Gypsies, Coloniality and the Affirmation of Human Rights in Brazil

Abstract

In Brazil, different ethnic and social minorities (Quilombolas, Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, the elderly) have expressly got recognition in the Federal Constitution of 1988 and other normative instruments as subjects of human rights. This scientific article deals with one such minority: the Gypsies. This article adopts the following problem of research: what is the relationship between colonial policies that aimed at the management of the Gypsy and the construction of the political-legal status of these peoples in Brazil? This research has made use of the following methodological resources: the participant observation of the authors in view of the legislative process of Bill 248/2015; the documentary research on the records of colonial and post-colonial laws that had directed to the management of Gypsies in Brazil; as well as the literature review, which intertwines the studies on the Gypsy question with decolonial theory.