through individual homicides, but also through a systematic neutralization of leadership and enforced territorial displacement, with the aim of dismantling community leadership structures, clearing the path for environmental destruction and land appropriation without accountability. A report by the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) indicates a dramatic escalation in the lethality of land conflicts, with killings rising from 13 in 2024 to 26 in 2025, illustrating how armed groups and land interests pursue territorial clearing through physical erasure.
For the LGBTIQ+ community, President Lula’s government has reestablished national councils for LGBTIQ+ rights and integrated protective policies across ministries. Additionally, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) has reinforced protections by ruling that courts can prosecute transphobic and homophobic hate speech under Brazil’s strict anti-racism law, which means it carries severe prison sentences without bail. Despite a 34% decline in murders compared with 2024, Brazil ranked in 2025 as the deadliest country in the world for transgender individuals for the 18th consecutive year.
Currently, Genocide Watch considers Brazil to show overlapping risk factors for Stage 3: Discrimination, indicative of the institutionalization of the controversial Marco Temporal legislation, which severely restricts indigenous territorial rights; Stage 7: Preparation, marked by systemic administrative freezes and delays that leave 857 Indigenous land pending regularization; and Stage 8: Persecution, characterized by a surge in agrarian-related assassinations, the return of rural massacres targeting land defenders, and persistent, lethal violence against transgender individuals and Black people.
Genocide Watch recommends:
Brazil should formally dismiss PEC 48/2023 and amend Law 14.701/2023 to remove the “compensation trap” which currently blocks the land demarcations.
Brazil must introduce legally binding deadlines for the 857 cases on Indigenous lands pending regularization.
Brazil should mandate body-worn cameras across all military police and advocate for greater police accountability.
Brazil should strengthen the PPDDH with independent funding, police protection, and relocation support for threatened land and environmental defenders.
