On April 21-May 2, 2025, the 24th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) took place. This year’s session theme focused on "Implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples within United Nations Member States and the United Nations system, including identifying good practices and addressing challenges.” Over 1500 delegates attended with a significant youth presence despite visa challenges in the current political climate and raised concerns over the lack of implementation of the Declaration.
Cultural Survival was on the ground working to amplify Indigenous voices and Indigenous-led solutions. We partnered with the UNPFII and UNDESA to run the Indigenous Media Zone, hosted and cohosted several side events, parallel events, and discussions, and supported our fellows and grant partners in their advocacy efforts by hosting events and organizing meetings with several government missions and key experts. Thank you to all who crossed paths with us and collaborated with us!
Photo by Phoebe Farris.
Watch the Opening Ceremony and Main Sessions
The recordings of the Opening Ceremony of the 24th Session of the UNPFII of general sessions and side events are available here.
Panel at the IMZ (L-R): Rachael Johnson- Tallgrass Institute, Kristen Moreland - Executive Director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, Crystal Frank-Welker - Gwich’in language learner and transcriber from Arctic Village, Alaska, Quannah Chasinghorse (Hän Gwich’in and Sicangu Oglala Lakota)- Indigenous land protector and model.
Watch the Livestreams from the Indigenous Media Zone of the UNPFII
If you missed the livestreams, you can still access all of them on our Facebook page.
- Trabajo liderado por jóvenes sobre los derechos de la naturaleza en la Amazonía
- Day 1 wrap up interview with Expert Member of the UNPFII, Hannah McGlade (Kurin Minang Noongar).
- Brandi Morin interiew with Maria Jose Andrade Cerda (Kichwa)
- African Communities Resource Rights Alliance (ACCRA) on Biocultural approach.
- Financing the Energy Transition at What Cost? Ensuring Financiers Protect Indigenous Rights & Nature from Harmful Investments, Organized by the SIRGE Coalition
- La Ruta de Las Mujeres y Juventudes Indigenas Rumbo a la COP30 de Cambio Climatico. Organizado por FILAC-FONDO Pawanka-Red de Jovenes Indigenas LAC
- Day 2 wrap up interview with Geoff Roth- UNPFII Expert Member, Jen Procter Andrews, and Alejandro Bermudez Del Villar
- CLACPI (Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Cine y de Comunicación de los Pueblos Indígenas): 40 años en pos de la soberanía comunicativa (Cine Indígena. La vida bajo una mirada propia)
- How Indigenous Communities are Responding to Increased Threats from Transition Mineral Mining -Brandi Morin Interviews Guadalupe Fernandez Gonzales from Bolivia
- Brandi Morin interviews Pastor Carvajal Blanco from Bolivia about the impacts of extractive industries
- Interview with Taily Terena
- Interview on the importance of Indigenous midwifery with Maria Parra and Suely Carvahalo
- ACSILs - Reflections on the state of Ryukyu & Revitalization
- A conversation about financing Indigenous Peoples' work with International Funders for Indigenous Peoples, Ereto Solidarity Fund, and FIMI
- Day 3 wrap up interview with expert member Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Vice Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
- Discussion on resource rights by IPNESA- Indigenous Peoples Network of Southern Africa
- Interview with Marcos Terena
- Sacred Place Where Life Begins: Gwich’in Voices for the Caribou and Land
- Discussion organized by AIM-West
- Indigenous Media Caucus: Breaking the Silence: Defending Indigenous Media from Censorship and Political Pressure
- Indigenous Determinants of Health Alliance: Evaluating Institutional Structures through the Indigenous Determinants of Health Measurement Instrument
- Interview with Carson Kiburo (Endorois) from Jamii Asilia Centre, Kenya
- Entrevistas con Alexis Romero Ramos- Comunidad Lickanantay San Pedro de Atacama, Edith Parra Espíndola- Comunidad Lickanantay de Toconao, Clemente Flores- Jujuy, Argentina, y Toriba Lero Quispe- Bolivia
- Entrevista entre Tarcila Rivera Zea y Jackeline Odiero Odiero del Pueblo Kakataibo, ECMIA
- Conversation about Indigenous Justice Systems, Organized by Indigenous Peoples Rights International
- Entrevista con Edson Krenak de Cultural Survival sobre UNDRIP
- Entrevista con Sarah Barbosa sobre salud y partería tradicional
- Entrevista con Reynaldo Francis Watson de Nicaragua
- Entrevista com Josimara Baré de Conselho Indígena de Roraima, Fundo Indigena Ruti - Brasil
- Interview with UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples Albert Kwokwo Barume
- Compilation of Treaty Bodies and Jurisprudence on Indigenous Rights, Organized by Indigenous Peoples Rights International
- Cheyenne Stonechild (Cree | Nêhiyaw), member of the Muscowpetung First Nation about child welfare dynamics in Canada
- Entrevista de resumen del día 5 con un miembro experto del UNPFII Rodrigo Eduardo Paillalef Monnard (Mapuche)
Listen to Indigenous Rights Radio Interviews with Indigenous Leaders
Read Interventions Made and Submitted by Cultural Survival and Partners
- Pastor Carvajal Blanco is an Aymara land defender and Indigenous authority of the Seque Jawira community in the department of La Paz, Bolivia. Since 2010, he has been actively involved in his community’s struggle against 23 mining companies, during which he and his brothers and sisters have faced threats, defamation, and physical attacks from mining company employees. Before the arrival of these companies, like many in his community, Pastor Carvajal dedicated himself exclusively to agriculture and dairy farming. Today, however, his community is severely contaminated with cyanide, mercury, sulfuric acid, and other toxic chemicals. As a result, he, along with many others in his and neighboring communities, has lost his sources of income, and raising livestock is no longer possible because animals are dying from drinking polluted water. He demands respect for Indigenous rights, particularly the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, by both mining companies and the Bolivian state. Watch his intervention and read it here.
- SIRGE Intervention on financing of Indigenous Peoples’ work and participation across the multilateral and regional system
Cindy Kobei, Aimee Roberson and Whitney Gravelle sit on a panel hosted by the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network during the United Nations Permanent Forum on April 22 in New York. Photo by Katherine Quaid/WECAN.
Cultural Survival and Our Partners In the News
- Grist organizes international pooled coverage of the 2025 UNPFII, Grist
- ‘We Are Nature’: Indigenous Women Come Together at the United Nations, Inside Climate News
- Surging global demand for critical minerals will diminish protections for Indigenous rights, warn experts, APTN
- Standing between humanity and catastrophe: Indigenous people meet at the UN to demand the right to refuse resource extraction, Ricochet Media
- Your guide to the 2025 UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Grist
- At the 2025 UN Forum on Indigenous Issues Trump’s border policies will play a major role, High Country News
- Indigenous Journalists Association Delivers Intervention at UNPFII, Native News Online
