Dear Community,

From April 21-25, the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) was on the ground in New York City at the 24th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), advocating for the urgent recognition and implementation of Indigenous rights as central pillars of climate justice, gender justice, and thriving democracies.

WECAN engaged in global dialogues and partner convenings focused on Indigenous rights and the pathway to COP30, Indigenous women’s leadership in biodiversity and climate justice, and the role of Indigenous rights in advancing a Just Transition and Rights of Nature.

WECAN was honored to organize an in-person event uplifting the knowledge, expertise, and solutions of global Indigenous women leaders. Throughout the week, WECAN spoke out against false climate solutions, colonization, Indigenous rights violations, and harms to frontlines communities and Mother Earth. We also advocated for implementing solutions and policies that uphold Indigenous rights and sovereignty, and align with climate justice frameworks, practicing traditional knowledge systems, Rights of Nature, and advancing policies and practices for climate justice. 

As part of our advocacy, WECAN released a new policy brief: “Indigenous Rights are Vital to a Healthy and Just World,” which we delivered to government officials and to UN Secretary-General António Guterres. 

Indigenous women are often the backbones of their communities, knowledge keepers of the forest, leaders of resistance efforts to defend their lands and waters, and innovators of many critical community-led climate solutions. Thus, their rights must be ensured as they act to safeguard the environment and advance critical solutions. 

Throughout the week, WECAN amplified a critical message: There is no climate justice or healthy governance systems to meet the rise of authoritarian regimes without Indigenous rights.

Indigenous knowledge, leadership, and land stewardship offer real, time-tested solutions to interlocking climate, biodiversity, and social crises. We hold deep gratitude to our partners, delegates, and colleagues for all the vital work being done right now as we face a multitude of geopolitical crises and attacks on human and Indigenous rights around the world. 

WECAN’s participation and advocacy were featured in key media outlets, including:

• Inside Climate News
• APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network)
• ICT Newscast

Continue reading today's newsletter for further information about our time at UNPFII and an invite to join us at the upcoming virtual "Global Women's Assembly for Climate Justice: Path to COP30 and Beyond," taking place June 23-28, 2025!

“Our traditional knowledge systems are powerful...We draw on the strength of our ancestors, whose persistent resistance to oppression, greed and extractivism ensured that we are here today.”

Aimee Roberson (Choctaw, Chickasaw)

Executive Director, Cultural Survival, Turtle Island

On Earth Day, during the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York, WECAN hosted two panels of extraordinary speakers for our event, “Protecting Land, Rights, and Future Generations: Indigenous Women on the Frontlines of Climate Action and Earth Defense.”

During the event, Indigenous women leaders from across the globe came together to share firsthand experiences of the impacts of colonization, deforestation, extraction, and climate disruption while showcasing powerful climate solutions and strategies that uphold Indigenous rights and sovereignty and bring health and justice to their communities. We also honored the women land defenders who are on the frontlines of protecting ecosystems from destruction, often at significant personal risk. The panelists addressed the roots of democracy, reciprocal economies, rights of nature, and Indigenous rights as ways forward for the world right now.

Many thanks to the speakers:

• Betty Lyons (Onondaga Nation, Snipe Clan), Executive Director, American Indian Law Alliance, Turtle Island​
• Aimee Roberson (Choctaw, Chickasaw), Executive Director, Cultural Survival, Turtle Island
• Cindy Kobei (Ogiek), Co-Founder and Chair Person, Tirap Youth Trust, Kenya
• María Violet Medina Quiscue (Nasa), Indigenous leader and human rights advocate; Founder of the Roundtable for Indigenous Peoples Victims of Armed Conflict, and LAC Representative to the UNPFII, Cauca, Colombia
• President Whitney Gravelle (Bay Mills Indian Community), President and Executive Council Bay Mills Indian Community, Chair of the Department of Interior’s Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee and Commissioner on the Michigan Advisory Council on Environmental Justice, Turtle Island 
• Dr. Crystal A Cavalier, Ed.D, MPA (Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation), Co-Founder and CEO, 7 Directions of Service, Turtle Island
• Majo Andrade Cerda (Kichwa), Member of the Council of CONFENIAE, Leader of the Economy and Community Development area, Member of the Kichwa peoples of Serena, Federation of Napo Indigenous Organizations (FOIN), Ecuador​
• Galina Angarova (Buryat), Executive Director, SIRGE Coalition, Siberia
• Paine Eulalia Mako, Executive Director, Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT), Tanzania
• Casey Camp-Horinek (Ponca Nation), Ponca Nation Environmental Ambassador and WECAN Board Member and Project Coordinator, Turtle Island

On Earth Day, WECAN launched a new policy brief: “Indigenous Rights are Vital to a Healthy and Just World,” spotlighting the critical role of Indigenous rights - especially the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) - in halting destructive extractive industries, protecting global ecosystems, and reinforcing just governance systems.

This policy brief offers concrete recommendations to governments to enact policies and procedures to uphold Indigenous rights, remedy rights violations, and advance safeguards for women land defenders. As part of our advocacy, we delivered the brief to government representatives throughout our time at the UNPFII. 

During the UNPFII, WECAN delegates engaged in several dialogues with Indigenous leaders, member-states, and stakeholders on the linkages between Indigenous Rights and the Rights of Nature, a legal framework based on the recognition and honoring of the Earth’s fundamental and inviolable right to exist, live, thrive, evolve and regenerate.

On Wednesday, April 23, the Indigenous Council for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN), chaired by Casey Camp-Horinek of the Ponca Nation, led a formal event inside the UN Headquarters, “Indigenous Leadership in Advocating for the Rights of Nature.” Watch the recording of the event here!

The event highlighted the importance of centering Indigenous knowledge and leadership in global environmental governance, and how the Rights of Nature can support ongoing efforts for Indigenous sovereignty and climate and biodiversity action, ensuring Mother Earth is safeguarded for current and future generations. The Indigenous Council also discussed how Rights of Nature cannot be co-opted or folded into false solutions like carbon market schemes or nature-based solutions. WECAN was honored to support this event at the UNPFII and is honored to serve on the Executive Committee of GARN.

During the UNPFII, the United Nations General Assembly held a high-level convening: "Harmony with Nature and Living Well," over two days. During the second day, Osprey Orielle Lake, WECAN Executive Director presented "A Global Initiative for a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Nature: Pathways to Establish a Mechanism for Endorsement and Adoption by World Governments.” This Initiative outlines a strategy for national and subnational governments to have a mechanism for countries to adopt a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Nature, which would draw upon a foundational document, the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth drafted in 2010.

As we look toward COP30 and beyond, we are working with partners in the Rights of Nature movement to build pathways for deeply transformative systems change.

Please join us from June 23-28 for the WECAN Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: Path to COP30 and Beyond! This event is a free, public forum taking place virtually in June 2025 - all are welcome!

​The Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice will bring together grassroots and frontline women leaders in all their diversity, global advocates, thought leaders, and policy-makers to showcase a diverse array of visions, projects, policy frameworks, campaigns, and movement strategies with which we can accelerate a bold and transformative path to a healthy and just world. This collective work is paramount as we face a growing polycrisis. While global challenges are ever-increasing, so are our power, hearts, and leadership when we gather together.

The virtual Assembly serves as a convening to support collective calls to action in the lead-up to COP30 and beyond, and is designed to generate ongoing networks of action regionally and by campaign focus for the years to come. We will tie these networks into existing women's and feminist formations as our collective movement for women’s climate leadership grows.

RSVP down below and check out our website for further information, including confirmed speakers and the Assembly agenda. The Assembly will feature over 125 speakers from over 50 countries on 25 breakthrough panels. The Assembly will have interpretation in Spanish, French, Portuguese and English.

Please share with your networks far and wide! Be welcome to re-share the Assembly with your community on Instagram here or on Facebook here.

Please consider supporting WECAN as we continue to uplift the leadership and solutions of women worldwide fighting for climate justice and the defense of the planet for current and future generations.