By Todd Howland

One year after the February 12the murder of Sister Dorothy Stang by hired gunman in Pará, Brazil she and landless she worked with have still not been given the justice deserved. [For these reasons the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial and the Washington Office on Latin America will commemorate the Life of Sister Dorothy Stang on 12 February. Click here for details, http://www.rfkmemorial.org/legacyinaction/2001_StangRelease.

While the two gunmen in Sister Dorothy's assassination, farm hands of local cattle ranchers Rayfran das Neves Sales and Clodoaldo Carlos Batista, have been brought to justice and convicted of murder, those who planned and financed the murder have yet to be tried. The gunmen confessed in their trial to being promised R$50,000 (approximately US$22,000) by two wealthy ranchers, Vitalmiro Moura and Regivaldo Galvão, to carry out the murder. The middleman in the plot, Amair Feijoli, who delivered money and the gun to the gunmen, and the two wealthy ranchers named during the trial of the gunmen remain uncharged.

Importantly, when a Brazilian congressional probe into rural violence visited Pará recently, ranch owners presented a report appearing to justify Stang's killing as a "legitimate defense of property."

The State of Pará has a history of illegal ranchers and loggers destroying the amazon forest and killing and intimidating activists who stand in their way. Large ranchers often appropriate public lands and fake the titles to them through the process known as grilagem. They then hire gunmen and private militias to protect those lands and perpetuate their control. Local officials have been willing to turn a blind eye to these injustices and the federal officials have not been engaged in combating these practices at nearly the level needed to end the impunity traditionally enjoyed by these ranchers.

While the Brazilian government has dispatched more federal agents to the region, the force is still too small to enforce the law and take on these private militias. The lives of landless rights activist are still threatened. Brazil's Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) recorded 18 assassinations of rural workers and human rights defenders in Para in 2005, compared with 15 in 2004. According to CPT, Pará is the Brazilian state with the highest murder rate related to land disputes.

Faced with great danger, at 73 years of age Sister Dorothy still fought for the rights of the poor to reap the rewards of the Brazilian economy. Sister Dorothy fought for a human rights-based land reform that encouraged sustainable uses of the land and other natural resources; and a land reform that is mandated by the Brazilian Constitution. The implementation of which would strengthen the respect for human rights.

President Lula's promised to honor Sister Dorothy's legacy by bringing to justice the perpetrators and to push aggressively for a sustainable land reform. Brazil still has one of the most inequitable land distributions in the world even though its Constitution mandates land expropriation and redistribution when land is not "serving a social function." INCRA, the Brazilian government agency tasked with implementing the Constitutional mandated land reform, receives only federal funds and is severely under-funded and lacks both capacity and political support to implement the immense land reform program that is needed. To this date President Lula has not asked any bilateral or multilateral entity for support for the Constitutional land reform scheme that was supported by Sister Dorothy and the social movements of Brazil. Without support from the international community it is highly unlikely that President Lula will be able to follow through with his campaign pledge to settle 430,000 landless families or his promise to honor Sister Dorothy.

Dorothy Stang gave her life to the people of Brazil, in order to see systemic changes and new models of agriculture and growth take hold. She is a martyr and a great hope to the landless people of Brazilian. It is up to the Brazilian government not only to do what is right but to follow the Brazilian Constitution. It is past due for President Lula to revise his requests for assistance from Norway, to the EU, to the UN to the World Bank in order to truly honor Sister Dorothy by implementing the land reform he knows is needed and supported by the social movements, like Sister Dorothy's Pastoral Land Commission.

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Committed to achieving Robert Kennedy's goal of a more peaceful and just world, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights is a non-profit non-governmental organization that engages in long-term partnerships with activists who win the RFK Human Rights Award. The Center has 36 laureate partners in 21 countries and advocates for their social justice goals using a broad array of innovative tools. Visit http://www.rfkmemorial.org