The 25th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) just wrapped up at United Nations Headquarters in New York, running from April 20 to May 1, 2026 — a landmark two-week gathering marking a quarter-century of this vital global platform.
The Theme: Health as a Human Right
This year’s session centered on “Ensuring Indigenous Peoples’ health, including in the context of conflict” — covering everything from structural barriers to care, to the disproportionate toll of armed conflict and displacement on Indigenous communities. United Nations
The Forum’s approach to health is explicitly holistic: Indigenous Peoples understand well-being as inseparable from culture, spirituality, language, land, and environment. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) affirms the right to traditional medicines and non-discriminatory access to health services — yet significant gaps remain, compounded by conflict, climate change, and socio-economic marginalization.
More than 1,000 participants gathered in the General Assembly Hall for the opening, with delegates from around the world attending — many wearing traditional clothing. An Inuit leader from Canada, Aluki Kotierk, was re-elected chair by acclamation.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres paid tribute to Indigenous Peoples as “the great guardians of nature, a living library of biodiversity conservation, and champions of climate action.”
Chair Kotierk stressed that land degradation, mercury contamination, and climate change are directly worsening Indigenous health outcomes, and called for health systems to be “decolonized” to incorporate holistic, self-determined approaches.
The Forum’s discussions were grounded in sobering data:
Worldwide, over 50% of Indigenous adults over age 35 have type 2 diabetes. Life expectancy gaps are stark: up to 20 years in Nepal and Australia, 17 years in Canada, and 13 years in Guatemala. United Nations DESA Indigenous women bear a particularly heavy burden — facing disproportionately high maternal and infant mortality, malnutrition, and vulnerability during armed conflicts and natural disasters, while often being denied access to education, land, and economic resources. United Nations DESA
The session culminated in a report of recommendations to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) — the Forum’s primary mechanism for translating dialogue into global policy action. The formal report is expected to be published in the coming weeks. United Nations.
The European Union, in its statement, reaffirmed support for structural reforms, noting that barriers to Indigenous Peoples’ access to health services, medicines, vaccines, and essential health products must be addressed, and pledged continued investment in the Indigenous Navigator — a monitoring tool operating in 26 countries — and support for DOCIP, which has enabled over 5,000 Indigenous delegates from all regions to engage with the UN system.
The UNPFII annual session is the largest international gathering of Indigenous Peoples in the world, and has become the central global platform for dialogue, cooperation, and concrete action — with UNDRIP as its foundational framework. Twenty-five years in, the work is far from finished — but the voices filling the General Assembly Hall this April are pThe UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is your legal and moral foundation. Use it explicitly in all communications, reports, and policy submissions. When governments or institutions fall short, cite specific articles. This shifts the conversation from charity to rights.
The consistent and most practical action we can take as civil society is ensure that Indigenous people are not the subject of our advocacy — they are its architects.
The final recommendations report from the 25th session will be available through the UN DESA website. Follow @UN4Indigenous for updates.