Comprehensive analysis of proposed legislation regarding associated traditional knowledge in Brazil: 1988-2022

This article analyses how the Brazilian House of Representatives addressed, between 1988 and 2022, bills relating to associated traditional knowledge, genetic heritage, and the rights of traditional peoples and communities. The research problem is to understand which legislative proposals were introduced during this period, which rights they sought to regulate, and how they were handled legislatively. The study aims to map and examine these proposals, identify their legislative status in 2024, and construct analytical categories concerning their main regulatory axes. The research adopts a qualitative documentary approach, analysing 71 bills through Grounded Theory, operationalised by means of microanalysis of the legal provisions and axial coding for the formation of broader categories. Of the total, 32 bills have been archived, 36 remain under consideration, and 3 have been enacted into law. Categories identified include ownership and management of territories, rules of access, rights, obligations and conditions of use, as well as benefit-sharing. It is concluded that the legislative agenda analysed reproduces regulatory patterns rooted in a colonial matrix by subordinating traditional knowledge to state forms of control and by allowing, in specific situations, access without prior informed consent, thereby revealing power asymmetries in the regulation of these rights.