Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT)

Origins and structure of CPT

CPT was founded as and remains a Roman Catholic institution, linked to the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops. However, it has also always had an ecumenical basis and works especially closely with the Lutheran Church, two ministers of which sit on its Executive Board. Liberation theology is a key inspiration for CPT workers, to the development of which they have also greatly contributed.

CPT is organised into a National Secretariat in Goiania and has branches spread over 20 states. Since its inception, CPT has helped to organise more than 350 rural unions and is advising more than 500. Lawyers associated with CPT have been involved in thousands of court cases in favour of rural workers.

Key initiatives and activities of CPT

In 1983 CPT was a founder of the National Campaign of Land Reform. In 1985 the new civilian government of José Sarney passed a National Plan of Agrarian Reform with radical proposals for the expropriation and redistribution of land that was not ‘fulfilling its social function’. But the land reform law has been watered down and timidly enforced.

Other CPT activities have included:
-Support for sustainable development projects;
-A unique database about land-inspired human rights violations in Brazil;
-Popular education and mobilisation, including a mass signature campaign and pilgrimages in favour of land reform;
-Two alternative tribunals highlighting the crimes of big landowners;
-Support for the encampment and settlement of landless peasants on unproductive land.

Experience has shown that only the mobilisation of the rural poor – as fostered in Brazil by CPT and the Movement of Landless Workers, MST (also a 1991 Right Livelihood recipient) – holds out any real prospect of change against the entrenched landowning elite.

Ongoing advocacy and reporting on rural conflicts

Since 1985, the Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT) has annually released the report “Conflicts in the field,” which presents data on conflicts and violence suffered by indigenous people, women, workers and traditional peoples in the Brazilian countryside.