This thesis addresses the implementation of Prior Consultations as a legal instrument according to International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169 by Brazilian mining company Mineração Rio Norte (MRN) in its bauxite research and extraction activities in environmental conservation areas managed by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), which were claimed by Quilombola (Afro-Brazilian) communities living on the banks of the Trombetas River in Oriximiná, state of Pará – presently identified as the Quilombola territories of Alto Trombetas I and Alto Trombetas II. The study of this empirical case is based on social drama theory (TURNER, 2008) and on an anthropological view of the field of Law, dialoguing with anthropologist Luís Roberto Cardoso de Oliveira (2002), who works with the notion of a moral dimension of rights in cases involving the depreciation of an interlocutor in a particular legal milieu. In July 2012, a group of Quilombola leaders denounced the expansion of mining activities in an intended Quilombola area to the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF in Brazilian acronym). As a result, the MPF started a Civil Public Inquiry (ICP) to investigate the case. Considering such context, this research draws from procedural sources and other documents annexed to the ICP reports, with a focus on the perspective of Quilombola communities and the meanings of their prior consultations claim, which mobilized local populations to stand for the recognition and enforcement of this right. On the one hand, this case finds a set of guarantees that serve as a legal foundation for Quilombola rights and point to the legal visibility of Quilombola populations; on the other, it unveils the continuity of a far-reaching moral invisibility in relation to these communities, since they are not yet seen to be holders of rights, despite the current legal framework. This research also shows that empirical studies with a comprehension of the different ways of seeing, claiming and exercising specific ethnic rights are fundamental for successfully managing conflicts and shaping policies linked not only to Quilombola populations, but also to Indigenous peoples and other traditional communities along the Trombetas River and in similar regions.
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