Conpedi Law Review (May 2016)
Of the Constitution of Cadiz to the Federal Constitution of 1988 : The Conquest of Indigenous Citizenship in Brazil
Abstract
This article aims to analyze the conquest of indigenous citizenship in Brazil. There- fore it is intended to contextualize the notion of citizen in two cuts: from the Cadiz Cons- titution of 1812 – the first legal instrument that drove the construction of citizenship as a political right for the Indians in Iberian America, under the influence of liberal ideals adopted in Spain at the time – to the Federal Constitution of 1988, the Citizens Charter, which recognizes citizenship as one of the pillars of the democratic state of law whose fruition and exercise of fundamental rights is intertwined with the guarantee of Human Dignity. Thus, the issue is whether, from this Bill of Rights, the indigenous citizenship was conquered in Brazil. This discussion is justified by the need to demonstrate that “constitution of citizenship” is the “construction of civil rights” for the indigenous people. It is concluded that the new concept of citizenship demands the existence of a plural state, enabling a full, revolutionary and inclusive citizenship through popular participation, to guarantee the revival of the notion of citizenship, or rather of citizenship which can exist in a political-territorial space.
