The explosive growth of extractive operations around the world often plays out on indigenous people’s lands without their consent, causing irreparable harm to their livelihoods, cultures, languages and lives, speakers told the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues on Monday, as it opened its 2022 session amid calls to respect their free, prior and informed consent on the existential decisions uprooting their communities.

Gathered in the UN General Assembly Hall for the first time in three years, indigenous representatives were welcomed in a traditional ceremony led by Katsenhaienton Lazare of the Bear Clan, Mohawk of the Haudenosaunee, who acknowledged nature in its great diversity – the winds, thunders, lightening, sun and other life forces – which give purpose and protection to humankind, and summoned generations of traditional ancestors who still have much to offer today’s societies.

The invocation dovetailed with the theme of the Forum’s twenty-first session – ‘Indigenous peoples, business, autonomy and the human rights principles of due diligence including free, prior and informed consent’ – and start of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, 2022-2032.

An infinity of sacred histories 

In opening remarks, Chair Darío José Mejía Montalvo of Colombia said the 2022 theme touches upon the cosmos visions through which indigenous peoples have developed their systems for food, culture and coexistence with nature on their territories.

“We share a holistic relationship with nature, where rights are not anthropocentric,” he explained.  “An infinity of sacred histories and stories underpin our visions of the world.”

Ancestors too have rights – including to exist – because their task is enduring in the preservation of life.  These ancestral practices maintain life in all its forms, with dignity.  

Therefore, he said the question of whether indigenous knowledge is scientific is “meaningless”:  concepts of life, energy and spirituality are synonymous.  Separating them from an economic, religious or other point of view leads to confusion, disputes and unnecessary clashes.  

Trampling over informed consent

He said that while indigenous peoples’ rights to self-determination, land, resources and – importantly – free, prior and informed consent are guaranteed under international norms, these rights are often not applied, even in countries where they are legally recognized.  They are instead violated routinely in the granting of lumber, timber, mining and mega-dam contracts.

The pillaging of their resources, loss of their ways of life, cultures and languages, and the disappearing and killing of their leaders are the results of harmful business activities.

A binding treaty for business

Mr. Mejía Montalvo said that without a change to the current energy matrix, the extermination of indigenous peoples will continue, along with expropriation of their lands and the sweeping aside of their rights.  

He pressed States to help devise a legally binding instrument to regulate transnational business activities – one that adheres to international human rights and includes explicit provisions for indigenous peoples’ rights to their lands, territory and resources, and for their free, prior and informed consent on decisions affecting them.

He described the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169 as “fundamental loadstars” in this regard, and warned that industries from fashion and media to textiles, food and pharmaceutical production, are perpetuating “enclave economy models” that expropriate knowledge and practices from indigenous peoples.  “All of these efforts must be interlinked and stepped up,” he said.

Traditional models lead the way

UN General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid said that for generations, indigenous communities have prioritized a relationship with nature – grounded in kinship, centered around reciprocity and infused with reverence.  “By emulating their example on a broader scale, we can preserve the Earth’s rich biodiversity and diverse landscapes.”  

He pointed out that indigenous people comprise less than five per cent of the global population yet protect 80 per cent of global biodiversity, stressing that high linguistic diversity occurs where conditions for biological diversity thrive.  “It’s the richness of one that sustains the other,” he explained.

Mr. Shahid said there is growing scientific evidence that indigenous languages that are rich in oral traditions offer evidence for events that happened thousands of years ago.

“By preserving and promoting these languages, we preserve and promote an important part of our human heritage, identity and belonging,” he said.  “We have an obligation to ensure that they can participate in and benefit from the work of the United Nations.” 

Also addressing participants, UN Economic and Social Council President Collen Vixen Kelapile said the Forum’s expert advice – as an advisory body to the Council – is crucial to highlighting the key issues affecting indigenous peoples. 

He said the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development– to be held in July and feature the national reviews of 45 Member States – will offer a significant opportunity for indigenous peoples to showcase their traditional knowledge on biodiversity, climate change and environmental stewardship.  

Mr. Kelapile urged Member States to seek their participation, adding: “I look forward to your recommendations which should be built into the Council’s different platforms”.

Manage the most, own the least

UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Liu Zhenmin – in a message delivered by Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs Maria-Francesca Spatolisano – stressed that indigenous peoples customarily claim and manage more than 50 per cent of the world’s land, yet only legally own 10 per cent of it.  

As a result, 40 per cent of the land surface – five billion hectares – remain vulnerable to land grabbing and environmental destruction.  When indigenous communities resist these actions, they often face extreme reprisals.  

A pledge to do better

He cited a 2020 analysis revealing that 331 human rights defenders were killed – 26 per cent of them while defending indigenous people’s rights – describing these figures as “startling”. UN entities are working together to improve their response, he said, strengthening their engagement with country teams and seeking ways to enhance indigenous people’s participation in the Organization’s processes. 
 

Against the backdrop of shifting population demographics, conflicts, post-pandemic shocks and climate change, the developing world is on the brink of a “perfect storm” of debt, food and energy crises, experts warned the Commission on Population and Development on Monday.

While sounding the alarm over the planet’s unequal COVID-19 recovery and notable reductions in public spending for youth, older people and other vulnerable populations, officials from across the UN system stressed that this multipronged crisis has a “decidedly female face.”

Opening its fifty-fifth session under the theme “Population and sustainable development, in particular sustained and inclusive economic growth,” marks success for a body that has historically been plagued by gridlock and disagreement.

Population, poverty, economic growth

Commission Chair Enrique A. Manalo said that efforts to slow population growth, decrease poverty, realize economic progress, protect the environment and reduce unsustainable consumption and production are all mutually reinforcing. 

With poverty and inequality gaining renewed attention amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the insights outlined in the Programme of Action agreed upon at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt are as relevant today as ever. 

Although the world’s challenges are not caused by population growth, they are compounded by it, making it more difficult to tackle, he said.

Rising inequality

Rebecca Grynspan, head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), warned that a systemic debt crisis is unfolding for billions in the developing world – with inflation at a multi-decade high and civil unrest brewing in all corners of the world. 

Meanwhile, progress towards realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been severely hampered as inequalities are rising. 

She drew attention to the world’s large generation of young people, as well as women, voicing hope that their innovative ideas will help reverse these negative trends.

‘Gathering storm of adversity’

Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed agreed that the pandemic lent a fresh urgency to the challenges being discussed by the Commission.  COVID-19 kept boys and girls out of school, increased the burden of care work — especially for women — and exacerbated gender-based violence. 

At the same time, the world remains far off track on the goal of eliminating hunger and malnutrition by 2030, and the numbers of people affected by hunger are projected to increase by tens of millions as the war in Ukraine causes food and energy prices to skyrocket. 

“In the face of this gathering storm of adversity, we must come together as an international community,” she said, adding, “we urgently need to renew the social contract to rebuild trust and social cohesion.” 

High stakes for women, girls

Meanwhile, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) chief Natalia Kanem said that COVID-19 has made painfully clear the need for massive investments in family planning services and national health systems that are universal, resilient, data-driven and adequately staffed. 

“Lack of bodily autonomy and reproductive choices continue to block women’s path to equality and full participation in economic life,” she said, expressing concern over declining funding for population-related matters – especially sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights – as countries shift their priorities amid the pandemic. 

“We cannot afford further reversals – the stakes for women, girls and young people, and for their societies, are far too high.”

Critical care work

In her keynote address, Jayati Ghosh, Professor in the Department of Economics, at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, emphasized that the “perfect storm” of challenges described by Ms. Grynspan cannot be tackled without inclusion. 

That means reducing inequalities, which will always engender backlash and pushback. 

She also voiced concern over the continuing disinvestment in care work, a burden which will only increase amid future demographic challenges and climate change impacts. 

“If we do not empower women … we will be unable to deal with the major challenges facing society,” she cautioned.

The global economy is under severe stress and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are in “need of urgent rescue”, the deputy UN chief told the Financing for Development Forum on Monday.

“Financing for developing is an essential part of the solution,” Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said on behalf of the UN chief, adding that so far, the global response has fallen far short. 

For this reason, the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance was established to ensure high-level political leadership; get ahead of the food security, energy, and financing challenges; and implement a coordinated global response, she informed participants.

Development challenges

The President of the Economic and Social Council, Collen Vixen Kelapile, brought the attendees up to date on an increasing array of interrelated global crises that underline that no country, rich or poor, is immune to external shocks.

He elaborated that the SDGs are facing perhaps the “greatest threat” since their adoption. COVID-19 has exacerbated trends that are “contributing to cataclysmic effects” on development, he said, and the poorest and most vulnerable are impacted the greatest.

“Millions of people around the world have been pushed deeper into extreme poverty. Inequality is rising, and the gap between developed and developing countries is growing,” said the senior UN official.

Other pressing concerns

At the same time, he pointed to the impacts of carbon emissions on global climate, along with a geopolitical crisis that is driving refugee flows, causing severe disruptions on global supply chains for essential commodities, and also contributing to food insecurity in parts of the world.

Moreover, macroeconomic trends affecting least developed and low-income countries have been “dire”, according to Mr. Kelapile, who explained that while developed nations funded pandemic recovery by borrowing at low costs, developing States faced a cost of debt servicing barrier – limiting their ability to invest in infrastructure, housing, and social services.

More than half of these fragile countries are now in, or at risk of, debt distress, while many are experiencing slow economic recovery – in which estimates indicate that one in five will remain below pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2023.

These countries are compounded by continued hurdles in accessing vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics – critical for ending the pandemic.

“In light of these complex challenges, international cooperation, global solidarity and multilateralism remain the surest way to solve these global challenges,” he stated.

The platform we need

Noting its universal participation, the ECOSOC president described the Forum as “the global platform we need to advance action on these challenges”.

As a Forum that “unites us”, and with a track record of “delivering consensus,” he called for an “ambitious outcome, that demonstrates the solidarity of Member States in these trying times.”

“It is only through urgent and coordinated action that we can mobilize the resources that will turn the trajectory around, lift people out of extreme poverty, prevent the worst effects of climate change, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” he concluded.