U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues' Final Priorities -- Climate Change, Women's Rights, and Repressions, 2026

U.N.  Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues' Final Priorities -- Climate Change, Women's Rights, and Repressions, 2026

U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 2026

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, May 1, 2026

NEW YORK -- The priorities of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues included climate change, forced sterilization, repressions and the rights of refugees, as Indigenous Peoples concluded the two-week session on Friday in New York. 

The dialogue on climate change was the first priority in the draft final statement. It recognizes positive efforts led by Australia, First Nations in Canada, and Brazil. The next priority is the recognition of the right of the Arab Emirates just transition work program. The just transition involving minerals and 'green transition' follows as the priority

VIDEO Indigenous Women Land Defenders at U.N. New York

Tokata Iron Eyes, 14-year-old Dakota, is among youths who first brought attention to Dakota Access Pipeline threatening Standing Rock. "We are the new generation."
"We are going to change the world."
"The only enemy that we have is ignorance."

"No one knows what they are doing right now, because they will hide it from us." LaDonna BraveBull Allard.

"We must empower ourselves. We have a right to live."

"It is about the right of our Mother Earth. It is about the Spirit of the Water."


"What is happening is ethnic cleansing." Michelle Cook, Dine' "We have all been lied to."

"We are not going to be lied to anymore."


"We are using and abusing the land." -- Kandi Mosset, Hidatsa, Mandan, Arikara, urging alternative energy. Corporations are not providing the alternatives the people are demanding.

https://www.facebook.com/WECAN.Intl/videos/2099351246760114/

Watch live below:

FEATURING:
Kandi Mossett (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara; Lead Organizer on the Extreme Energy and Just Transition Campaign with the Indigenous Environmental Network)
Michelle Cook (Diné; human rights lawyer)
Gloria Ushigua (Sápara; President of the Association of Sápara Women, Ecuador)
LaDonna BraveBull Allard (Lakota historian, member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and founder/landowner of Sacred Stone Camp, North Dakota)
Tokata Iron Eyes (Hunkpapa and Oglala Lakota from the Standing Rock Reservation; Youth Advisor for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe; Youth Advisor for Sacred Stone Village; Administrator for Last Real Indians)
Thilmeeza Hussain (Former Deputy Ambassador to the UN from the Maldives; WECAN Advisory Council Member; Founder of Voice of Women, Maldives)
Event moderator, Osprey Orielle Lake (Founder and Executive Director, Women's Earth and Climate Action Network, WECAN International)
ABOUT: As a result of the dangerous intersection of colonialism, racism and patriarchy, Indigenous women around the world are impacted first and worst by the effects of environmental destruction and a rapidly changing climate. However despite all odds and against great challenges, it is these very same Indigenous women who are rising up, challenging the status quo, holding a vision, and taking action to build the vital solutions needed for a just and livable future.
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International Panel, Second Panel on the Livestream

Mirian Cisneros (President of the Kichwa Pueblo of Sarayaku, Ecuador) "This struggle is about the women." "Those who began the struggle are no longer with us, but their spirits are with us." Mirian is speaking of the transnational companies, the extraction, oil, mining, and logging, endangering the Amazon. 
Thilmeeza Hussain (Former Deputy Ambassador to the UN from the Maldives; WECAN Advisory Council Member; Founder of Voice of Women, Maldives) She describes how climate change is impacting her island. "It is climate genocide."
Gloria Ushigua (Sápara; President of the Association of Sápara Women, Ecuador) Gloria said she is not afraid to fight Ecuador. Her people are being killed quietly in the Amazon. 

United Nations -- Criminalization of Indigenous Water Protectors

View the Report 

Indigenous Resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline criminalization of dissent and suppression of protest

Article by Brenda Norrell, Censored News

NEW YORK -- Broadcast live from the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues event, LaDonna Allard of Sacred Stone Camp, describes how the youths at Standing Rock used social media, and ran across the country, and launched the resistance to Dakota Access Pipeline.

LaDonna, among those on the panel, describes the attack on Sept. 3, 2016, and how the water protectors were maced. She stood out in the middle of the attack dogs. "Blood was running from his mouth," she said of one of the attack dogs. "The young men came with their horses, and put their horses between us and the dogs."

She always thought the laws of the United States are just.

At that moment, she realized no, the laws of the U.S. are not just.

"I am really angry.  I watched some really good people get hurt."

The militia groups came, the military came.

They were shooting people, macing people.

Percussion grenades, water cannons.

"I watched very amazing young people stand up in prayer, ceremony and song."

The police engaged in military strategy.

Then, they brought in the military, attacking people, and they began the propaganda.

The newspapers carried the propaganda.

"That's when I realized money buys everyone's souls."

She said there is no law by these corporations.
"You don't have a right to build a pipeline outside my home," she said.
"Someone has to show me America is a just system."
Speaking of her Dakota ancestors, LaDonna said, "We never had a conflict with America, and you came and killed us anyway."
She describes how officials came to take her land.
"How many times do I have to start again in my home."
LaDonna said she knows the history of the land for 10,000 years.
"I have the roots growing right out of my feet."
"I will stand until I die there."
Indigenous Peoples are holding on for the world, she said of the protection for all liing things and Mother Earth.
"We want the world to live."
"There's no more time."
"It is now you must stand up."


Video above by Cultural Survival Michelle Cook (Dine’) speaks about Standing Rock! "We are asking for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission regarding Standing Rock...Media plays a role in the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples because it desensitizes people."

Michelle Cook, Dine' attorney and panelist, was among those who went to stand with LaDonna.
"We are going to keep fighting for justice," Michelle said during her presentation.
Michelle describes how she helped begin the Water Protectors Legal Collective, in an army tent at Standing Rock.
She describes how helicopters circled overhead, and there were children in the camp, with nothing more than feathers and prayers to protect them.
Michelle tells how water protectors are in jail, and some are waiting trial or sentencing.
Since Standing Rock, there have been 58 bills introduced to deny free speech and assembly.
Who pays for it? Energy Transfer Partners gave $15 million to North Dakota.
If we can not find justice in the United States, we need to go to the international justice system, Michelle said.
While at Standing Rock, Michelle received death threats, but the threats only made her more determined.
"We have also been going to the banks," she said, describing the divestment efforts of the financial institutions who invest in Dakota Access Pipeline and fossil fuels.
Now, Michelle asked how water protectors can seek help for post traumatic stress syndrome.
In the report just released, attorneys urge that criminal charges be dropped against water protectors, and there be reparations for victims.
She also describes the role of the media.
"We have to create our own media," she said, adding that the media has been compromised.
"We are threatened with extinction."
Indigenous Peoples are the ones protecting the land.
"That is who I am."
"We realized who we are."
Now, she said, "We need action."
Michelle said she is thankful for what has happened.
"It changed my life for the better."
"We are not going to give up."
"We are going to work harder."
The report, “Indigenous Resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline: Criminalization of 

Dissent and Suppression of Protest,” makes the following recommendations:

• Drop all criminal charges against the water protectors
• Investigate, punish, and provide appropriate reparations for all human rights violations, including the use of excessive force and mass arrests in response to DAPL opposition; OR convene a truth commission with the indigenous representative institutions of the Oceti Šakowiŋ
• Adopt a regulatory framework to supervise and monitor activities of extractive industries and energy companies, private security firms and other non-state actors to prevent human rights violations in regard to activities that affect indigenous peoples and their lands
• Provide training to law enforcement and private security on best practices for managing peaceful demonstrations; the right to free expression and assembly; and indigenous peoples rights under international law
• Implement national measures to protect indigenous human rights defenders in compliance with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other international standards to ensure the full enjoyment of their rights to free expression and assembly
• Regulate/restrict transfer of military-grade weapons and equipment to local law enforcement
• Direct prosecutors to seek proportionate penalties for protestors who violate the law
• Reject or amend state legislation that violates the right to free assembly

Thursday, April 19, 2018:

https://www.facebook.com/CampOfTheSacredStone/videos/2077628722526155/

Dakota Access Pipeline Resistance and the Criminalization of Indigenous Human Rights Defenders

By Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy, University of Arizona
Event: Thursday, April 19, 2:45–4 PM
United Nations Secretariat Building, New York
(Room S-2725 BR)

IPLP is convening a panel of experts to discuss the criminalization of peaceful protest as part of United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). The event is titled “Dakota Access Pipeline Resistance and the Criminalization of Indigenous Human Rights Defenders,” and takes place April 19, 2:45–4 PM PM at the United Nations Secretariat Building (Room S-2725 BR).

The event will feature leading human rights scholars and activists who will discuss the criminalization of indigenous activists and the need for protection of indigenous human rights defenders worldwide. If you are attending UNPFII, join IPLP for a critical discussion on the criminalization of indigenous human rights defenders worldwide.

The panelists for the event are:

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples)
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz is an indigenous leader from the Kankanaey Igorot people of the Cordillera Region in the Philippines. She is a social development consultant, indigenous activist, civic leader, human rights expert, public servant, and an advocate of women's rights in the Philippines. She was the former Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2005-2010). As an indigenous leader she got actively engaged in drafting and adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. She helped build the indigenous peoples' movement in the Cordillera as a youth activist in the early 1970s. She helped organize indigenous peoples in the community level to fight against the projects of the Marcos Dictatorship such as the Chico River Hydroelectric Dam and the Cellophil Resources Corporation. These communities succeeded in stopping these.

Elifuraha Laltaika (Member, United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues)
Elifuraha Laltaika is the executive director of association for law and advocacy for pastoralists (ALAPA) and a law lecturer of Tumaini University Makumira (Arusha, Tanzania). He previously served as a Harvard Law School visiting researcher. He holds a Doctorate in Law from the University of Arizona Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program. Elifuraha is an expert member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) and a member of the Tanzanian national Bar association (Tanganyika Law Society). Mr. Laltaika has 10 year’s experience working on indigenous peoples’ issues, including as senior fellow at OHCHR in Geneva. He is currently employed as a Lecturer in Law in Tanzania.

Seanna Howard (Professor, University of Arizona, Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program)
Seánna Howard teaches International Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples and the International Human Rights Advocacy Workshop. Professor Howard has been with the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program since 2006, representing indigenous communities on precedent setting cases before the Inter-American and United Nations human rights systems.

Carla Fredericks (Professor, University of Colorado, Boulder School of Law)
Carla Fredericks is Director of the American Indian Law Clinic and Director of the American Indian Law Program (AILP), which serves as the umbrella organization for Colorado Law's academic, practice-focused, and community outreach activities in American Indian law.  She is a graduate of the University of Colorado and Columbia Law School. At Colorado Law, Fredericks leads a year-long clinic in which students have the opportunity to represent American Indian tribes, organizations, and individuals in a variety of matters, designed to ready students for the complexities of general counsel work. Fredericks is also of counsel to Fredericks, Peebles and Morgan LLP, where she focuses on complex and appellate litigation and Native American affairs, representing Indian tribes and organizations in a variety of litigation and policy matters.

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard (Sacred Stone Camp Founder)
LaDonna Brave Bull Allard is a mother, Lakota historian, land-owner along the Dakota Access Pipeline route, and the founder of Sacred Stone Camp, the first prayerful resistance camp opened as part of the movement to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota. By December 2016, more than 10,000 Indigenous people and environmental activists were camping in the area on and around LaDonna’s home. She has been a major catalyst and leader in the Standing Rock movement, which has become the perhaps the largest ever intertribal alliance on the American continent, with over 200 Indigenous nations represented. With most Standing Rock defenders now departed from her land - LaDonna remains as a ceaseless voice for her people, the Earth and the water - sharing her story and calls to action at platforms around the world as she continues to advocate for justice. Allard is an enrolled member of, and former historical preservation officer for, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Her people are Inhunktonwan from the Jamestown Valley, Hunkpapa and Blackfoot.

Michelle Cook (SJD Candidate, IPLP)
Michelle Cook is an indigenous human rights lawyer and SJD candidate at Arizona Law’s Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy (IPLP) Program. She is writing her dissertation on international law, indigenous people’s human rights, gender, sexuality, and indigenous transnationalism. She is a founding member of the Water Protector Legal Collective, the on-the-ground legal team which provides legal services to those arrested at the Standing Rock encampment.

Kanyinke Sena (Member, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights)
Kanjinke currently serves as Member of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities in Africa (Working Group). A member of the Ogiek indigenous community of Kenya, Kanyinke is a long-time advocate for inclusionary approaches to conservation policy and indigenous peoples’ rights in Africa. He currently serves as a Professor of Law at Egerton University in Kenya. Prior to his role as Member of the Working Group, Kanyinke served as chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues from 2013–14.

Colorado AIM youths removed at UN Permanent Forum

Indigenous Youths protesting lack of participation at UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, are removed and banned by UN security

Update from Glenn Morris
May 9, 2012, night update
"Hello, AIMsters.
 On behalf of all of our delegation at the UN, and all of the indigenous youth involved, I would like to thank you all for your hundreds of emails and letters of support to the UN. They got the message, and they have agreed to return the credentials of our indigenous young people so that they can return to the discussion process. Initially, they wanted to ban the youth delegation f...or the entire remainder of the process, or even to ban them for up to ten years from the UN. Then, they suggested that they wanted a letter of apology. Colorado AIM rejected both suggestions, saying that if anyone needed to apologize it was the UN police. We also said that anything short of full restoration would be unsatisfactory, and that we would lead a walkout of the UN meeting. We were fully prepared to walkout tomorrow morning if the young people were not restored. We were asked to mentor our young people, a request that we already have complied with, and will continue to model, as we have from before we arrived in New York.

 Tonight, the UN Security relented, and we will accompany our youth back into the UN tomorrow morning. Again, we appreciate all of your efforts on behalf of our youth, and our delegation. We ask for you please to stop contacting the UN Secretariat about this matter, as they have reversed their unsupportable position. We will hold a dinner when we return to Denver to give an account of our trip, and to thank you all for your support and efforts. We ask that you keep us in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow, as we return to the process to fight against the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), that is attempting to allow the ownership and patenting of our traditional knowledge, and genetic resources (see attached statement and joint statement between Debra Harry and Colorado AIM). There will be additional news tomorrow, as the WIPO fight might get pretty ugly. We hope that this note finds you and your loved ones in good health and good spirits, as we remember you all in our work in the belly of the beast.

 In Struggle,
 Glenn Morris

FROM AIM Colorado
Posted at Censored News
Watch videos below
Hello, AIMsters
We have a delegation of Indian students from CU-Denver, and from Colorado AIM, at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Several of them are playing an important and active part in the global youth delegation at the United Nations. Yesterday, the Global Youth Caucus, which represents native people from around the world, was holding a silent, peaceful vigil outside the UN building in New York City. The UN police seized their placards, and forcefully evicted 15 young people, including Sky Roosevelt-Morris and Mina Cereceres (Deb Freemont's granddaughter), and confiscated their UN identification.
Sky and Mina were neither carrying signs, nor chanting nor saying anything, yet, they were rounded up with the group, and had their credentials seized. They are both completely safe, strong and determined, as are the other young people, and they will be holding a press conference today. We are in talks with the UN security people to demand that the credentials be returned, although the security is pulling a very hardline, and suggesting even that they might be banned from the UN for up to ten years. We are asking a lot of people to contact the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to insist that the credentials of the young people be returned. If you have the time, please contact Ms. Chandra Roy at the UN, as soon as possible today. I have included some suggested language below, if you would like to use it. Please feel free to send additional, strong comments of your own. Thank you. We should all be very proud of how Sky and Mina have carried themselves, and how they have represented us, with integrity and courage. We are confronting the Doctrine of Christian Discovery, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and violence against Indigenous women and children, all of which are themes/agenda items for this year's session. I also want to commend the other young representatives who are here: Scott Jacket, Tessa McLean, Brighton Dawn Finger, Lizzie Kaplanek, and Mat Barkhausen. Others in our delegation are Deb Freemont, Shannon Francis. We are also working closely with Steve Newcomb and Debra Harry and Moana Jackson and the Maori from Aoteaora (New Zealand).
In Struggle,
Glenn
To: Ms. Chandra Roy-Henriksen, Secretariat
United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
roy-henriksen@un.org
David, Bongi, Chief of United Nations Security
bongi@un.org
Dear Ms. Roy,
We are quite disturbed and offended by the report that some of the young indigenous people who are participating the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) were removed and banned from the forum yesterday. We understand that the youth were removed without adequate notice or due process, for peacefully standing to request the full participation of all indigenous peoples who had been credentialed at your meeting. We have two young women who are members of our Movement, and who are there representing our interests, Ms. Sky Roosevelt-Morris and Ms. Mina Cereceres, with the delegation for the American Indian Movement of Colorado. We must insist that our two representatives immediately be returned to the session, with their credentials in tact, and with no sanction against them. This is a very serious attack on our youth, and on our integrity as an indigenous organization. We call on you to use all the means of your good offices to ensure that indigenous youth are fully able to participate in the UNPFII, and that the heavy-handed approach of the UN Security be challenged on behalf of all indigenous peoples.

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