Legal Practice & Activism
Lucas is a key member of AmazoniAletra’s legal team. He is a lawyer specializing in Indigenous rights and socio-environmental issues. He is an expert in the field of constitutional law and more broadly has a profound interest in the intersection between law, the social sciences and history.
Lucas’ commitment to social justice and Indigenous rights began at law school. “My interest in working with indigenous people started during my law studies. I participated in some projects that put me in contact with indigenous and rural communities. I learnt from them that the world is profoundly diverse and realized that the law can and must be mobilized to protect that diversity and bring justice. Indigenous peoples invite us, the non-indigenous, to understand that their territories are the guarantee of a possible future for the humanity”
At AmazoniAlerta Lucas works in partnership with indigenous organizations and communities to defend their territorial rights. As part of the legal team, he assesses data and evidence gathered by the AmazoniAlerta’s Environmental Agents teams during their territorial monitoring, sending evidence to, and engaging with relevant legal and federal authorities to encourage necessary investigations and law enforcement actions to hold violators responsible.
At Brazil’s Supreme Court, AmazoniAlerta’s legal team has been collaborating with the Coordination of Organizations and Associations of Indigenous Peoples of Maranhão (COAPIMA) and the Amondawa Indigenous People’s Association (APIA), in a legal process to strengthen the constitutional protection of isolated and recently contacted indigenous peoples.
Both COAPIMA, located in the state of Maranhão, and APIA, located in the state of Rondônia, are two indigenous organizations that eventually present their demands to AmazoniAlerta’s legal department to assess possible legal measures that could be taken in defence of territorial rights.
More recently, Lucas is leading an AmazôniAlerta initiative together with the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) to develop a continuing legal education and training program for indigenous lawyers in the Brazilian Amazon, aimed at both the in-house lawyers of COIAB’s legal department and the lawyers working with the grassroots organisations of the COIAB Network, which represents all the states of the Brazilian Legal Amazon. The aim is to establish a permanent program of theoretical legal training that produces knowledge and legal strategies that can be applied to the practical cases in which the different legal advisors of the indigenous organizations of the Brazilian Amazon are involved. Lucas also works closely with our Law student interns and bursary recipients.
Alongside his work with AmazoniAlerta, Lucas is a partner at Cravo e Santana – Advocacia, a public interest law firm. CS – Advocacia specializes in strategic litigation and advocacy for civil society organizations in defence of fundamental rights, before the justice system, government institutions and international human rights protection systems.
Previous experience
Previously Lucas worked as a lawyer in the Legal Department of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), under the coordination of Luiz Eloy Terena, an indigenous lawyer who is currently the deputy minister of the Ministry of Indigenous People of the Brazilian government. His responsibilities included advocacy and strategic litigation for the Brazilian indigenous movement at both international forums and the Supreme Federal Court. Lucas also worked as a public servant at the Public Defender’s Office of the Union (DPU) dealing with indigenous issues and socio-environmental disasters. He advised the Secretary-General of Institutional Articulation, federal defender Renan Sotto Mayor, in cases involving the disaster of Rio Doce, Brumadinho, and from 2020, at the National Human Rights Council (CNDH).
Qualifications & Teaching
Lucas is currently a PhD student in law at the University of Brasilia (UnB) where his research area focuses on how the indigenous movement in Brazil mobilized the legal system between 1985 and 2020, starting from the incidences in the pre-constitutional period to the recognition of procedural legitimacy to access the constitutional jurisdiction of the Federal Supreme Court. During the academic year 2024-2025, Lucas will be a visiting scholar at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law (NYU Law), as part of his doctoral program.
During his master’s research at UnB, Lucas analyzed an out-of-court settlement that provided compensation for spiritual damages to the Mebengokre Kayapó people. The agreement was reached between the indigenous people and the airline Gol, under the mediation of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office.
He has a Law degree from Universidade Federal Fluminense. He is a member of the Latin American Climate Lawyers Initiative for Mobilizing Action (LACLIMA) and the Commission for Constitutional Studies of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) in the Federal District (DF).
Lucas was also a lecturer on the postgraduate course in Rights and Policies for Indigenous Peoples at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, between 2022 and 2024.
He has published his research in several leading academic journals and publications.
Awards
In September 2024, Lucas was granted the Doctoral Dissertation Research Award, a Fulbright Commission program that selects researchers of excellence to be visiting scholars at American universities, with the aim of developing their theses and networking to enhance their work.