Mestres’ craft and teaching become part of national heritage record

Brazil ratified the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Ratification committed the state to identify and safeguard living cultural practices in cooperation...

Decree 6,040 created the National Policy for the Sustainable Development of Traditional Peoples and Communities. It described traditional territories as necessary to communities’ cultural, social...

IPHAN registered Tambor de Crioula do Maranhão in the Book of Forms of Expression. The tradition brings together drumming, dance, and song, with strong ties to Afro-Maranhense communities and devotion...

Law 11,635 instituted a national observance against religious intolerance on 21 January, the date associated with the killing of Mãe Gilda of Ilê Axé Abassá de Ogum after public attacks on her...

IPHAN’s heritage council recognized the Roda de Capoeira and entered it in the Book of Forms of Expression. The roda is a collective setting for movement, music, song, instruments, and knowledge,...

Normative Instruction 49 replaced earlier rules and formalized the administrative route for quilombola land cases. Supporters presented it as procedural regulation; community advocates criticized...

Normative Instruction 57 established a new procedure for quilombola land identification, demarcation and titling, superseding the 2008 instruction. The repeated revisions reflected continuing conflict...

Law 12,288, sanctioned on 20 July 2010, instituted Brazil’s Racial Equality Statute. It set a legal framework for equal opportunity, protection of ethnic rights, and policies addressing discrimination...

Law 12,519 created the National Day of Black Consciousness, observed on 20 November in memory of Zumbi dos Palmares. The date grew from Black movement organizing and historical work that centered...

In ADPF 186, the Supreme Federal Court unanimously upheld the University of Brasília’s racial quota policy. The ruling recognized affirmative action as a constitutional response to structural...