Opening of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (Photo: UN Photo / Manuel Elías)

The world’s largest gathering of Indigenous Peoples, the UN’s “Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII),” held its annual session at UN Headquarters in New York, USA, from 20 April to 1 May 2026, where it discussed the theme “ensuring the health of Indigenous Peoples, including in situations of conflict.” Emphasizing that Indigenous health is inseparable from ancestral lands, languages, and spiritual practices, it adopted recommendations calling on UN entities and Member States to place this “at the center of policy and practice.”

The Forum was established in 2000 as a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council and has met annually since 2002. The 2026 session, marking its 25th meeting, brought together more than 1,000 representatives of Indigenous Peoples and Member States.

In his closing remarks, Forum Chair Dalee Sambo Dorough (Arctic) stated, “There can be no health without land,” and pointed out that health inequalities have emerged between Indigenous Peoples and others. He cited as causes “colonization, dispossession of land, extractive industries (such as mineral resource extraction), environmental pollution, and the criminalization of cultural and healing practices,” and urged that “we must advance decolonization in order to restore health.”

According to the World Bank, Indigenous Peoples make up only 6% of the world’s population, yet Indigenous people living in extreme poverty account for 18% of the total population. Under conditions of conflict and environmental crises, these inequalities inflict a disproportionately large toll on Indigenous health.

Leaders of Indigenous Peoples also face life-threatening risks. In 2023, at least 196 land and environmental defenders were killed. Almost half of them were Indigenous or of African descent. Chair Dorough called on governments to “make addressing human rights violations a top priority and guarantee justice and reparations for Indigenous human rights defenders.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. government has tightened the issuance of entry visas, and among those slated to attend the Forum were people whose applications were rejected. Indigenous people from the Global South are now finding that, before they can assert their rights at UN Headquarters, they must first confront the Trump administration.

Learn more about Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic → “The Sámi, Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic: A Way of Life Under Threat”

Learn more about environmental defenders → “Latin America: Environmental Protectors Under Threat”