Statement on International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples
Each year on 9 August, the international community marks the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, honouring the first session of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1982. This year, the CIVICUS global alliance of civil society organisations and activists dedicated to strengthening citizen action around the world reaffirms our solidarity with the more than 476 million Indigenous peoples across 90 countries. They continue to defend lands, cultures, and ways of life in the face of escalating threats.
Indigenous peoples are among the most effective guardians of the world's remaining biodiversity, safeguarding an estimated 80% of it on lands they steward, despite formally holding rights to only a fraction of the territory traditionally occupied. Yet Indigenous human rights defenders and environmental activists who defend these lands remain among the most targeted civil society actors on the planet.
Indigenous human rights defenders face disproportionate surveillance, harassment, arbitrary arrest, disappearance and killing. They face criminalisation, often through SLAPP suits and restrictive NGO laws. Women defenders are additionally exposed to gender-based violence. Protection mechanisms, where they exist, are under-resourced and ill-suited to communities' social, cultural and geographic realities. In our CIVICUS 2025 People Power Under Attack report, we highlight the deeply worrying plight faced by indigenous activists.
Indigenous Peoples across the globe face multiple threats rooted in weak legal protection for their lands. Land tenure systems are often poorly or inconsistently recognised in national law, leaving territories exposed to state and corporate appropriation. “Fortress conservation" models continue to displace communities despite evidence that Indigenous stewardship produces better conservation outcomes.
Regional and international laws have affirmed Indigenous Peoples' rights, but implementation lags well behind. Serious protection gaps worsen the challenges faced by indigenous rights activists.
As we celebrate the bold, determined, and insightful actions of Indigenous Peoples, we draw attention to the need for urgent action on the following key areas that directly impact the lives of Indigenous Peoples:
- Land Rights: Recognising and Securing Indigenous Territories - Land is the foundation of Indigenous Peoples' cultural, spiritual, and economic survival. Across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific, Indigenous communities continue to face dispossession through conservation-driven evictions, extractive industry concessions, agribusiness expansion, and infrastructure projects undertaken without their free, prior and informed consent (FPIC).
- Human Rights Defenders: Ending Criminalisation and Ensuring Protection: Indigenous human rights defenders operate at the cross-section of some of the most dangerous forms of activism. They defend land, culture, and community against powerful state and corporate interests, often in remote areas with limited access to justice, media attention, or protection mechanisms.
- Environmental Activists: Protecting the Frontlines of Climate Justice: Indigenous environmental activists sit at the frontline of the climate and biodiversity crisis. As extractive and “green transition” industries expand into Indigenous territories in the name of development and decarbonisation, environmental defenders face escalating violence, often with near-total impunity for perpetrators.
CIVICUS calls on states, regional and international bodies, businesses, and civil society to translate longstanding commitments into concrete, enforceable protection. Specifically, we call on all responsible actors (duty-bearers) to:
- Ratify and fully domesticate International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 169 and ensure full legal implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in national constitutions and legislation.
- Close the implementation gap between international and regional human rights frameworks and domestic practice, including through dedicated national action plans on Indigenous peoples' rights.
- Guarantee civic space and freedom of association, expression, and peaceful assembly for Indigenous peoples and the organisations that represent them.
- Repeal and eradicate national laws used to criminalise land defence, ensure independent investigation of attacks, and provide resources for dedicated protection mechanisms.
- Ensure meaningful, direct participation of Indigenous peoples in all decision-making processes affecting their lands, resources, and futures. This must include Indigenous women, youth, and persons with disabilities.
- Provide sustained, flexible funding to Indigenous-led organisations and human rights defenders, recognising their unique legitimacy and effectiveness in protecting land and environment.
- Strengthen early warning and rapid response systems that link local Indigenous networks to national, regional and international protection mechanisms.
