Indigenous peoples present their demands at United Nations Permanent Forum

For the second consecutive year, indigenous leaders demanded at the Permanent Forum that they be treated as a group distinct from local communities.

The twenty-second version of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York from April 17 to 28. One of the issues that marked the discussions and is worth highlighting is the demand of indigenous peoples not to be mixed with local communities.

There has been a strong tendency in global environmental discussions and negotiations-for example those under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)-to confuse indigenous peoples with local communities. This has resulted in the creation of mechanisms that, by including both groups, relativize the collective and unique rights of indigenous peoples.

This year, the central theme of the Forum was "Indigenous Peoples, human, planetary and territorial health and climate change: a rights-based approach". During this session, the various indigenous representatives emphasized the relevance of respect for their collective rights, and especially the right to self-determination, for responses to climate change and biodiversity.

Through dozens of interventions, indigenous representatives demanded climate justice and respect for their territories. For their part, the representatives of the States, almost all of them, reaffirmed the important role of indigenous peoples in the face of the intertwined environmental crises, and presented the progress they are making at the national level in terms of interculturalism and indigenous rights.

In addition to the main session, more than fifty side events were held, both on-site and off-site. Some of these events were held at the offices of the Permanent Missions of the United Nations States. Among these events, two were held by the incoming COP 28 Presidency, the United Arab Emirates, in partnership with the Permanent Forum of Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change. These events addressed the role of youth, and indigenous knowledge and values in the face of climate change.

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