KEY TAKEAWAYS
KEY TAKEAWAYS
In a historic development, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution in December that included a call for Indigenous people’s inclusion in “peace agreement negotiations, transitional justice processes, conflict resolution, mediation and constructive arrangements.”
This landmark resolution is a proof of the U.N.’s growing focus on Indigenous peacebuilding — and as we enter a new year, member states will work to ensure the resolution’s implementation.
This resolution comes at a crucial moment for world’s 476 million Indigenous people, as their land, histories, resources and their lives continue to be caught up in or targeted by violence. From the Indo-Burma border to the Sahel region to the Russia-Ukraine War, Indigenous communities are critical stakeholders in resolving and mitigating many conflicts around the globe with their centuries of experience rooting peacebuilding in their immense resilience and healing, spiritual and religious practices.
Currently, close to 120 million people in the world are displaced by wars, violence and disasters — with Indigenous peoples disproportionately impacted. For instance, in 2023, violence in the Indian state of Manipur accounted for roughly 97 percent of all displacement in South Asia, with nearly 70,000 people (mostly Indigenous) currently living in over 300 relief camps due to the violence in the region.
Meanwhile, illicit practices, such as poppy cultivation, have also led to several conflicts which persist today. Narcotic drug traffickers, gun runners and human traffickers take advantage of longstanding instability in many Indigenous lands, leading to a break down in democratic structures and erosion of rule of law and religious freedom.
The extraction of rare earth minerals in Indigenous territories is also a cause of many conflicts — as well as the destruction of sacred sites and increased instances of land dispossession. Many of the world’s largest supplies of rare earth minerals are found in Indigenous territories.
Indigenous peoples have a long history of developing innovative methods for peacebuilding, offering stellar models of mutual coexistence. The Great Law of Peace of the Haudenosaunee People as well as the Loiyunmba Shinyen of Manipur are Indigenous forms of governance and constitution-making that date back to the 12th century.
Historically, Indigenous peoples have also attempted to engage with more formalized, Western-centric diplomatic processes — including the League of Nations in the 1920s and the U.N. in the 1970s and 1980s — to resolve, mitigate and prevent violent conflicts.
However, it wasn’t until 1995, during the Guatemala peace process, that the U.N. General Assembly reciprocated this engagement with Indigenous peoples on peacebuilding. This was followed by the U.N.’s Manila Declaration in 2000, which called for the creation of new systems and institutions of peacebuilding that are rooted in Indigenous values and that co-exist with existing bodies such as the International Court of Justice.
Finally, the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adopted in 2007. It contains several articles that are very relevant to preventing conflict, such as the right to self-determination; the rights to land, territories and resources; the prevention of genocide; and the prevention of forced transfers of populations, among others. Yet, in the 17 years since the adoption of UNDRIP, conflict on Indigenous lands and territories has increased more than ever.
Meanwhile, the issue of peacebuilding was excluded from the original mandate of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). It wasn’t until 2016 that the UNPFII designated conflict, peace and resolution as the special theme for its 15th session. And then Indigenous people had to wait until 2022 for the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to confirm its decision to prepare a report on the effects of militarization on Indigenous land.
To ensure the important work of Indigenous peacebuilders does not go overlooked any longer, the First Global Summit on Indigenous Peacebuilding was held at USIP in April 2024. The summit has already been impactful, especially in promoting Indigenous engagement with U.N. institutions and member states. Firstly, several Indigenous leaders who attended the summit spoke at the UNPFII in April 2024. Attendees of the summit also briefed U.N. member states that attended the U.N. General Assembly in September 2024.
This has helped to enhance Indigenous partnerships with the U.N. Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (UNDPPA) and helped infuse UNDPPA's mediation work with an Indigenous perspective. Additionally, the summit’s declaration was used as a foundation for eight different articles regarding Indigenous peacebuilding that appeared in the UNPRFII’s outcome document. The declaration similarly served as a blueprint for the language used in the December U.N. resolution.
Meanwhile, the Global Network of Indigenous Peacebuilders, Mediators and Negotiators formed at the summit — along with a growing community of practice — aims to work in the years ahead to promote Indigenous practices in formal peacebuilding.
For next steps, building on the successful actions laid out in 2024, work on Indigenous peacebuilding in the coming months and year will include:
The protection of peace, people and the planet cannot be complete if Indigenous peoples are left behind.
The protection of peace, people and the planet cannot be complete if Indigenous peoples are left behind. Therefore, any peacebuilding efforts in global conflicts must involve and include Indigenous peoples — not just because they have a right to have their voice heard, but also because Indigenous pathways of peace offer a wealth of knowledge and experience that can help solve the world’s most intractable conflicts.
Binalakshmi Nepram is an Indigenous scholar, writer and a former senior advisor on Indigenous issues at USIP.