(4th meeting) UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 25th session

Colleagues, good afternoon. In accordance with our program of work, the forum will continue our consideration of agenda item 3 entitled Discussion on the theme Ensuring Indigenous People's Health, including in the context of Conflict and here are the remaining speakers on our list for this item. Before proceeding further, I would like to thank all of you again for your cooperation in using the limited space available and to us in that regard. I would like to kindly request that no one is standing or sitting on the stairs. Additional seats are also available in the second row behind the name plates for Indigenous Peoples organizations. The forum members and Indigenous Parliamentarians have also kindly permitted that the advisors seats behind them might be used by representatives of Indigenous Peoples organizations. So please feel free to take those seats. Further, there is an overflow room for you to sit. At this point we're not sure if there's interpretation, but you can follow along on your own device. If you have already taken the floor with no intention to speak at this meeting, I would kindly ask you to listen to the remainder of the meeting from the overflow conference room 7. I will announce the the next three indigenous organizations so that if you go to Conference Room 7 before you have spoken, you would have enough time to come to the reserve seat to make your intervention from there. As mentioned, when the chair invites you to take the floor, you should press the Request to Speak button on the console at the base of the microphone in front of you. A green light will appear on the microphone. Representatives of Indigenous Peoples organizations should raise their hand in addition to enable the sound engineer to to identify and activate their microphone. When the sound engineer activates your microphone, the light will turn red and only then can you speak. To support our interpreters, delegations are kindly requested to speak at a reasonable speed and send their statement in advance to estatementsn.org with the meeting's date and title. Delegations with longer statements are encouraged to deliver summarized versions of their statement and to submit the Full version to estatementsn.org As a reminder, Representatives of Indigenous Peoples organizations should not sit directly behind a UN Member State nameplate. We will now begin listening to the remaining speakers inscribed on the list of speakers under item three. And I am going to read the three before I give the floor to the Aramat Project. So AROMAT Project is one, Youth with a Mission is two, and Centre for Indigenous Peoples Research and Development is three. The representative for the Aramat Project has the floor.

Distinguished delegates, honored members of the Permanent Forum and fellow Indigenous people, we stand before you today as a global Indigenous Youth Caucus carrying the voices of young Indigenous People from the Arctic to the Indus, in Asia, from the Pacific and

Turtle Islands to Africa.

We speak together because what is happening

to our communities cannot be spoken alone.

For indigenous people, health is land, water and the freedom to care for one another as our ancestors did. When those things are taken, our health carry the cost. Indigenous women and girls carry generations of unaddressed trauma. Conflict in our territories further exacerbates gender based violence and the effect of conflicts such as landmines and water contamination, which continues to negatively affect indigenous people for generation following conflict.

Conflict and militarization strips us of our

territories, our medicinal plants and our traditional foods. Our traditional healers are not a supplement to health care. They are health care and dismissing them cost lives. We recommend to Member States to design mobile, culturally appropriate health care that reaches nomadic, remote and displaced communities. Guarantee legal protection of indigenous territories from

extractive industry and shift from militarization to peace building by prioritizing peaceful dialogue, including

indigenous people in conflict prevention and ending the use of military presence as a

tool of control over our territories.

We further recommend direct access to financial and technical support. Implement or expand indigenous health programs such

as the Indigenous Youth Health Plan for

Latin America and the Caribbean, developed by the Indigenous Youth Network and utilize this plan as a benchmark for the participatory development of health plans for indigenous youth in other social cultural regions. Implement health programs that emphasizes youth leadership and expand programs aimed at strengthening the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples regarding their agriculture to ensure food sovereignty. Our health is not a side issue.

It is the measure of whether the commitments made in this room mean anything at all.

Indigenous youth are already doing the work. We ask you to stand behind us.

I thank the representative of the ARAMAT Project and I now give the floor to the representative of Mexico.

Madam Chair, reform of Article 2 of our Constitution represents a profound transformation in the relationship between the state and indigenous peoples. It recognizes the right to self determination and as a result, to autonomy to develop, practice, strengthen and promote traditional medicine and midwifery and also for those who practice them, including their knowledge and health practices. It also establishes an obligation for the state state to guarantee effective access to healthcare services by expanding coverage of the national system to include an intercultural perspective. Nevertheless, indigenous women, girls and adolescents continue to face unacceptable barriers in terms of accessing culturally relevant sexual, reproductive and maternal health services. These gaps are not a mere accident. They are the result of the historical exclusion that our peoples have lived through. Shortcomings persist in the coverage of health care services in indigenous territories and there are also limitations in terms of training health personnel with a gender and intercultural approach. This makes it difficult to guarantee the provision of care in Indigenous languages with cultural relevance as well as free prior and informed consent to medical practice processes. In this context, the reform to the General Health Law recognizes traditional Indigenous medicine, including midwifery, is an integral part of the national health system not as a subordinated practice but as a living knowledge system with its own legitimacy. We are therefore promoting actions to guarantee free and dignified exercise of traditional midwifery based on community recognition and also ensuring protection of its methods, practices and biocultural resources within the framework of maternal child care and this includes strengthening traditional medicine and midwifery by harmonizing regulatory frameworks, ensuring free practice of traditional midwifery and access to services without discrimination and in conditions of dignity. Also intensifying inter institutional work with the health sector to respond to health needs. In particular, wish to highlight the framework of the Yaqui People's Justice Board Plan, the construction of the second level Community Hospital in Vican Pueblo aimed at providing care with a focus on justice and inclusion and thirdly, effectively incorporating the intercultural perspective into the health system. We're currently developing a general law that provides norms and in particular the creation of the Centre of Excellence in Midwifery and well Being promoted by President Claudia Sheinbaum. This represents a strategy to coordinate health systems from an intercultural approach.

I thank you, I thank the representative of Mexico and I now give the floor to the representative of the World Health Organization.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Distinguished members of the Permanent Forum, representatives of Indigenous peoples, Member States, colleagues and friends Under Agenda Item 3, the WHO also wishes to draw attention to the conference room paper EC19 2026 CRP1, the revised draft WHO framework for respectful Engagement with Indigenous Peoples on Biodiversity, Health and Traditional Knowledge Systems. As we heard reflected in many statements

this morning, for many Indigenous peoples, health

is understood as a state of systemic balance and relational well being grounded in the interconnections among people, lands and territories, waters, biodiversity, culture, spirit, community and traditional healing systems. Several interventions also reminded us that Indigenous health cannot be reduced to services alone,

but must include the environmental, cultural, social

and governance conditions that make health possible. CRP1 responds to a practical need identified through dialogue with Indigenous peoples across seven socio cultural regions.

How to ensure that future engagement on

biodiversity, climate, health and traditional knowledge systems, including traditional medicines, is rights based, ethical,

culturally grounded, aligned with relevant international legal instruments and operationally clear. The draft framework has four core elements.

First, it sets out legal and normative

foundations, drawing on instruments such as the

UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Nagoya Protocol, the ILO Convention Number 169, the WIPO, Gratk and other relevant international frameworks. Second, it sets out guiding principles for collaboration including self determination, free prior and informed consent, equity, reciprocity, accountability, knowledge protection, recognition of Indigenous determinants of health and respect for Indigenous governance systems. Third, it proposes practical modalities for implementation including co design of workshops, contextual risk assessment, inclusive participation across generations and genders, safeguards for sacred or secret knowledge, intellectual property rights protections, Indigenous data sovereignty and mechanisms for review of outputs by Indigenous Peoples before dissemination. Fourth, it recognizes plural I thank the representative from the World Health Organization and I now have I'm going to list the next three Indigenous Peoples organizations, Youth with a Mission, center for Indigenous Peoples Research and Development and the Nation of Hawaii and I now give the floor to Youth with a Mission. Is the representative not in the room? Okay, I am going to go then. I am going to give the floor to the representative of Canada.

Thank you Chair. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional territory of the Munsee Lenape. Canada underscores the importance of ensuring that all participants can contribute in a safe and enabling environment free from any form of intimidation or reprisal.

In Canada, the government acknowledges that the

current state of Indigenous health is a direct result of shameful colonialist policies and interventions that harm the well being of Indigenous Peoples and communities. The impacts of these harmful policies are still felt today. We are working to move forward in a different way. Canada is advancing Indigenous rights in line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We recognize that there is no one size fits all solution that respects the unique rights, governance structures and health priorities of First Nations, Inuit and Metis. Progress depends on working together with with Indigenous governments and partners. The Government of Canada's action plan includes measures across transformative areas including transferring the design and delivery of health services to communities or Indigenous led health organizations and improving access to culturally safe care including mental health services. Canada will continue to work with Indigenous partners to advance its implementation. Canada supports several health programs and initiatives aimed at improving access to quality and culturally safe health supports and services for first nations and Inuit both in their communities and in urban centers. This includes the Non Insured Health Benefits Program which provides coverage for medically necessary benefits including mental health counseling, medical travel and medications. Le Couvernement du Canada Our government has

also been investing in community health infrastructure, first nations and we support basic emergency deliveries for primary care and public health in remote isolated communities of the first nations where access at times is limited. Infrastructure programs for the health of first nations provides safe and secure deliveries of programs as well as essential health services. And first nations people have access to health services and well being services adapted to their culture and this contributes to improvement of the results achieved in terms of health care. Canada is continuing to implement the Jordan Principle which provides equitable access for public services to the children of first nations regardless of their residency. Canada also is collaborating together with Inuit partners in crafting a long term approach specific to the Inuit people. This is part of the Inuit Apart People Children initiative and to ensure that they have equitable access to what they need. We will continue to work. The microphone has been cut off.

Representative of Canada and exceptionally as we missed an Indigenous Peoples organization. I'm going to go with the center for Indigenous Peoples Research and Development immediately followed by the Nation of Hawaii. And then later we'll have Inuit Circumpolar Council Centre for Indigenous Peoples Research and Development. You have the floor. Can you please raise your hand if you are in the room?

Okay. Madam Chair and respect it. UN Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues. My government name is Keenan Grosbeck. I am elected chair of the Northern Rapaho tribe and I represent 10,000 tribal members. I am also speaking on behalf of the Wind River Intertribal Council to protect the world's single largest mineral hot springs that were attempted to be legally removed from our reservation that is jointly held by the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribe. The state of Wyoming here in the United States now claims our sacred site and waters as Hot Springs State park and tries to exercise unilateral decision making over it in violation of our indigenous rights. These sacred hot springs have always served as a place of peaceful encounter between a number of tribes as a sacred place for intergenerational healing from our peoples. Our Arapaho and Cheyenne ancestors fled to this sacred hot springs to heal after the Sankirk massacre in 1864 and other genocidal campaigns perpetrated on our peoples. We suffer from intergenerational effects on genocide today and often see multiple generations of our people return to these sacred hot springs to heal. We therefore call upon the UN Permanent Forum to recommend free access to our sites hot springs for tribal members and generally to hot springs, especially in national and state parks as places of intergenerational healing where Indigenous peoples and families can start to heal and in generational effects of genocide and trauma, as we have done at our sacred hot springs. We further call upon the, you know, permanent forum to raise these Ongoing violations of our indigenous rights by State of Wyoming and the United states, namely Article 10 of the End Declaration of Rights for Indigenous Peoples foresees that indigenous people shall not be forcibly removed from their lands and territories. Yet that is exactly what has happened regarding our sacred hot springs. The United States sent their representative J. McLaughlin to the window River Reservation where our tribal members were sick and starving and set to run out of rations within two years to forced the surrender of our sacred hot springs. Our people were not in a position nor did they provide their free prior informed consent. And while the US Claimed to have reached a hot springs agreement, the vast majority of the payments were never made and therefore any agreement not to be enforceable. Then the State of Wyoming opposed Hot Springs State park in the immediate 1 square mile area and the town of Thermopolis and Beyond in the 100 square mile area illegally removed from our reservation. There has ongoing remuneration to peoples and no benefit sharing. Instead they continuously violate our rights and free prior informed consent to any development regarding these lands and water. For example,

I thank the representative of the center for Indigenous Peoples Research and Development. And I now give the floor to the representative of the Nation of Hawaii.

Aloha Madam. Aloha, Madam Chair, distinguished delegates and relatives, I stand before you as a native representative of an occupied sovereign nation whose overthrow in 1893 remains unremediated under international law. Many know our homeland as the 50th state of the United States, but we know it as the Nation of Hawaii. I'm here today representing my hometown of Lahaina which in August of 2023 was devastated by wildfire. Lahaina, once the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom, now has the reputation as the place where the deadliest wildfire in recent US history took place. More than 13,000 people were displaced and scattered overnight including native Hawaiian families, immigrants and multi generational households. Over 100 people lost their lives that day and many are still not home. Now we are not here to just represent a single town. But Lahaina's tragedy is an opportunity for the world to see what happens when the fate of our home is out of the hands of its indigenous people. Recently Hawaii has been experiencing extreme flooding that have taken out entire neighborhoods leaving our people displaced and in recovery once again. We have turned Hawaiis once resilient and productive landscape into one that is highly fragile to anything that disrupts the status quo. In both cases of flood and fire, we were left to fend for ourselves by the occupants. The occupants that have created the conditions that we are Forced to live in today, despite the hardship, our people stand strong together. We took care of one another. We brought supplies from the ground up and forced our way to the table to help bring those solutions. We have proven that we, the people of Hawaii, must be the ones to lead the way because we see what happens when we are not. We have invoked our right to maintain and strengthen our spiritual relationship with our AINA under Article 12 of the United Nations Declaration of Rights of its Indigenous people. But decisions still have been made without us disregarding both articles 19 and 32, leaving us where we are today. Lahaina was reopened only two months after our fire, despite 18,000 people signing a petition to dispute the decision. And this points to a broader pattern that has been going on for generations globally. To some, this may look like oversight, but to us, it's just part of the same system that has always forced more than half of our Native Hawaiian population to live far from our homeland. And we believe the prolonged displacement of our people demands international scrutiny on the highest level. We respectfully request that the United nations investigate the human rights and health impacts of the Lahaina fires and their aftermath to ensure rebuilding is indigenously led and compliant with the free and prior and informed consent, and to recognize the ongoing displacement of the Native Hawaiians as a violation of international human rights. We also want to extend a formal invitation to Special Rapporteur of Human of Rights of Indigenous People, Dr. Albert K. Barume, to conduct an official visit to Hawaii. To us, Lahaina me Kapai' Ainao. Hawaii is a test of whether Indigenous people will be protected or erased under the guise of recovery. Our people are still here, still standing and still fighting. And we're not going anywhere.

I thank the representative of the Nation of Hawaii. And I now give the floor to the representative of Spain.

Thank you, Madam Chair, distinguished delegates and representatives of Indigenous peoples in Spain, we align with the statement of the eu. This banished International Development Cooperation Agency is fully committed to the rights and cause of Indigenous peoples. And more specifically, the agency that I represent here today has been working for more than three decades to support and promote the struggle and efforts of the Indigenous peoples in Latin America. On the topic that brings us here today, the health and well being of Indigenous peoples. All of the representatives who have spoken at this forum have reminded us that health and well being depend on harmony between a number of different factors. All of them are fundamental in shaping reality and life of Indigenous peoples, communities and individuals. But presently this harmony is far from being realized. And yet all of their rights are recognized in Spain. We are convinced that the only way to achieve the rights and well being of indigenous people is for indigenous peoples themselves to be the owners and protagonists of their future. Indigenous peoples are the only ones who know what's right for them and what's more, they have every right to make that decision. And this is why Space Spain created a specific program for this 30 years ago, the Indigenous Program for Spanish Cooperation. Our Indigenous Program allows to allocate resources and efforts to strengthen indigenous organisations, their own structures on the basis of their own demands, with their full participation and decision in all processes. It is only if there is a strong, organised, conscious and active indigenous movement that they will be able to have a voice and influence at institutions and in front of society as a whole to defend and demand their rights and above all, to play a leading role in their practical application. President the Indigenous Program has launched hundreds of projects, initiatives throughout Latin America to strengthen the Indigenous movement and its organizations and also to influence all the basic aspects of the reality of Indigenous peoples. And all of this is part of the health and well being of Indigenous peoples. By way of conclusion, I'd like to reiterate that the commitment and determination that we have at the Spanish Cooperation Agency for the benefit of Indigenous Peoples is not just something that we've been doing for many years. It is also something that is going to be continued and maintained in the future. We must continue with the same conviction and keep up our efforts. We don't know what tomorrow will bring or when all of our goals will be achieved. But what we do know is that for Spanish Cooperation Agency, the cause of indigenous peoples in Latin America has been a hallmark of our agency and that will continue to be the case.

I thank you, I thank the representative of Spain. And before I continue, I would like to remind delegates to please not stand or sit on the stairs or in front of the doorway. There are a number of seats for indigenous peoples that are empty over here. And so I invite you to come take a seat. The next three Indigenous peoples organizations are the Inuit Circumpolar Council, the MEJLI of the Crimean Tatar People and the American Indian Law Alliance. And I would also ask delegates to kindly refrain from applause as we can get more indigenous peoples to speak if we don't take time for applause. And so please. Representative of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My name is Naedun Kielsen, I am a psychologist and I am speaking on behalf of Inuit Circumpolar Council represent inuit in Chukotka, Alaska. Canada and Galahit Nunnad. We welcome the focus of 25th session on in ensuring Indigenous people's health, including in context of conflict. For Inuit, health and well being is holistic. Physical and mental health cannot be addressed separately. Health is connected to culture, community, food, security, housing, environmental health and self determination. Many Inuit continue to face significant health inequities, including gaps in access to appropriate and culturally safe services. In remote communities, limited services, workforce shortage and barriers in access continue to affect health and well being. Mental health remains an urgent concern, including for Inuit children and youth. Culturally relevant and evidence informed approaches including suicide prevention and early support must be strengthened. We also emphasize that conflict and and insecurity should be understood broadly. Protection requires systems that are accessible, trusted, culturally competent and available across geography. If services are not accessible when people need them, they do not function as services in protection practice. Sorry. At the same time, Inuit are advancing solutions Inuit led solutions built on the knowledge and strengthened within our communities through cross regional work, Inuit are advancing a culturally grounded continuum of services framework to support children and families across promotion, prevention, intervention and protection. This work is helping to identify practical models for more coordinated and equitable systems of care. Inuit led and culturally safe approaches are not optional. They are necessary for effective, ethical and equitable care. We call on states and relevant UN entities to recognize indigenous determinants of health including food security, housing, cultural continuity and environmental health and reflect these in policies and programs. We call for sustained support for Indigenous lead health approaches including continuum of services models designed by and with Indigenous peoples. We also urge to state to strengthen it Indigenous peoples full and effective participation in health governance, program design and decision making. We encourage the Permanent forum to recognize indigenous led continuum of services approaches as a good practice for

I thank the representative of the Inuit Circumpolar Council and I now give the floor to the representative of Nicaragua.

Senora

Madam Chair, Distinguished representatives of Indigenous Peoples. The Government of Reconciliation and National Unity of the Republic of Nicaragua sends greetings to this permanent forum. We also reaffirm our abiding commitment to the restoration of the rights of indigenous people, peoples and those of African descent. Nicaragua, as a multi ethnic and multicultural state recognizes that health is a human right. It is a fundamental human right that is inseparable from identity, spirituality, culture and the ancestral territories of our indigenous peoples. Our country has made progress in consolidating a family, community and intercultural health based model which places people people at the center. It also guarantees care that is culturally appropriate and relevant. This commitment translates into a wide network of health services that is free of charge and has national coverage and reaches even the most remote communities. In recent years, we have driven historic expansion of our hospital infrastructure, bringing specialized services closer to historically excluded regions. One emblematic example is the regional hospital New Delta dawn in Bilwi. This has enabled significant improvement in access to health services for the indigenous peoples of the northern Caribbean coast. We have also strengthened maternity care and community brigades and the territorial presence of our health system, ensuring timely health care, including in hard to reach areas. Nicaragua promotes a deeply human model for health which integrates the advances scientific advances of modern medicine with the knowledge of ancestral traditional medicine. Midwives and healers and traditional doctors are recognized as essential actors with full respect for the worldview cosmo vision of our peoples. In this context, we must emphasize the obstacles that the state faces in terms of guaranteeing these rights. Unilateral coercive measures, which are contrary to international law in the Charter of the United nations, negatively impact our health systems. They limit access to medicines, technologies and financing and disproportionately impact indigenous peoples as well as other sectors of society. Nicaragua reiterates that no measure should endanger or jeopardize the lives or well being of our peoples. Ensuring the health of indigenous peoples involves respecting their autonomy, protecting their territories and ensuring accessible food, free and culturally appropriate services. Nicaragua will continue to defend the right of our peoples to live in health, dignity and justice free from impositions, pressures and measures that threaten their well being without concessions.

I thank you representative of Nicaragua and before we continue, I just wanted to announce that interpretation in Spanish is now available in Conference Room 7, which is our overflow room and if you have any questions you can ask the conference officers. So next, the next three indigenous peoples organizations are the Majli of the Crimean Tatar people, the American Indian Law Alliance Cordenacao de Organizaco Indigena de Amazonia Brazil and I give the floor to the representative of Mejli of the Crimean Tatar people.

Madam Chair, brothers and sisters, I'm speaking on behalf as the representative of the Major Lisa Crimean Tatar peoples. I wish to take this opportunity to inform the permanent form of the fact that on 3rd April 2026 the Government of Ukraine, through a decree and in accordance with the legislation of Ukraine and enshrined the right of the Middle East Crimean Tatar their legal status as a representative organ of the Crimean Tatar people. I wish to thank the authors of the concept note whose provisions are largely acceptable in terms of the characteristics and the condition of the Crimean Tatar people who in 2014, since 2014 have been subjected to the Russian occupation of Crimea the goal of the Russian occupiers have been to expel their indigenous Crimean Tatar peoples from their land. Russia continues to pursue its genocidal policies targeting the Crimean Tatars conducted by the Russian Empire and subsequently the ussr. There has been a persistent repression, persecution, threats of new deportations. These are resulting in large scale psychological trauma endured by the peoples. The militarization by the Russian occupants of the Crimea that have been sealed, the seizures of the lands and the resources of the indigenous people peoples for military purposes and the environmental degradation of the peninsula are factors which devastate the physical health of Crimean Tatars and other residents of Crimea. All of these violations are resulting in difficulties and lack of protections. The Crimean Tatar people lose control over their environment where they live. Traditional lifestyles are being devastated. As a result, physical health is being is deteriorating. The Russian aggressive disregard for the right for the need to protect the environment is devastating the biological bedrock for the existence of the Crimean Tatar peoples. The forced mobilization repression form of mobilization to the Russian army has resulted in a fresh wave of mobilization coming into our families have been divided. Social ties have been severed. The social fabric is ripping and health of people is worsening. The Russian Ukrainian war and the 12 years of occupation by the Russian troops of the territory of Crimea have become a critical destructive factor which jeopardizes the physical and the mental health of the Crimean Tatar people as well as the lives of every individual and indigenous peoples as a whole. A recovery of the health of the Crimean Tatar people is only possible with the de occupation of Crimea, with the restoration of the sovereignty of Crimea and with respect for all of the rights of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people on their land. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you. To the representative of the Majlis of the Crimean Tatar people. I now give the floor to Guatemala. To the representative of Guatemala.

Chair Honorable members of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Distinguished representatives. I bring a cordial greeting on behalf of my country through the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance in compliance with the provisions of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala and our Health code as regards its mandate to ensure the enjoyment of health as a fundamental right without discrimination. We are developing a process of continuing improvement and we place special emphasis on providing care with cultural relevance to the Guatemalan population. And this is one of the cross cutting axes and it is based on our health care care network model. Guatemala thus reaffirms its commitment to guarantee the human right to health of indigenous peoples even in context of social or territorial conflict. Since 2009, two years after the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples undrip, the State of Guatemala has, through our corresponding agencies, begun the process of developing strategic, technical and regulatory instruments with national scope in order to strengthen institutional capacity to comprehensively, inclusively and in a way that got us culturally relevant address this issue. To ensure that interventions respect the worldview of patients and the health practices of indigenous peoples, we are implementing a community health perspective as a way to maximize available resources and to overcome limitations due to geography or budget. Experiences such as these have reaffirmed the importance of interculturality in health care projects and also the role of ancestral knowledge of indigenous peoples in the area of health. And this has been crucial in overcoming challenges that at times may seem insurmountable. It is on the basis of this experience and the challenges that we have faced as a state that we have that we call as the State of Guatemala. We call on the United nations to continue promoting these spaces basis for participation and dialogue. They contribute to recognition of the health system of indigenous peoples as the set of knowledge, practices and teachings for prevention and improvement and maintenance of the physical, emotional, energetic, social and spiritual balance of people on the basis of their own worldview.

Thank you very much. I thank the member of representative of Guatemala. And now I call upon distinguished forum member Emma Rossin Tepatu.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to support the earlier

statement of my colleague of the Permanent forum from the Ukraine this morning. And in addition I would also like to support the recommendations from the report

presented by former member also from this

morning on restoring indigenous health by connecting systems through the indigenous determinants of health local to global evidence and build on them both. Firstly, as an indigenous leader in public health globally, I will state that peace and safety are prerequisites for health that includes these halls and in these processes, these processes that are supposed to be created for us continue to be riddled with barriers for and effective meaningful participation. And we have experienced this in a number of ways. Just this morning, ironically, on the day and first time this forum has focused on health. Specifically, an important point in this being that mental, spiritual and physical health are inextricably connected, which includes the symbiotic relationship

of indigenous peoples and planet.

This must change. I call on Member States to recognise and take action to recognise that peace and safety are prerequisites to health. And in that I mean physical peace and safety as well as spiritual peace and safety. Recognise that war causes suffering, destroys health systems and worsens long term physical and mental health outcomes. And not least leave long term devastation on lands and the ability to live on lands in peace and safety to

recognise also

that Indigenous health is inherently attached to land and the symbiotic relationship with lands and environments that sustain life. Member States and associated government systems must change processes where ongoing policy silos harm our Indigenous people's health because policies can contradict one another directly impacting Indigenous health. They must assign resources realistically for achieving equity and the right to health for Indigenous peoples. They must recognise and adopt the indigenous determinants of health and associated frameworks and evaluation methods to ensure coherency and consistency in approaches to Indigenous health globally. They must make decisions that ensure coordination across bodies, leads to prevent harm in sectors and actual achievement of Indigenous health outcomes. They must support the proper coordination, development and implementation of the WHO Global Plan of Action on Indigenous Health and ensure that it is supported and properly resourced so it can authentically address the rights of Indigenous peoples and the Indigenous determinants of health. They must commit to valuing Indigenous intelligence and work in equitable partnership with Indigenous peoples to ensure the principle of free prior and informed consent and self determination are properly acknowledged and upheld and they must ensure all action and decisions reflect government governance and action towards the fact that health and safety are prerequisites to health and health as a human right. Thank you.

I thank the distinguished member of the forum. And now the next three Indigenous Peoples organizations will be American Indian Law Alliance, Cordenasal das Organizaso Indigena de Amazonia, Brazil and Escuela Global de Liderazco del American Indian Law Alliance. You have the floor.

I submit this statement on behalf of

the Global Indigenous Women's Caucus from our

pre meeting held on April 17, 2026. Madam Chair, having this meeting in Conference Room 3 is a continued intentional effort to further limit our full meaningful participation and is a direct violation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Individual Indigenous Peoples, the Convention on Human Rights, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Because as Indigenous Peoples our mandate is to speak for peoples and living beings that can't speak for themselves. As oren Lyons, a 96 year old

elder from my community whose work has

helped with others to ensure that we gain gained a place at the UN to discuss issues affecting us, has previously stated on the floor here he has always said if you are not at the table, you are on the menu. The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is the largest annual gathering of Indigenous Peoples in the world with the highest advisory body to ecasac. And now we have agencies and Member States that will take the majority of this precious time that we have left with no interactive overflow room being provided. As our Madam Chair has stated, this is not how we treat our relatives, especially not in our own forum. This is unacceptable. Empowering Indigenous Agroecology and Inherent Relationships with Nature Article 25 of the UNDRIP states that Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinctive relationships with their lands, territories, waters and and coastal seas and other resources and to uphold their responsibilities to future generations. However, so called critical mineral mining practices worldwide are conducted in ways that violate our rights to free, prior and informed consent. Mining poses a distinct threat to the Indigenous people's way of life and well being, polluting our waters, lands and destroying biodiversity. We call on the World Health Organization to recognize the impact of green industry mining on Indigenous health and territories as a key method to ensuring the survival of our traditional food systems and resisting assimilation into industrial agriculture. We call on the Food and Agriculture Organization to direct funding to initiatives by Indigenous organizations that support indigenous agro ecology violations against women's rights. Regarding General Recommendation number 39 on the rights of Indigenous women and girls, we recognize with great concern that Indigenous women continue to face disproportionate levels of discrimination, gender based violence and violation of our rights, particularly in cases where Indigenous women are at risk due displacement. We call on the ICJ and the Human Rights Council to convene a tribunal for women's rights violations.

I thank the representative of the American Indian Law alliance and I now give the floor to the Philippines.

Thank you Madam Chair, Excellencies, colleagues. The Philippines firmly believes that health is socially determined for indigenous peoples. Health outcomes are shaped not only by disease but by systemic discrimination, poverty, loss of ancestral lands and erosion of culture and identity. These challenges are further compounded in conflict affected and climate vulnerable areas where access to essential services such as water, sanitation and hygiene in health care facilities, food, medicines and care is often disrupted. The Philippine response is anchored on the 1997 Indigenous People's Rights act and guided by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples reinforced by our Universal Health Care act and an interagency cooperation that advances cultural sensitive and responsive health service delivery. Together, these frameworks advance a rice based, culturally grounded and whole of government approach. In practice, we are expanding access to essential and primary health care services in geographically isolated and conflict affected areas through mobile clinics, outreach missions and community based health teams including indigenous health workers through partnerships among national agencies and local governments. We support medical and dental missions, health promotion, emergency assistance and formulations of ancestral domains. Investment plans for health that integrate indigenous priorities into local health systems. Financial protection is strengthened through primary care benefits and zero billing policies in public hospitals. These efforts contribute to our vision of healthy Filipinas where every Filipino has access to safe, high quality and people centered care. Significantly, the Philippines also recognizes indigenous peoples as equal partners in health. We promote intercultural approaches that respect and integrate indigenous knowledge systems and traditional medicine. While safeguarding this through the pre and prior informed consent, protecting ancestral domains remains essential and ASLAN dispossession undermines livelihoods, food security and well being in conflict affected areas we continue to pursue.

I thank the representative from the Philippines and before I give the floor to the next indigenous peoples organization, the following three will be Escuela Global de Liderazco de Mujer Indigena Forum des Femmes Ataktan du Cameroon and Day one adat Papua. So the representative of Cordenacao de Organizaco Indigena de Amazonia, Brazil now has the floor.

Buenos Tardes.

Good afternoon all. My name is elsewhere. I'm representing the coordination of in indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Base and as was mentioned yesterday morning, addressing the matter of the health of indigenous peoples in the context of conflict requires us to address the impact of mining on our health and specifically on the health of women and indigenous women and indigenous children. There are 114,000 different mining processes across some 2,000 indigenous territories in eight Amazonian countries. Brazil is the leader with more than 65,000 requests for mining, some 60% of the total in the region. And here we're talking only about legal mining, not talking about illegal mining. Legal mining is also undermining our health and our rights as indigenous peoples and affecting our human rights. It is necessary for the Brazilian state to delineate indigenous territories and in particular to withdraw from those already identified and also to use specific legislation to defend our rights. There is no and there cannot be sustainable mining for indigenous people. And this is why we call on the Forum to bring forward to here as we are marking the 25th anniversary of the adoption of UNDRIP. And so we asked the Forum to include the impact of mining in all of its forms. There are many ways that this is affecting our lives and endangering our future.

Thank you, representative of the Indigena de Amazonia, Brazil. And now I call upon the representative of Latvia.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Distinguished members of the Forum. Indigenous peoples are among the most knowledge rich communities in our world, but they are also among the Most vulnerable ones. Latvia is a committed member of the UN Security Council, addresses this forum with deep concern about the conditions indigenous peoples face today. The most urgent concern is the impact of armed conflicts. The ongoing war of aggression waged by Russia against Ukraine continues to cause profound harm to indigenous communities. The Crimean Tatar people of Ukraine face systematic oppression, persecution and cultural erasure under Russian occupation, as they did during the Soviet era. At the same time, Russia is disproportionately deploying members of its own indigenous communities to the front lines, effectively dismantling those communities. These are not isolated incidents. Similar patterns appear in conflicts around the world. Madam Chair. The second concern is intimidation and reprisals targeting indigenous representatives who engaged with international bodies. Latvia notes documented cases in which indigenous representatives from Russia who have traveled to forums such as this one have faced searches and arrests upon their return. This is unacceptable. This forum and the broader UN system must treat such reprisals with the utmost seriousness. The third concern is a growing displacement of indigenous peoples from their traditional territories. Whether driven by armed conflict, forced removal or economic pressures, this displacement fragments indigenous societies. Those who leave their traditional lands often lose access to the knowledge, systems, healing practices and intergenerational wisdom that have sustained their communities for centuries. Latvian indigenous people, the Livonians, know this all too well. The illegal Soviet occupation of Latvia during and following The World War II destroyed the historical homeland of the Livonian people, scattering the community across the country. Madam Chair, we urge this forum to address the impact of conflict, the protection of representation and the consequences of displacement with urgency, depth and determination. We encourage the forum to reflect these concerns in its future reports and recommendations. I thank you.

I thank the member from Latvia. I now give the floor to the distinguished forum member, Rodrigo Pallavar.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As this is the first time that I'm taking the floor at this session, I'd like first of all to congratulate our new chair. And I'd also like to welcome the 11 new members of the organization. We haven't, but I do feel that we are in good hands and we're here with people who are very committed to the rights of indigenous peoples. And I want to take note of the efforts underway to strengthen the health of indigenous peoples within the international system, including the drafting of the Global Program on the Health of Indigenous Peoples and the submission of the conference room paper AC192025, CRP1 in relation to the revised draft for Respectful Relations with the Indigenous Peoples on Biodiversity, health and Traditional Knowledge. Both of these processes are important and complementary. The framework Procedure provides practical guidance for the participation of indigenous peoples to be based on human rights, free, prime and informed consent, respect for the governance systems of indigenous peoples and the protection of traditional knowledge and reciprocity. The future Plan of Action presents a strategic opportunity to translate these principles into public policies, institutional priorities and concrete implementation nationally, regionally and globally. Nevertheless, in order to truly respond to the realities, the lived realities of indigenous peoples, this global plan should have effective indigenous leadership from its inception, right through to implementation and follow up and assessment. Consultation is not enough. You must share power, build it together and recognize indigenous peoples as strategic rights holders as part of the solution. We are not part of the problem, as we have heard very often. We are part of the solution. And this is why we encourage the WHO to establish a high level consultative panel with the representation of the seven indigenous regions made up of individuals with experience in health, traditional medicine, human rights, human youth, disabilities and community governance. This panel could provide strategic guidance on the implementation of the global plan and ensure consistency with other international and relevant processes and also strengthen accountability through structured and continuous dialogue with the indigenous peoples. The health and indigenous peoples cannot be reduced only to access to healthcare services. It is profoundly linked to the earth, the territories, to water, to land, biodiversity, culture, language, self determination and continuity across generations. Recognition of this should be at the core of our action and we invite member states and the WHO and the entire United nations system to use this opportunity to join in a true genuine alliance with indigenous peoples.

I thank you, I thank the distinguished forum member and before I give the floor to the next indigenous peoples organization. The next three will be the Forum Defemes Ataktant, Cameroon, Dewan Adat, Papua and Tau Kiuki. And now I give the floor to Escuela Global de Liderazgo. Dave Mujer Indigenous now.

Very good afternoon from the Miam country, Guatemala. I am distinguished members of the forum, distinguished representatives, brothers and sisters on the right to comprehensive health. As indigenous women, we want to call on decision makers to perform actions that respect our languages when it comes to health. They should also respect our medicines, our ways of protecting the lives of indigenous women in the field. These are people with protective life and we have suffered two fold violence and we of race and gender. And this is why there should be a preventive and care approach to eradicating violence. For all of these reasons, we would like there to be investment in resources and the eradication of violence against women in all of its forms and manifestations and spheres. It is a scourge that impacts the lives of women and girls, the Right to health for women also means the health of the land and the water. We urgently should take action to guarantee access to clean water for women. Environmental pollution is a threat to our lives. Finally, we would like to raise awareness of the violence that women, wives, daughters and the spouses of the political prisoners suffer in Guatemala. This is a form of violence against women and against their fight for their rights. I thank you.

I thank the representative of the Escuela Global de Lidarazgo de Mujer Indigena. And now I give the floor to the representative of Panama.

Gracias, Presidenta. Thank you very much, Chair. We congratulate you on your election and we thank you for your work and we recognize your work here at the 25th session. Panama is a country that is characterized for its ethnic and cultural diversity. We have seven indigenous peoples and 12 traditional structures covering approximately 22% of the country. We are honored by the presence of Magdalena and Olina, high leaders of the Guna and Ronan people of Panama. Our constitution recognizes and protects their cultural, historic and linguistic and social identity as well as their collective rights and their valuable contribution to sustainable development and social cohesion. Under the topic of this session, we highlight the importance of strengthening health care systems with an intercultural approach that includes traditional medicine and guarantees equitable access to basic services. Amongst the measures adopted by Panama, we wish to highlight the comprehensive development plan for indigenous peoples. This includes more than 25 priority projects in the areas of health, health, education and infrastructure. We also highlight the empowerment of indigenous women when it comes to decision making, promoting their socioeconomic participation at a local level, and we're also strengthening the use of indigenous languages in our education system. We also recognize the ancestral relationship that indigenous peoples have with nature and natural resources. Panama has been a direct witness of the vulnerability of these populations in light of the threat three way planetary crisis. An example is the relocation of the Guna community to the island of Gadi Suktup due to the rising sea level. This experience represents an important case study for future situations of this nature. The effective implementation of legislation continues to be a priority. Panama is making progress in strengthening our normative framework in order to guarantee the collective rights of indigenous people peoples, promoting consultation mechanisms, mechanisms for participation and for protection of their territories, and also incorporating an intercultural approach to public policy, especially in the area of health care. We reaffirm our commitment to continue making progress in this area. I thank you.

I thank the representative of Panama and the next three indigenous peoples organizations will be Dewan Adat, Papua Taou, Kiyuki and LNP And I now give the floor to Forum des Femmes attached to Cameroon.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Distinguished delegates, I speak on the urgent human rights situation of my people, the Mororo pastoralist people in Cameroon. We face threat to our lands, security and survival. The armed conflict in the northwest has affected more than 1,300 people. In January, separatist fighters massacred 14 Mororo civilians in Gidado new subdivision including women, girls and infants. Land grabbing is intensifying in Santa's subdivision. More than 500 Mororo families face displacement due to unlawful claims over ancestral lands. Grazing lands In Jung Santa subdivision, a non indigenous traditional authority has illegally claimed grazing lands eroding pastoral systems. These encroachments are driven in part of by climate change. Boroland Tenu is led to transhumans. Grazing zones and corridors exist as administrative arrangements, not legally protected property rights. The government prioritized sedentary land use over pastoralism disposing Bororo people. The impacts are severe and gendered loss of land directly impact food security. As women depend on cattle for food displacement increasing vulnerability to gender based violence. Reports of sexual violence against borough women often go unreported due to stigma and cultural norms. Extractive projects further increase these harms. In 2024, the government authorized a foreign run bauxite mine in the Minimatan Deposit, a territory traditionally occupied by Mororo pastoralists. This will lead to the loss of grazing land, environmental degradation, the disruption of transhuman corridors and water pollution. This project has proceeded without free prior and informed consent and without adequate compensation to affected communities. This development reflects a systematic pattern of marginalization of indigenous people in Cameroon and Africa. Across we urged the United Nations Permanent Forum to call on the government of Cameroon to 1. Ensure independent investigation and accountability for violence against Bororo people. 2. Legally protect pastoral land and transhuman corridors, halting land grabbing. 3. Accelerate the adoption and implementation of comprehensive gender based violence legislation. 4. Guarantee free prior and informed consent for all development and education projects. Thank you very much.

I thank the representative of the Forum Defam Atakton du Cameroon and I invite the representative of the United Republic of Tanzania to take the floor.

Madam Chair, we commend you for presiding over the proceedings of this meeting and abristeering our deliberations. The United Republic of Tanzania conducts its affairs in accordance with its national constitution and laws. Tanzania is a state founded on the principles of democracy and social justice and the primary objective of the government is to ensure the welfare of all all its people. While the Government of Tanzania reaffirms its commitment to the international instruments to which it is party to, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is position remains clear that there are no distinct indigenous people in Tanzania. Rather, all human beings are born free and equal and every person is entitled to recognition and respect for their dignity. The right to life as well as the protection of life is guaranteed in accordance with the law. The provision of social services, including health services, is promoted and guaranteed by police and laws. Clear provisions on health in the country are provided under the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania of 1977, the National Health Policy of 2007, the Universal Health Insurance act of 2023 and the Universal Health Regulations of 2024 that promotes health for all. In this regard, it is important to highlight the progress made in delivering healthy services across the country. The overarching objective and legal framework for public health is to improve the health status of all citizens, particularly those at greatest risk, by establishing a health care system that responds effectively to the needs of the population and contributes to increased life expectancy to ensure policies and laws are practical and enforceable. The public health legal framework provides for the promotion, preservation and maintenance of public health with the aim of delivering comprehensive, financial, functional and affordable healthy services to the population from the primary to the national level in implementing healthy policies and laws. Tanzania health system is organized in a hierarchical structure comprising dispensaries at village level, health centers and ward level, district hospitals at the district level, regional referral hospitals at regional level, zone hospitals in zones and national hospitals at national level. The number of healthcare facilities have increased.

I thank the representative of the United Republic of Tanzania and before I give the floor to the next indigenous peoples organization. The next three will be Tau Kiyuki lnip and the indigenous network on economies and trade they Papua. You have the floor.

Thank you. Chair the member of permanent forum their delegate My indigenous brother and sister. I am the spoken person of people in West Papua specialist in community in live in the southern island in Morocco. I wanted the address in going situation in happening short path. Right now we speak in my home A massive deforestation that target more than 3 million hectares in indigenous land by Indonesian government and cooperation in the name development project backed by military and operations Papua and Slav get tropical forest in third large of the world longest Amazon Brazil and delta Congo with an area 33.8 million hectares its home in the Guinnessen community Native plants house and food medical gain and home a thousand animal special. However local extracts continue pressure damage eliminated Forests are ecocide and ethnocide. From 2010 until now my village My home being destroyed by build of sugar can and palm oil plantation Our forest center in culture food medicine is gone the companies use the chemical fertilizer with big drone destroyed our swamp river and access to our indigenous food we are facing in problems multi disease and seven death become normal Our body discretic slowly change they report their position in depend on instant food that destroyed our diet we did demonstration rejecting in project but nothing happening the land clearing is still happening the project was expanded government in relation in this year topic discussion in project home to the Indonesian government the president of Human Rights Council in this year via license article 17192129 UNRIP and the Indigenous people from West Papua also support the implementation UNRIP they have maintenance our land before urged the forum United nations urged the president of Indonesia evolution stop South Papua Province national strategy project immediately regulates the United Nations Human Rights Council or Indonesia to visit UN Special reporter the right of indigenous people officiate Papua discuss forest valuation Indigenous people rights request in government to stop security approach involving the development project West Papua is not empty land thank you.

I thank the representative of Dewan Adat Papua and I now give the floor to the representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. Islamic Republic of Iran participated in the 25th session of the Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues addressing the vital theme of ensuring the health of of indigenous peoples, particularly in situations of conflict. It poses a deep awareness of the profound injustices endured by indigenous communities throughout history and into the present day. On this basis, we express our sincere empathy and unwavering solidarity with indigenous peoples worldwide. Throughout history, these nations have never been merely nations in need of protection. Rather, they have always been societies that that hold immense geopolitical and geostrategic value, from critical minerals and biodiversity to traditional knowledge and intergenerational responsibility. Yet this value is precisely what makes them targets. They have been deprived of their right to self determination and their natural and historical assets have been systematically appropriated to continue to be seized. This is not ancient history. It is ongoing. A case in point is the unquenchable craving for oil evident in the discourse of the President of the country in which we are gathered. Regardless of any free prior and informed consent and under the guise of diplomacy or strategic interest, new territories freestyle in Europe will be plundered soon. As a nation that lost As a nation that has lost 168 school children in Minob in a very recent unlawful war crime, we fully understand and stand in solidarity with all victims of cultural genocide from British Columbia to Gaza. The destruction of health care infrastructure and humanitarian facilities through deliberate bombardment and airstrikes represents the same effort to dismantle the traditional medicine and knowledge of indigenous people, albeit executed with technologically advanced precision. While the specific category of indigenous people as defined internationally does not apply to many nations such as Iran, it must be recognized that the atrocities and exploitation committed by arrogant powers have inflicted the same degree of suffering upon these populations as that endured by indigenous communities elsewhere. We stand in solidarity with the indigenous peoples in their pursuit of dignity, justice and health and reaffirm our commitment to supporting collective effort toward a decolonized geosphere, biosphere and most importantly, Noosphere. Thank you.

I thank the representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran and I would now like to give the floor to the distinguished forum member, Valentina Sovkina.

Madam Chair, distinguished members of the forum and all participants of our great assembly here we listened attentively to the statements delivered by the representatives of indigenous peoples and the mechanisms of the United nations system and they clearly show the despite the existing initiatives existence, there continues to be a gap in health care provided to indigenous people. And this is a systemic in nature. The health of indigenous peoples cannot be viewed in an isolated way. This is not just about access to medical services. It is about the state of the land, water, language, culture and the right to self determination. Without recognition of these interlinkages, any measures adopted will remain dead. Letter in this connection, we propose the following first point to initiate a proclamation of an international year of Indigenous Peoples Health the health of indigenous peoples under the auspices of the United nations as a step towards the mobilization of the necessary political will and resources. Second, to provide for a transition to an international decade for the health of indigenous peoples, encompassing all health determinants, ecological ones, social ones, cultural ones, political ones as well. Third, to enhance coordination with the World Health Organization in order to establish a resilient platform where indigenous peoples have full fledged rights as decision makers and lastly, to recognize that the protection of health is only possible provided that there be protection to the right to land and resources. And this needs to be systematically reflected in the work of all organizations, including the UN Human Rights Council. Today's statements reflect the fact that the solutions are clear, there is a need to implement them at scale and to ensure that there be meaningful participation of indigenous peoples themselves. Thank you.

I thank the distinguished forum member. And next I will give the floor to the representative from the African Union.

Madam Chairperson, Excellencies, distinguished representatives of indigenous peoples, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the African Union and its human rights organ, the African Commission on Human and People's Rights and the Working Group on Indigenous Populations and Minorities in Africa. I am delighted to make this statement at the 25th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. We commend the selection of this year's theme Ensuring Indigenous People's Health, including in the Context of Conflict, which speaks to the urgent need to address structural inequalities that continue to affect indigenous communities in some parts of the African continent and beyond. Madam Chair, in Africa, the question of indigenous people has evolved through the jurisprudence and nomadic work of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights which consistently affirms that indigenity must be understood in the context of marginalization, historical exclusion and distinct cultural identity. This approach has been central in clarifying misconceptions and advancing a human rights based framework that is responsive to the realities of indigenous communities in the continent. Madam Chair, allow me to highlight a significant engagement that reflects the growing momentum at the national level. On 10th of March this year I had the opportunity and great honor to meet His Excellency the President of Republic of Botswana, President Duma Mboko in my capacity as the chairperson of this working group. During this meeting I had the honor to present a letter to His Excellency from participants of our own Stakeholders Forum that we held to look at the mapping African map of Indigenous people. I was very pleased to share with His Excellency the excitement of the delegates who commended him for giving one of the Khoisan leaders a decent burial which came soon after he assume the office of the Presidency after a long protracted legal process. Your Excellency, the theme of the session directly speaks. It places emphasis on health, including the context of conflict. For us at the Commission and on behalf of the African Union, we have taken the issue of the health of indigenous people seriously. In this regard we are working on application and apply which can reach indigenous people in their localities. Learning from the COVID

I thank the representative of the African Union and before I give the floor to the next indigenous peoples organization. The next three will be LeanIP, the indigenous network on Economies and Trade and Red de Jovenes Indigenas de America Latina y El Carribe. The representative of Tau Kiyuki has the floor.

I want to thank both chairs, the current chair and Mr. Luki for the care response this morning on the issue of space and I acknowledge what has been the playing out of most indigenous peoples realities across the determinants of health, whether it be the doctor's office, the board table or the conference room when spaces are not designed together and when they fail to accommodate appropriately, these mechanisms don't just serve to fail us and the intended purpose, but they actively shape the inequities that we are here to address today. Alas, in Aotearoa the pattern is consistent and undeniable. Preventable illnesses, premature death and unmet health needs continue to fall disproportionately among indigenous people. Peoples from cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental health, suicide, alcohol and drug harm, maternal health. This is not confined to a single issue. We experience simultaneous impacts of obesity and starvation which reflects the food systems that flood our community with cheap nutrient poor options while placing real barriers to access to affordable, healthy kai and disenfranchising systems of indigenous food acquisition across the nation. What we're seeing here is not a coincidence. It is the consequence of conflict with the land, conflict with the people and conflict of priorities and the systems imposed upon us. The United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affirms the rights that indigenous peoples have to determine what health and well being looks like for each indigenous peoples, including how services are designed, delivered and accessed. This includes the right to free, prior and informed consent not just in relation to land and resources, but in the systems that shape our daily lives. This we call Tino Rangatiratanga. In Aotearoa, these rights sit alongside Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Actually, they're explicitly guaranteed by Te Tiriti. However, we're currently experiencing a shift that weakens how those obligations are applied in practice. A review of legislation is now moving to reduce Te Tiriti Waitangi obligations to the the lowest possible standard. This moves the Crown away from active responsibility and towards minimal consideration. It lowers the expectation of partnership at precisely the time when stronger obligations are required. The Y2575 Health Services and Outcomes Kaupapa inquiry has already found the health system has not met its obligations to mori. The findings remain relevant, urgent and actionable. Today we seek recommitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi by the New Zealand Government to be upheld in both its text and within the spirit within which it was entered into one of partnership. Finally, we call on Member States to embed indigenous determinants of health into all global and national frameworks, ensuring policy reflects the relationship between land, environment and people. And we urge for recommitment to the Global Action Plan for Health from the who. Thank you.

I thank the representative of Ta' U Kiyuki and I now give the floor to the representative of Peru.

Thank you, Chair. Peru is grateful for the convening of this session, we highlight the relevance of the Permanent Forum as a space for intercultural dialogue and the promotion of the collective rights of indigenous and native peoples. In this context, Peru is pleased to convey that through our Supreme Decree Published on 9th April 2026, we have approved the National Policy of Indigenous and native peoples through 2040. This is the first comprehensive public policy that is multi sectoral and long term aimed at guaranteeing the effective fulfillment of the collective rights of our indigenous brothers and sisters. This policy coordinates action across 19 ministries and 42 public entities through 141 services with an intercultural approach and the beneficiaries are the 6 million indigenous nationals in the country. This policy stems from recognition of the structural gaps that exist in the area of health. Indeed, 18.4% of indigenous children under the age of five are undernourished or malnourished and 49.3% suffer from anemia. In addition, maternal mortality amongst the women of the Awajuna people has reached 8.6% and one of the main causes of this is bleeding that occurs in the home or on the way to the health center. Also, Our policy through 2040 covers nine health services that are culturally relevant and of these we highlight comprehensive health care in zones with high risk of exposure, exposure to heavy metals, the incorporation also of sages with expertise in ancestral medicine, together with representative indigenous organization in the provision of services, and also mental health services that are also culturally relevant for women and family members of indigenous populations that have been victims of violence. Under the National Framework in Peru, we recognize indigenous and native peoples as rights holders under Article 55 of our Political Constitution and 169 of the ILO Convention. We these require that services be provided at the community level and we consider prevention methods and methods of healing that are compatible with traditional medicine of each people. We are committed to this effort.

I thank you, I thank the representative of Peru and before I give the floor to the next Indigenous Peoples Organization and as the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade has already taken the floor on this matter, The following three will be the National Indian Health Board, the Red de Jovenes Indigenas de America Latina y Al Caribe and the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. Sorry, just one moment. Let's. Pardon me. Let's go ahead with lenip and we'll come back to the list. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Madam Chair.

The health of indigenous peoples in the context conflict should be addressed as a human right is comprehensive and collective as set out in under Article 24 and reaffirmed in the draft Global Plan of Action of the WHO. Indigenous peoples live in contexts where conflicts are driven by control. The desire for control of the land and their ecosystems sustained by militarization. This is not just about access to services. This is about structural conditions that deny the right to health by destroying territory and contaminating and polluting water. The Draft Global Plan of Action makes progress in terms of comprehensive indigenous healthcare. It does not explicitly address the structural reasons that do not allow access to health care. The impacts of this are expressed in diseases, malnutrition and chronic disease. In addition, there is the displacement of food systems and the impossibility of guaranteeing food sovereignty as caused by agribusiness. And this is why we want to promote indigenous health systems and protection of sacred spaces and to promote intercultural approaches that integrate this notion of collective health. Because we should recognize that health also includes the health of the land. One example is the Indigenous Youth Health Plan for Latin America and the Caribbean. This has been built together with the Network for Indigenous Youth and paho and we've been working together to implement this as the outcome of one collective dialogue project. We would put forward the following recommendations. You should broaden technical and financial support in the implementation of plans that already exist, such as the Indigenous Youth Plan, and use it as a benchmark for building others in other regions. We should strengthen those entities in terms of qualitative and quantitative data in relation to disaggregated data, data about indigenous children in terms of their situation as regards health. We should also broaden raising awareness and spreading traditional knowledge in accordance with their agriculture as a way of countering policies that affect this and our food sovereignty. And finally, strengthening monitoring system for the rights of indigenous peoples. I thank you.

I thank the representative of lnip and I now give the floor to the representative of Fiji.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Fiji is pleased to join this important forum and in particular this discussion on ensuring the health and well being of indigenous peoples, including in situation of conflict. The population of Fiji, with approximately 1 million people, is comprised of a diverse mix of ethnic groups, languages and religions. Indigenous Fijian Sohoito Kei accounts for approximately 56% of the total population. With this in mind, we have the following comments. First, for Fiji, the protection of indigenous peoples is a commitment. Indigenous communities are the custodians of culture, land and traditional knowledge systems that sustain our societies over generations. Their health and resilience are inseparable from the health of our nation. In line with unrips, the right to health is universal and indivisible. Even in the context of conflict, indigenous communities must have unimpeded access to health care and life saving services. This includes mental health support, protection from gender based violence and and continuity of essential medicines and primary health care. We also highlight the importance of safeguarding traditional healing practices and knowledge which are integral to indigenous identity and well being. In this regard, we stress the importance of commitment to ensure that we finalize the WIPO Treaty on traditional knowledge and cultural expressions. Second, we stress that indigenous peoples must be active participants in decisions affecting their health and security. Their leadership, cultural perspectives and community based approaches are essential to designing effective and sustainable responses. Respect for the principles of free, prior and informed consent remain central in our health responses. Third, Fiji recognizes that climate change increasingly intersects with conflict dynamics, placing indigenous communities at heightened risk. We therefore call for strengthened international cooperation to ensure that humanitarian and climate adaptation efforts are inclusive of indigenous peoples. For this reason, Fiji will be hosting the Pacific pre COP meeting in Fiji from 5 to 8 October this year in collaboration with Australia, ahead of the COP meeting in Turkey in November. Chair as a small island developing state in the Pacific with proud indigenous population, we acknowledge that we have our own challenges and limitations. However, we reaffirm our continued commitment to advancing the rights, dignity and health of indigenous peoples, including our acceptance for the WHO Global Plan of Action for the Health of Indigenous Peoples. In closing, Fiji reiterates that ensuring health of indigenous peoples in times of peace and in times of conflict is critical for all. Thank you.

I thank the representative of Fiji and before I give the floor I'm going to list the next three speakers Red de Jovenes Indigenas de America Latina y a Caribe International Workgroup for Indigenous affairs and the World Union of Indigenous Spiritual Practitioners. I now give the floor to the representative of the National Indian Health Board,

Distinguished Chair Indigenous Elders, Sisters and Brothers Indigenous people are not a health disparity to be managed. We are rights holders demanding systems at work. My name is A.C. locklear, a citizen of the Lumbee tribe. I speak today on behalf of the National Indian Health Board, a member of the Indigenous Determinants of Health Alliance. The study put before this forum this morning makes something clear. Indigenous health is a system integrator. It reveals where institutions succeed and where they fail to uphold indigenous rights. For indigenous people, health is not limited to clinical outcomes. It is shaped by interconnected determinants land, access to culture, food sovereignty, biodiversity, indigenous knowledge and self determination. Yet global and national approaches remain fragmented. Policies addressing health, infrastructure and biodiversity often operate in silos, placing the burden on indigenous people people to navigate systems that were not designed to serve them. This fragmentation is especially harmful in context of conflicts, crisis, environmental change, where indigenous communities face compounding risk, while also serving as frontline stewards and experts. It is especially harmful for indigenous women and mothers whom the system is failing. An indigenous mother in the United States is two to three times more likely to die at childbirth than any non indigenous neighbor. Not because of biology, but because of policy. Yet the midwives and community based care systems that have sustained indigenous people for generations remain excluded, undervalued and underfunded. When we exclude these systems, they're not modernizing care. We're dismantling systems at work. We must move from recognition to action. First, recognize indigenous people as right holders, not state holders, and ensure full and effective participation in decision making at all levels. Health systems that ignore self determination will continue to produce inequality. Second, invest sustainably in indigenous led solutions, not as pilot projects, not as side programs, but as core health infrastructure. Third, implement the Indigenous Determinants of Health framework across sectors, not just in health ministries, but in climate, food systems, biodiversity and governance. We have heard today from institutions with power to change this. The framework exists, the evidence exists. What is needed now is will. We're not asking for inclusion in broken systems. We are calling for systems that reflect how health actually works. Thank you.

I thank the representative of the National Indian Health Board. And I now give the floor to the representative of Columbia. Muchas gracias.

Thank you very much. Madam Chair, Ladies and gentlemen, members of this body, Ladies and gentlemen, representatives of Indigenous Peoples for Colombia. The guarantee of the right to health for indigenous peoples is only possible when we recognize that this is an integral, holistic process, intercultural, cross cultural process based on territory, spirituality, community ties and ownership of civilization systems. Our country has made headway towards building health governance by indigenous peoples. In so far as this is an intercultural health systems framework. Colombia has recognized that health is not limited to health care. This includes a health process over the lifetime with the physical, spiritual, community based territorial dimensions. In accordance with the cosmo vision of indigenous peoples. This system recognizes the right of indigenous peoples to shape their own priorities in terms of health. This is an approach which is in accordance with the recommendations of the Permanent form which has stressed that self determination and meaningful participation are fundamental determinants of health for indigenous peoples. Thanks to the direct participation of indigenous peoples at all stages of shaping, implementing, following up on various public policies related to health. Today, Colombia has a state policy for health which corresponds to the real needs, the priorities and the cosmo vision of indigenous peoples, including in isolated, remote, hard to reach areas or those that have been historically affected by armed conflict. And this is important for two reasons. Number one, because health care models, intercultural healthcare models have allowed Colombia to reduce obstacles to healthcare access. And this has also helped to reinforce intercultural teams to establish healthcare monitoring systems within communities as well as to to work alongside key actors such as female as midwives and personnel on the ground. Second, because the spiritual dimension of health has been vital in addressing psychosocial components and rebuilding the social fabric and in terms of delivering holistic care for indigenous peoples. In this regard, Colombia reaffirms the fact that peace is a critical determinant in determining the health of indigenous peoples. The wisdom of the people reflects this. When one takes care of the land, the land takes care of one of ourselves. Protecting There's a need to protect life in various territories.

Thank you, the representative of Colombia and I now give the floor to the representative of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Excellencia Representant,

Excellencies, representatives, allow me to salute you and my mother. I am honored to speak in my capacity as a member of the Exposure Mechanism and the rights of Indigenous Peoples. EMRIT welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the WHO's global plan on the health of Indigenous peoples. Nevertheless, we must highlight a fundamental concern. The current draft is not in line with the global norms and human rights. An approach that is based exclusively on equity can lead to negative impact. So we are not an interest group nor a vulnerable group. Indigenous peoples are rights holders. As made explicit in undrip. It recognizes the right to self determination enshrined in Article 3 as a guiding principle. The obligations in the area of human rights should guide implementation. We need to highlight two essential areas to ensure coherence and efficacy. Firstly, the indigenous determination of health should be part of the central focus of the plan. Indigeneity is inseparable from land governance, language and ancestral systems of knowledge. An approach that is limited or a biomedical approach or on the basis of for health services is incomplete. Right to free and informed consent should be also the basis of this intersectoral approach. There needs to be high level consultation on indigenous people based on the leadership of the who, with real decision, with the influence on the decision and on the shaping of the plan. This is important line with Resolution 71 of the GA that requires meaningful participation for indigenous peoples within the United nations system. Free prior and informed consent should also apply continuously to all phases of the plan. It is not just a punctual consultation exercise There should be monitoring accountability mechanisms led by indigenous peoples as as well well as data governance based on the sovereignty of indigenous peoples over their information. EMRIP will continue to contribute to the development of the global plan.

I thank you. I thank the representative of emrip. And before I give the floor to the next speaker. The following three will be the International Workgroup for Indigenous affairs, the World Union of Indigenous Spiritual Practitioners and Saniri Alifuru. I now give the floor to Red de Jovenes Indigenas de America Latina I El Caribe. I will go to the next speaker. That is the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs.

As a member of the Yukami Network, I wish to welcome you on behalf of the indigenous peoples of Bolivia who are fighting to defend the territory, the places where we live and to guarantee self determination. Indigenous women have been defending lifely of preserving our wells of knowledge, our languages, our institutions, our governance systems. And we represent the memory of life of what we received from ancestors. Defense of territory and defense of land. And this is of critical importance. Land breeds life. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognizes our right to land, to territory and to the resources which traditionally have been used by indigenous peoples. In Bolivia. These rights are being flouted. And this is a consequence of mining policies, gold mining policies. Mercury is being used which is generating significant environmental damage. The pollution of rivers, of ecosystems. And this is deteriorating our land, making our community, the members of our community, our families, sick and ill. Various lakes have been contaminated. These are sacred lakes for the Zaandan people. And a large number of communities have been plunged into grief. We have been demonstrating our resilience. And our culture is being undermined. The cosmo vision of our people. For our community, health care is something which is holistic in nature and within it comes to our relationship to the land, the land which provides us with food, with a place to live. But when the land is ill, we too are ill. Not just physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. Our sight, sacred sites are being destroyed. The Mamacocha river. The ancestral sites have been poisoned by mercury. And this is why when we talk about well being, for us it is about respecting nature, respecting our land, protecting our collective rights as indigenous women. We shall resist. And we are attempting to defend life. Our soil and we are defending life. We are support. We are. We are demanding that the state comply with the commitments adopted under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 370 that is the law 370 in Bolivia which compels the state to comply with its responsibility to provide the dignified life in health and freedom. Thank you for that statement and I

now give the floor to the representative of Kenya,

Distinguished Chair, esteem delegates and representatives of Indigenous peoples. I am honored to address the forum on behalf of Kenyan delegation under the name the DIM Indigenous Peoples held including in the context of conflict. Kenya reaffirms that the right to hold is fundamental human right firmly angered in the in our Constitution. The constitution guarantees every person the highest attainable standard of health and places specific obligation on the state to ensure access to health care for marginalized and indigenous communities in Kenya. Indigenous peoples, particularly pastoralists and under gatherer communities, often live in arid and semi arid lands where access to health services remains challenged. These challenges are further compounded by climate change, environmental stress and resource based conflicts which disrupt livelihoods and strain already limited health care systems. Kenya position is clear Health systems must be inclusive, equitable and resilient, especially for indigenous populations living in fragile and conflict affected context. In this regard, I am pleased to highlight the recent launch of the Kenyan National Policy on Ethnic, Indigenous and Marginalized Communities 2025. This policy provides a comprehensive framework for addressing historical inequalities and advancing the rights and well being of the communities. Importantly, it it prioritizes equitable access to essential services including health care, strengthens mechanisms for inclusion, participation and targeted investment in under deserved areas. Through this policy, Kenya is enhancing coordination across all sectors to ensure that health interventions are culturally appropriate, community driven and responsive to the unique needs of of indigenous people. Additionally, Kenya continues to advance key measures first, through revolutional care services through communities. Second, the government is accelerating universal health coverage, ensuring that financial barriers do not prevent indigenous peoples from accessing health services. Third, the Kenya is strengthening community health system including mobile outreaches. Fourth, in areas affected by conflict, Kenya is reinforcing humanitarian development peace linkages to ensure that continuity of care build resources resilience, protect vulnerable population. Distinguished Delegates, the realization of Indigenous peoples rights held especially in context of conflict, sustained commitment, inclusive policies and meaningful participation. Indigenous Community and decision making Kenya remains committed to implementing the 2025 Policy and Working collaboratively with global partners and Indigenous leaders to ensure that no one is left behind in inclusion. In conclusion, Kenya advanced.

I thank the representative of Kenya and I Now before I give the floor, the following three will be Saniri Alifuru, the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action Aboriginal Corporation and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the World Union of Indigenous Spiritual Practitioners. You now have the floor.

On behalf of the Council of Elders, I wish to welcome participation in 25th session. Wish you productive deliberations over the years at the United Nations Organization, dozens of decisions, programs and strategies have been adopted. Yet they have not delivered the expected results. They have been palliative in nature and have not resolved the issues we face. Yet every community has its share of pressing challenges. Health, climate, conflict and access to opportunity. But all of these are merely the inevitable consequence of a deeper cause. Humanity's loss of its original harmonious relationship with the natural world and the abandonment of its fundamental values, meanings and priorities. This inner crisis has caused conflict within and between communities. Wars, rivalry, confrontation. But the most destructive war that has not ceased for a single day is the war humanity has been waging against Mother Earth. This is the war that is destroying the physical and spiritual health for peoples. When the Earth is sick, the people are sick. We perfectly understand the fact that our physical immunity cannot be above that of the environment. We are at the brink of civilizational collapse. In this situation, the Council of Elders considered the following urgent measures as being essential. First, the convening of a global civilizational summit to identify the root causes of the systemic crisis and to chart a way out. The summit must produce a draft Carter A charter of the new era enshrining the rights of Mother Earth and establishing monetary funds for future generations in every country. Second, formal legal recognition of indigenous communities as custodial ambassadors of Mother Earth. Third, the creation of a permanent Council of Guardians of Mother Earth under UN auspices, composed of representatives of indigenous communities, UN expert mechanisms and the scientific community. The only progress. Progress is only possible with these decisive steps. We call upon the Permanent Forum to recommend ECHOSOC and the General assembly to consider a proposal. And we stand ready to provide a detailed substantiation of our proposals. The elders are observing. The future is watching. The war against Mother Earth must and peace in Earth must reign. And it must reign now. Thank you for your attention.

I thank the World Union of Indigenous Spiritual Practitioners. And I give the floor to the representative of Nepal.

Thank you, ma'.

Am.

Chair Distinguished Member and excellencies. It is a distinct honor to represent nepal that this 25th session we welcome the convening of this important session under the timely and compliant them Ensuring Indigenous people in the context of conflict Nepal is home to the vibrant mosaic of 142 caste ethnicity including the 60 indigenous peoples are recognized under the national foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationality Act 2002. Our Constitution has provided a commission on indigenous people as a constitutional body mandate to work the dignity and inclusion of the indigenous peoples guided by domestic laws and international frameworks such as ILO Convention 169 and UNDRIP Nepal remains committed to advancing the policies that safeguarding their identity and traditional meaningful participation in governance and equal opportunity for shared prosperity. Center to our approach is the integrated of Indigenous people's traditional knowledge with modern health system. Traditional healing practice, herbal medicine and community based wisdom are not realized to the past. They are vital component of sustainable and culturally appropriate health systems. We believe that Indigenous people's rights to health is not limited to hospital and medicine. It is fundamental to their relationship with the land, water and forest. The Gandagi and Bagmati provincial government have recognized the Magar, Gurung, Tamang and Newari language are official language. Madam Chair, the Government of Nepal has provided Social Security allowances on the monthly basis for the sweet education, health and livelihood of 10 endangered indigenous communities including Route Bunkaria, Kusunda among other Our goals is ensure that the community is left behind due to the geography or historical marginalization Nepal reform to unwavering commitment to the standing dialogue, partnership and cooperation with all partners Partners to achieve the Agenda 2030 and ensuring the health, well being and dignity of Indigenous peoples that

I thank the representative of Nepal. The next speakers will be Seniri Aulifuru, the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research, Action Aboriginal Corporation and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. I'm going to go back to IF Ghia, the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. Are you in the. No. Okay, okay. Saniri Alifuru, please.

Nagadagante I'm Denny from the Arctic Canada

and I have the honour to speak

on behalf of the Alifu Council from

Maluku and a coalition of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

We do this deliberately, not only because

Indigenous Peoples in Maluku are themselves incarcerated for political reasons, but because what is happening to Indigenous Peoples in Canadian federal prisons will not be solved by Canadian Indigenous Peoples alone asking Canada to do better. In Canada, indigenous peoples represent 5% of the population but 33% of those in federal custody and 50% of incarcerated women. For decades Canada has promised to reduce this over representation. Yet it has steadily increased by almost 1% per year since 1997. This mass incarceration of Indigenous peoples threatens

Indigenous Peoples health and contributes to the genocide of Indigenous people peoples in Canada.

Indigenous people spend more of their sentences in custody, are overexposed to solitary confinement and maximum security and are overrepresented in self harm and deaths by suicide in prison. Joey Toussaint from Black Lake Denis First

Nation has been held for more than

3,000 days and counting in intermittent solitary

confinement in breach of the Nelson Mandela Rules.

Federal legislation for Indigenous persons to serve their sentences in communities is underused and underfunded with less than 1% of the corrections budget allocated to Indigenous operated healing

lodges which are further restricted by Canada's policies.

The solution is to recognize Indigenous Peoples self determination and direct funding and authority to Indigenous governments and organizations. As per the UN declaration, we urge Canada to take action in five first, recognize Indigenous people's self determination by shifting authority and 33% of the $3 billion corrections budget 1 billion annually directly to Indigenous governments and organizations to decarcerate second, implement the special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous People's recommendation to quote resort wherever possible to alternatives to detention enabling Indigenous persons to serve sentences in their communities encourage, appropriately, fund and raise awareness about the use of alternatives to incarceration as provided by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples ACT and sections 81 and 84 of the Corrections and Conditional Release act and guarantee that Indigenous operated healing lodges established under Section 81 are independent in providing correctional services. Third, implement their own fourth UPR recommendations, including addressing the structural racism and the overrepresented representation of Indigenous persons in prisons. Fourth, provide funding to implement the six priority actions for corrections reform in their own Indigenous justice strategy and finally carry out this foreman's call to remove existing barriers and ensure culturally appropriate access to justice and prevent the over criminalization of Indigenous peoples. I thank the representative of Sannieri Alifuru and I now give the floor floor to the representative of Ukraine.

Thank you Madam Chair.

Distinguished participants of the Forum, Ukraine welcomes

this forum's focus on ensuring indigenous people's health in the context of conflict.

For Ukraine, this theme is not Abstract

Russia's temporary occupation of Ukrainian Crimea has turned the peninsula into a testing ground for some of the most egregious human rights violations, with indigenous peoples among the primary targets.

Over the past 12 years of Russia's

occupation, Crimean Tatars have faced a deliberate policy of marginalization and systematic disproportionate persecution. Out of at least 284 victims of politically motivated persecution, 159 are Crimean Tatars.

Systematic rights violations, lack of basic living

conditions and constant pressure have become the daily reality for Crimean political prisoners in Russian custody. Electric shocks, forced psychiatric examinations and other

forms of ill treatment are being routinely administered. Individuals who have to be released, at least on health grounds continue to be held in detention.

Among them are Mr. Tofik Abdul Hazeev, suffering from disseminated tuberculosis and a brain tumor, and Mr. Lenor Khalilov, an oncology

patient, along with many other seriously ill political detainees. They should be immediately released. Such policies have had severe consequences for both the physical and mental health of indigenous communities. The Russian occupation has also been accompanied by deterioration in access to health care and social support, particularly for those facing discrimination or refusing to accept Russian citizenship. Meanwhile, policies that undermine education in native

languages and suppress cultural expression pose a direct threat to intergenerational continuity of the Crimean Tatar people. The situation in Crimea clearly demonstrates that the actions of the Russian Federation have profound and lasting public health consequences for indigenous peoples. Ukraine calls for sustained international monitoring of

these cross crimes and for ensuring accountability of the Russian Federation as the occupying power.

We remain committed to working with the relevant UN mechanisms and other partners.

To this end, I thank you, I

thank the representative of Ukraine and before moving to the next speaker, I'll read the next three that will go the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Cordinadora Nacional de Mujer Indigena Konami and Cultural Survival. I now give the floor to the foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action Aboriginal Corporation.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to begin this brief statement by giving congratulations to the Chairperson and the office bearers and members of the Permanent Forum for their appointments and the work that they're doing. I seek to make three brief statements and recommendations. Firstly, we won't elaborate on the issue of well being and health in relation to land matters, as much has been said on that. But we want to recommend that the Permanent Forum look to see if the report can be given a UN identification number. The report to which I refer is the report of 2016 by the permanent forum through DISA on state of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Rights to Lands, Territories and Resources. It's an excellent report, very full of information, but it costs $20 through the National Library. If it's turned into an official document and I think endorsed by Permanent Forum, it perhaps can get a UN number and be available for us to access without having to go through a purchase process. That's a clear recommendation and I'll provide the details to the rapid tour of that report. The second point we want to raise is to remind of the opening speeches that were made yesterday by UN officials and authorities. They were excellent speeches. I'm telling people that the best speeches that I've heard here since the Permanent Forum was created and the Secretary General Coffee. Made his speech and saying welcome to the UN Family to Indigenous peoples in that speech. And it's on that concept that in the speeches of yesterday we heard over and over again the support that is given by the United nations to indigenous peoples, the concern about decolonization, a word was mentioned many, many times and also the reference to enhanced participation by indigenous peoples in the un. And that reminds us of the fact that we still have not achieved the enhanced the participation that was set out in the ALTA outcome document presented at the World Conference of indigenous peoples in 2014. And it's important

I thank the representative of the foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action Aboriginal Corporation. And now I give the floor to the representative of El Salvador. Gracias, senora.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Excellencies, distinguished delegations, El Salvador joins this debate with the conviction that guaranteeing the health of indigenous people peoples requires comprehensive protection of their dignity, identity and ancestral wisdom. For our state, the right to health is not limited to access to services. It covers food security, preservation of language and absolute respect to the Cosmo vision of indigenous peoples. Under this vision, we have strengthened our legal framework through reform of Article 63 of our Constitution. Recognizing indigenous peoples in our constitution, together with the culture law and policy on indigenous peoples, basing this on the population census of 1924, which points out the 1.2% of our population survives identifies as indigenous. Raising their visibility in the statistics is the basis for designing public policies that are focused on individuals and on land. We are driving an intercultural approach to health through the law on Birth. We are ensuring respect for ancestral practices, integrating traditional midwives as crucial players in community health. We also have the SV platform that has 1.1 million users now. More than that has made it possible to break geographically fall barriers facilitating remote care and monitoring of chronic diseases even in the most remote communities. And we continue to carry out comprehensive and geriatric health days in emblematic territories such as Nau Zalco, ensuring delivery of support with a gender approach. Madam Chair, we recognize that health is inseparable from land. This is why our food security policies do not only distribute inputs, but they actually protect biodiversity and native seeds. These are key tools for resilience against the climate crisis. Also, through our Growing Together Law, we protect the emotional and cultural health of our children, also through linguistic immersions in the Nahuatl language. Even in context of displacement, El Salvador maintains that response must be timely and culturally relevant. This is why we reiterate our commitment to continue promoting inclusive and territorialized public policies to ensure that development and health reach every corner of our indigenous and native communities.

I thank you, I thank the representative from El Salvador. And before I give the floor, I'll read the next three. Coordinadora Nacional de Mujer Indigena Konami Cultural Survival and the Association Nationale des Echanges. So I now get give the floor to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Today I speak for my people, the Lakota and Dakota people of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, my ancestors and the future generations not yet born. Today I speak for my grandmothers, Francine Brewer Nelson and Lillian Halsey Archambeau. My teachers, Lala, Tom Redbird, Gabe Blackmoon and Jade Taken Alive and my grandfathers, Willard Nelson and Leo Archambeau. Today I speak as a UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples grantee and Project Access trainee. Today we are strongly recommending the forum to include in your report to call upon Member States, UNESCO and the entire UN system, including the World Health Organization, to urge States to fully implement the articles of UNDRIP related to language, culture, land and health as an integrated framework for Indigenous well being. This includes investing in Indigenous language revitalization as a public health priority and domestic policy supporting land based and language based education systems recognizing Indigenous Knowledge systems based in Indigenous language as essential to environmental protection and conflict prevention ensuring that Indigenous communities lead these efforts in accordance with their right to self determination under Article 3 of UNDRIP. For my Lakota Nation, health is not only measured in hospitals or by statistics. It is measured by our relationships to land, water, each other and the knowledge systems passed down through generations. These systems are carried and activated through our language. Our words name the hills, the waters and the medicines. Our stories give instruction for their care. When we lose language, we lose precision in understanding our responsibilities to the land and our ability to defend it. This is not abstract. It is directly tied to the conflicts we face today over land, water, traditional food and medicine harvesting, protection of sacred sites and resource extraction. Our knowledge was not simply lost. It was forcibly taken through past policies of assimilation, boarding schools and the criminalization of our ways of life. Our languages were targeted because they tied us to the land. This disruption has had lasting consequences. Today, many Lakota people know the importance of land and language, but because of colonization, only 1% speak our language fluently. UNDRIP affirms our rights to revitalize, use and transmit our languages and to control our education systems. It also affirms our rights to traditional medicines and health practices, our right to spiritual relationship with our lands, waters and resources, and our right to protect them. For my people, for Standing Rock, for Indigenous nations around the world, our health depends on the interconnected restoration of our languages, our lands and our knowledge. We are all related. Mini Wichoni Water is life. Thank you.

I thank the representative from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and I now give the floor to the representative of Cambodia.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Cambodia aligns itself with the collective commitment

to ensuring the health and well being of indigenous people, particularly in the situation of vulnerability, including conflict. We strongly believe that the indigenous people's health is indispensable from that dignity and livelihood and access to basic services and

could only be enhanced through multifaceted dimensions.

Bearing this in mind, Cambodia has placed strong emphasis on protecting the rights and livelihoods of Indigenous communities across 15 provinces

of all 25 capital provinces of Cambodia.

Cambodia is committed to implementing the national policy on indigenous peoples development, recognizing indigenous identities, promoting cultural preservation and strengthening community capacity. Cambodia also celebrates the International Day of the World's Indigenous People annually to honor

our diverse indigenous communities. Madam Chair, I wish to highlight key

areas of priorities through which the Royal Government of Cambodia has endeavored to promote indigenous people health, dignity and resilience.

First, we are expanding access to clean water and promoting proper personal hygiene practices

in indigenous people communities. Second, we are investing in resilient physical infrastructure and transportation systems that can withstand

climate change and ensure year round accessibility. This is enhancing connectivity between areas where

the indigenous people reside and other localities while simulating their economic activities and livelihoods.

Cambodia has been promoting the economic diversification

for the areas where the indigenous people are living to ensure their sustainable incomes by fostering entrepreneurship, enhancing skills and expanding opportunities in both agricultural and non agricultural sectors. Madam Chair, Cambodia reaffirms the wavering commitment to advancing inclusive development that respects the rights, culture and dignity of indigenous people. I thank you.

I thank the representative of Cambodia and I. Before I give the floor. Next I'm going to list the following three speakers. Cultural Survival, the Louisa Institute and the Assemblies des Premieres nations du Quebec et du Labrador. I now give the floor to the Coordinadora national des Mujer Indigena Konami.

Senora President, Madam Chair, Distinguished experts of the Permanent Forum, representatives of states, international organisations and indigenous organizations from the Continental Link of Indigenous Women of the Americas ECMIA with more than three decades of experience, what we do is we make visible the priorities and proposals of indigenous women, young people and girls against the multiple forms of violence that affect our physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health. And we do so while recognizing the disproportionate impacts of intergenerational trauma that is caused by colonialism, racism, the patriarchy and structural discrimination. And this is why we recommend to states and international organizations that they implement the following measures in order to guarantee in each of them the full and effective participation of indigenous women in the design, implementation and evaluation of these to ensure free prior and informed consent and the right to self determination. First, we recommend that you adopt intercultural public policies on health with a comprehensive approach to violence in accordance with UNDRIP and the Beijing Platform for Action, the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development, so in line with General Recommendation 39 of CEDAW and the Convention of Belem de Para and to guarantee allocation of specific and sustainable budgets together with transparency and accountability mechanism. Secondly, we call for recognition, respect and promotion of the health systems of indigenous peoples without taking ownership, regulating or appropriating these. Third, strengthening mechanisms. So ensuring developing remediation, sanitation, reparations for sanction, policies aimed at companies and extractive industries for damage caused to the health of indigenous peoples. Also to guarantee mechanisms to protect the life, health and safety of defenders of the territory, natural resources and ancestral knowledge. You should adopt intercultural public policies that guarantee decent working conditions and Social Security for indigenous women who work in the fields, in agriculture, day labour and also in the home and also in informal economies, including regulating the use of chemicals, pesticides and ensuring protection from labour exploitation. And then you should adopt intercultural public policies for the emanation of obstetric violence and put an end to the criminalization of indigenous midwifery and practices, the forced sterilization or contraception without consent.

Thank you, representative of Konami. And I now call upon on the representative of Brazil. You have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Ensuring the health of indigenous peoples calls for an approach that recognizes its collective, territorial and intercultural dimensions. The right to health encompasses indigenous peoples traditional medicines and healing practices, the preservation of their ancestral knowledge and the maintenance of their spiritual and material relationship with their territories. Public health policies must therefore be culturally appropriate and developed with informed participation of indigenous peoples. Taking that into account, since 2010, Brazil has had a Secretariat for Indigenous Health which implements the national policy on health care for indigenous people.

Peoples.

Globally, indigenous peoples face higher rates of illness and disease, food insecurity and mental health conditions. A legacy of inequality and exclusion has also made them disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and natural hazards, an expression of what we recognize as environmental racism. This situation must change through the General assembly resolution on global health and Foreign policy, which is currently under negotiation among Member states in New York. We invite all countries to take action on the fight against diseases driven by social determinants of health which disproportionately affect indigenous peoples. Madam Chair, above all, it is essential to recognize and protect the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands and territories. The Brazilian government has prioritized territorial protection through land demarcation and sustained efforts to remove illegal occupants from Indigenous territories. Since 2023, 13 Indigenous lands have been officially titled. In addition to the recognition of more than 20 other indigenous territories in Brazil, these intrusion operations have also been carried out in 10 indigenous lands covering 23.6 million hectares. Finally, Brazil expresses its concern about the effects of conflicts on the rights of indigenous peoples context, which often leads to forced displacement, destruction of community infrastructure, disruption of essential services and increased violence, especially against indigenous women, children and older persons. While reaffirming Brazil's long standing commitment to justice and the rule of law, we recognize that a more peaceful world is also a healthier world. One that respects indigenous knowledge, cultures and traditional practices as essential pillars for a more sustainable, equitable and just future. Thank you very much.

I thank the representative of Brazil and before I give the floor to the next speaker, I will read out the following three speakers. The Louicha Institute, Assemble de Premier nations de Quebec et du Labrador and the Allianza Continental de Pateras Tradicionales e Indigenas de las Americas. I now give the floor to Cultural Survival.

Distinguished Chair representatives of States, Brothers and sisters,

Guatemala.

Greetings from Guatemala on behalf of the CPO of my own counsel. Like other peoples of the world, Guatemala is still suffering the consequences of colonization and the impact of the current capitalist system which has resulted in genocide, destruction, dispossession and the subjugation of our people in the 21st century. In my country, 49% of children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition. This puts us sixth globally. Speaking about this in Guatemala means talking about a structural crisis that is sustained by racism and systematic violation of human rights. The health of peoples is affected when our lands are invaded by extractive projects that pollute them and destroy them. When our ancestral authorities are criminalized and when defending Mother Earth is punished as a crime. The imposition of extractive projects without consultation or free prior and informed consent has led to conflict in our lands. This is not just a violation of our rights. It also impacts our physical, mental and spiritual health. Fear, violence, the breakdown of the community fabric and the destruction of our common natural heritage are also illnesses. In light of this reality, the Council of the Mayan People, the cpo, demands that the state of Guatemala immediately stop the criminalization of defenders who are fighting for the dignity and rights of native and indigenous peoples. There should be no more persecution against who have raised up their voices and defended their lands resisting hydroelectric projects in the Northern Guatenango area. We demand freedom for Luis Pacheco and Hector Guaclan, who have been accused of terrorism for defending democracy in the country and they have spent one year in prison. We demand respect and recognition of our own health systems within the framework of our right to self determination and recognition of a plurinational state for the well being of peoples. We demand that the international community take action to guarantee full enjoyment of human rights, including equitable and timely and culturally appropriate access. Says for the mental and physical health and for the profound inequalities that affect us to be addressed. I thank you.

I thank the representative of cultural survival. I now give the floor to the representative of the Holy See.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Holy See welcomes the timely focus of this 25th session of the Forum of the Help on the Health of Indigenous Peoples, with particular attention to the devastating impact of conflict. The promotion of health is not merely a technical or material question. It is a profound moral imperative rooted in the inviolable dignity of every human person created in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, the right to health must be understood in its fullest sense, physical, mental, cultural and spiritual. Indigenous peoples have the right, without discrimination, to improved economic and social conditions, including health and sanitation, to be involved in developing and determining health programs affecting them, to maintain their traditional medicines and to access social services and health care. In this regard, the Holy See reiterates the need for effective measures to improve the economic and social conditions of indigenous peoples, particularly the elderly, women, children and youth, and persons with disabilities. Governments should also remove cultural, economic, linguistic and informational barriers to ensure access to quality health care. At the same time, there is a specific need for culturally sensitive health care. The imposition of health models that disregard the dignity and rights of of indigenous peoples risks becoming a new form of colonization. Madam Chair in situations of armed conflict, indigenous peoples are often among the most vulnerable and disproportionately affected. Regrettably, such violence can result in the destruction of health infrastructure, displaces families, exposes communities to trauma, infectious diseases and malnutrition, and severs the vital link between people and the land that nourishes both body and spirit. International humanitarian law must be strictly observed. Deliberate attacks on civilian populations, including indigenous communities, and the obstruction of humanitarian aid are never justifiable. Madam Chair, Pope Leo XIV affirms that in the assembly of nations, indigenous peoples must present their own human, cultural and Christian wealth courageously and freely. May this forum contribute to concrete actions that honor the God given dignity of every human person and promote the common good.

I thank you, I thank the representative from the Holy See and I now give the floor to the distance distinguished forum member Amina Amharic.

Madame La President, Madam Chair, Distinguished representatives. Two centuries of unilateral approaches in unilateral measures have had grave repercussions at all levels. The physical, psychological and spiritual spiritual health of indigenous peoples continues to be undermined. Their territories are being desecrated and looted and resources are now becoming scarce as a result of climate change deterioration of ecosystems. And these are a logical consequence of the imbalance of a world that has been buffeted by reckless interventions of overexploitation, unreasonable exploitation that is resulting in significant losses for a world that had long been safeguarded by indigenous peoples. Madam Chair, the indigenous peoples health determinants are an adequate response to the issue of the health of people, the land, the environment from a bottom up approach, holistic, complementary approach that is at the human and moral level responsible. This forum has been undertaken in ongoing complementary renewable efforts since 2023 through the Four Studies on Indigenous health determinants. This is invaluable work and it deserves to be set down on the record and materialized through the establishment of the Year of Indigenous Peoples to dovetail with a global action plan established by WHO for 2027 which can usher in a decade to meet the aspirations of all indigenous people peoples in the socio cultural region. Thank you.

I thank the distinguished forum member and I now give the Before I give the floor to the next speaker, the following three speakers will be the Assemblie des Premier nations, the Allianza Continental de Parteras Tradicionales and the Khmer Kampuchea Crom Federation. I now give the floor to the Louicha Institute

Yina Galangbu Kabir Bngbu Yadu Marrung Yuandu Michael Newman Jiruma Dilanya Barduradri Jiramudilina Badu Lenape Ja Darganja Ladies and gentlemen, good day. My name is Michael Newman. I'm proud to be a Wiradjuri. I'm proud to be on Lenape land as a Galari Gabir, a Lachlan river man of the Wiradjuri nation, the people of the Three Rivers and the Deputy CEO of the Loitu Institute. We call for urgent action to address the structural and systemic barriers to care experienced by indigenous peoples globally and the recognition of the aboriginal community controlled health organisations, widely known as archos, as a leading model of indigenous led and place based holistic healthcare and wellbeing service design and provision. Archos are governed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and deliver comprehensive, culturally safe health services that are responsive to local needs, priorities and contexts. The ACHO model demonstrates that when indigenous peoples design, control and deliver their own health services, outcomes improve not only in clinical terms but also in community safety, cultural connection and economic prosperity. Achoes operate beyond a biomedical approach, addressing the social and cultural determinants of health and embedding holistic understandings of wellbeing that are grounded in connection to culture, family, community and country. Importantly, the ACHO model is a practical expression of the rights affirmed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It gives effect to articles 3, 4, 18 and 19. Further to this, in the context of health, achoes also reflect articles 23 and 24. Archos operationalise the rights to participation, autonomy and free prior and informed consent through community governance structures and locally accountable decision making. In doing so, they provide a tangible framework for translating UNDRIP principles into health system design and delivery. We urge the UN Member States and agencies to consider how the principles demonstrated by archos can inform global approaches to indigenous health and how UN mechanisms can better support the scaling and protection of indigenous led models of care. Embedding self determination as a foundational principle in global health frameworks ensure that indigenous peoples have the authority to freely determine the political and social and health priorities, exercise leadership and health governance and pursue strategies that are culturally safe, community led and contextually appropriate. This recognition by UN Member States and agencies is essential to advancing equitable health outcomes and respecting indigenous rights. In this context, we call on Member States to recognise indigenous community controlled healthcare as a best practice rights based model for improving indigenous health outcomes, invest in long term flexible funding mechanisms that enable and sustain indigenous governance and leadership in health system design and delivery and ensure the implementation of global health frameworks is aligned with undripping grounded indigenous self determination including free prior and informed consent. We recommend that UN Member States and agencies consider the ARCHO model as a practical and scalable approach to support the future implementation of the World Health Organisation Global Plan of Action and the health of India.

I thank the representative of the Louisa Institute and I now give the floor to the Representative of China.

Chair. Currently, factors like violent conflict, uneven development and climate change are exacerbating the challenges faced by indigenous peoples and severely impacting their health. Globally, indigenous peoples register a shorter life expectancy and higher rates of disability and chronic disease compared with the general population. Enshrined in the UNDRIP declaration is indigenous people's right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. To advance human rights globally and promote the health and well being of all, it is essential to ensure that indigenous people are not left behind. China calls on the international community to step up its efforts in the following first, priority should be given to safeguarding the safety and physical well being of indigenous people peoples and to effectively ensuring their rights to safe drinking water, healthy food, decent work and equitable access to health care services. Second, efforts should be strengthened to prevent and resolve conflicts, thereby preventing harm to them at source. Meanwhile, close attention should be given to the humanitarian crisis that indigenous communities face in conflict affected areas and protection assistance for forcibly dispensary displaced persons being harnessed. Third, efforts should be strengthened to support the development and empowerment of indigenous peoples, eliminate discrimination and inequality and ensure that they can fully benefit from the gains of development. Chair China notes with concern that certain countries have, through aggressions and colonial wars, killed and persecuted indigenous peoples and that violations of their fundamental rights persist to this day. We call on those countries concerned to address historical wrongs, promote truth and justice, eliminate all forms of discrimination against indigenous peoples and effectively safeguard their legitimate rights and interests. Chair China is a unified multi ethnic country with no indigenous peoples. China firmly supports the promotion and protection of the fundamental indigenous human rights and freedoms. China actively participates in global health governance and remains committed to dispatching medical teams to developing countries taking concrete actions to support indigenous peoples in those countries attaining better health. China will continue to play an active role in promoting the full implementation of ondrip.

Thank you Chair I thank the representative of China and I'm now going to read the following speakers. The Allianza Continental de Parteras Traditionales, the Khmer Kampuchea, CROM Federation and acsils. I now give the floor to the Assemblage des Premier national de Quebec et du Labrador.

Distinguished Chair, Fellow Indigenous Leaders and of course my indigenous brothers and sisters from all over the world, but especially to the leadership of my region, Koe Kasnojczyk, Francis Verreau Pol and Shin Kashin as the Regional Chief of the assembly of First Nation Quebec and Labrador, I stand before you with humility and with clarity way before talking about reconciliation. Truth is the foundation of everything. It is the starting point for justice and accountability. The L3 inequities our people face are not accidental. They are the predictable outcomes of policies that are being imposed on us still today. This is why the key is legislative reconciliation. Thus, UNDRIP is not an aspirational language. It is a minimum standard that must guide laws, regulation, budgets and institutions. Canada has adopted undrip act in 2021 and an action plan is now to be implemented. This has to be highlighted. However, the reality on the ground remains far less encouraging. In fact, the situation with provinces and territories is alarming, especially with the province where we are from Quebec. Quebec government is not only actively resisting in the implementation of the undrip, its actual government has also repeatedly minimized, distorted or misrepresented the implication of recognizing these rights. This discourse contributes directly to internal polarization by framing indigenous rights as a threat. Let's be clear, UNDRIP harmonizes and creates a respectful pattern to coexist and build a strong future together. Today, the FNQL puts forward three priorities and calls on the UN Permanent Farm on Indigenous issues urged and press Member States to take concrete action to implement the following recommendation to uphold on Strengthen self determination in health by legally recognizing indigenous health jurisdiction and providing sustainable funding for indigenous governance Ensure cultural safe care by adopting a zero tolerance approach to systemic discrimination and racism and establishing independent, accessible complaint mechanisms. Support and protect indigenous healing knowledge and practices by formally preserving access to traditional medicines and ancestral lands as well as indigenous data. To the Member States and partners gathered here, we call for clear and lasting commitments Legislative reconciliation through reforms that recognize our rights and jurisdiction. In memory of late Sister Joyce Echoan,

it is also fundamental I thank the

representative of the Assembly Clemenation and I now give the floor to the representative from Indonesia

Chair Distinguished Delegates Representatives of Indigenous Communities Indonesia reaffirms its commitment to upholding the rights of adult communities in the sustainable management of natural resources and in health sector, including in Papua. The Government has established a comprehensive legal and policy framework to ensure that local communities are included in decision making processes and that their traditional rights are respected and protected. Indonesia's legal framework guarantees access to ancestral lands through the recognition of customary forests under government regulations, which provides mechanisms for designation and protection, including by operationalization the principle of free prior and informed consent before project implementation. Beyond current legal frameworks, the Government continues to strengthen forest governance and environmental safeguards, including by enforcing the mandatory environmental impact assessments, moratorium on primary forests and peatlands, stricter oversight, plantation and extractive activities, revocation of non combined concessions, tighter audits in mining governance and Application of follow Netsync 2030 strategy to ensure that Papua remains one of the largest intact tropical forest regions in the world. Indonesia has put in place a range of grievances mechanisms for communities affected by these projects, including mediation processes involving customary communities, businesses and local governments. National strategic projects are implemented within this framework, ensuring that infrastructure and resource based development contribute to improved connectivity, economic opportunities, address challenges of food security and welfare at the local level. In the health sector, we continue to strengthen these services throughout Indonesia, including in Papua, by revitalization of hospitals, expanding mental health accessibilities, strengthening maternal child health and nutrition interventions, scaling up immunization and community based prevention and enhancing health workforce development. Indonesia acknowledges challenges and remains committed to continuous improvement through stronger safeguards, enhanced coordinations and inclusive engagement with all stakeholders. Thank you.

I thank the representative from Indonesia and before I give the floor to the next speaker, I would like to to list the next three speakers, the Khmer Kampuchea Chrome Federation, ACSILS and the New Zealand Nurses Organization. I now give the floor to the Allianza Continental de Parteras Tradicionales.

Madam Chair Members of the Forum, with the permission of ancestors of our peoples and the lands that sustain life, we are speaking as indigenous midwives who have come together in the Continental alliance of Continental Indigenous Midwives of the Americas. We are guardians of birth and the continuity of life of our peoples. Indigenous midwifery is its own health system. It is comprehensive, spiritual, community based and it has sustained life far earlier than doctors and biomedical systems. It is not an additional practice it has its own authority. Nevertheless, across the continent, our wisdom is at risk of disappearing by policies that think of us as assistants in the biomedical system. Today we are facing new challenges. The professionalization and certification and institutionalization processes use the language of safety and interculturality and they seek to control and transform midwifery into an extension of the biomedical hegemony. We denounce this process. It constitutes a contemporary form of colonialism, epistemic colonialism. We recall that this forum has recommended indigenous midwifery knowledge as being an autonomous ancestral practice. It's decriminalization and integration in public policy. However, there is a profound gap between this recommendation as real implementation by states. This is marked by institutional racism, hegemony of the biomedical system and a lack of political will. In light of this reality, we demand the respect as our own health system that states and agencies of the United nations recognize traditional indigenous midwifery as an autonomous health system with a scientific spiritual community basis. We demand epistemic justice. There must be an end to processes of appropriation, regulation and transformation of our knowledge under external frameworks that deny our integrity and global mechanisms that seek to subordinate traditional indigenous midwifery to foreign biomedical style standards that are foreign to our context and Cosmo vision. Biden participation Midwives should directly participate in all spaces of decision making, be they national or global. Anything affecting their Knowledge, practices and territories should involve midwives.

And I now give the floor to the representative of Vietnam.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Vietnam recognizes that health is not only a matter of physical well being but is also closely linked to the cultural environment and social cohesion. In this regard, peace and stability are essential foundations for ensuring sustainable health outcomes for all communities. In Vietnam. 54 ethnic groups have lacked live together in harmony and solidarity throughout our history of national defense and development. This long standing unity provides a stable foundation for advancing inclusive health policies and ensuring equal access to health care services for all. Vietnam has made sustained efforts to improve health care for ethnic minority communities, particularly in remote and mountainous areas. We have achieved near universal health coverage with around 98% of ethnic minorities covered. Vietnam is also advancing a roadmap towards universal asset to health care including free annual health checkups and reducing medical costs with implementation from 2026. We believe that advancing health equity requires integrated approaches that link healthcare with broader social equ. Economic development while respecting the diversity of national circumstances and development pathways. Vietnam remains committed to working with all partners to promote inclusive and sustainable health for all communities. I thank you.

I thank the representative of Vietnam and I'm now going to announce the next three speakers the New Zealand Nurses Associate association, the acsils, the New Zealand Nurses association and plume. I give the floor to the Khmer Kampuchea Crom Federation,

Madam Chair, distinguished delegates and indigenous relatives. We want to second that. Madam Chair. Aluki's opening statement yesterday that health is not just a physical and mental well being of indigenous people, but it is the interconnectedness of our culture, spirituality, our land and our environment with our physical bodies and mental state. On behalf of the Khmer peoples who are indigenous to Khmer in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, I come to you today to highlight how the health of the Khmerkram people is being undermined by economic pressure, environmental degradation, state repression and extreme exclusion from decision making. Being a community of indigenous farmers means that our livelihoods are dependent on the well being of our land. However, our agricultural practices built on our ancestral knowledge are forcibly erased due to exhaustive export driven rice production that pollutes

our water and soil with chemicals and fertilizers. Physically, our bodies are overworked and abused

and the food and water we consume to replenish our spirit is poisoned. To protect ourselves and address these concerns, Khmerkrang spiritual leaders and human rights defenders educate our peoples to proudly proclaim their indigenous identities in spaces where we often are erased and overlooked. However, the excessive crackdown on our community

leaders through surveillance, harassment, imprisonment and torture

has traumatized our people. This is not limited to Khmerkram, located in Kampuche Kraum. Human rights activists based outside face hostility from the government. Psychologically, Khmerkram peoples are stricken stiff with fear of criminalization for being indigenous, leading our younger generations culturally disconnected and our elder generations with unaddressed deteriorating mental health. We respectfully recommend that the Permanent Forum call on Member States to work with fao, undp, HWO and OHCHR to increase

active participation of indigenous peoples in current

projects and incorporate traditional knowledge with the globalized methods. We also ask for the UNDP to implement with its Blue Economy Climate Smart Agricultural toolkit to integrate a risk assessment to understand the impact on indigenous peoples when it comes to agriculture for the Khmerkron people, our indigenous identities are being

attacked from all angles.

As mentioned from our indigenous brother in the morning session we echo to free our indigenous relatives from false imprisonment. Thank you.

I thank the representative of the Khmer and I turn the floor over to the New Zealand Nurses Association Organization

Kia Ora Kouto Katoa. I speak to the theme of the Indigenous health in the context of conflict

and raise concerns regarding Mori, the indigenous

people of New Zealand. While there is no armed conflict, Mori continue to face an ongoing structural conflict over their rights to health, equity and self determination. Despite formally endorsing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the current government is actively stepping back from its commitment in policy and practice. The disestablishment of TE AKA WHA removes Mori leadership from the health system despite clear evidence that Mori experience persistent and

systemic inequities in health outcomes including a

life expectancy of around seven years shorter than non Mori. Economic decisions are driving health inequities. Reduced public investment and rising living costs disproportionately burden Mori communities. For Mori workers this results in insecure employment, limited access to care and declining health outcomes. These impacts are are particularly severe for Whine Mori and survivors of state care and abuse who already face compounding inequities in health, safety and access to support. This is not an accidental this is predictable result of decisions that reduce indigenous participation, dismantle targeted solutions and weaken accountability. We urge this forum to recognise that conflict affecting indigenous health can be structural and policy driven. We call on the New Zealand government

to uphold Te Tiriti of Waitangi, align

with andrip and restore Mori leadership in health and social policy. We request that this forum monitor and

report on developments in Aotearoa, New Zealand,

including the impact of current policies on Mori health and rights. If these directions Continue, inequities will deepen not by chance, but by choice. We therefore call on the government of New Zealand to demonstrate how its current policies are consistent with its commitment under it. Because at present the gap between commitment and reality continues to widen. Kia ora.

I thank the representative of the New Zealand Nurses association and I give the floor to the representative of Axels.

One Yai Bin and I am proud to be Uchinanchu of the Ryuju archipelago. After losing 1/3 of the population of Uchna island in the span of 12 weeks during World War II. There is a saying in Uchinaguchi language Iksaya cha shin Uwuran. The war never ended. Following the war, we saw the rapid militarization of our islands. And today the Ryuchyu Archipelago, the home of the ryukyuan people, has 32 US military and 51 Japanese military bases and installations. Health and well being challenges in Ryuq cannot be decoupled from militarization. But a specific and acute challenge to the health of indigenous Ryukyuans is the widespread contamination of the groundwater supply by military bases throughout the archipelago. Our fresh water sources are contaminated by pfas which comes from both US and Japanese bases. And although we have appreciated visits and attention from The Special Rapporteur, Mr. Oriana, Cleanup has still been slow. Recently the Defense Minister of Japan stated that it would be, quote, difficult to renew a subsidy that had been previously given to subsidize water purification from PFAS. PFAS comes directly from military bases. Not only have UKens been denied on base access in order to test the water at the source of the contamination, but now we are also being told to figure out how to clean it ourselves. To be clear, funding to clean up

PFAS is being denied.

All while Japan has appropriated a military budget that puts it on track to become the third largest military spender in the world after only the United States and China. We request that the United States direct the commanding officers at Kadena Air Force Base, Marine Corps Air Force Station, Air Station, Futenma Camp Hansen and the other 29 bases in the Ryukyu's to allow Ryukyuan representatives on base to conduct water analyses at the source. Japan must pay reparations in the form of additional PFAS purification subsidies to address the contamination until such a time when PFAS stops leaking into the water and the water is remediated. Finally, we call on Japan to recognize Ryukyuans as the indigenous peoples of our archipelago and ask that the Permanent Forum facilitate a meeting with the Permanent Mission who has Once again ignored our request. Indigenous peoples in East Asia are living in pre conflict situations. We need all around de escalation by member States and the demilitarization of our islands so we can facilitate a situation of peace, not conflict.

I thank the representative of Axles and I invite the representative of PLUME to take the floor. Plume,

Esteemed members of the Permanent forum states and indigenous relatives, thank you and congratulations, Madam Chair, on your reappointment. You're a role model to indigenous women and youth. My name is Jasna Ramirez. I'm Chicana Popoloka and I speak on behalf of plume, the National Indigenous Women Rights alliance and Institute, our Youth Council and the Continental Network of Indigenous Women of the America North Region. I address the right to health during time of conflict. For indigenous girl youth, conflict is not only war. It is displacement, extractive industries, climate impacts and violence that disrupts our bodies, our lands and our futures. For us, health is not just clinical care. It is clean water, traditional foods, language and the guidance of our grandmothers. When these are broken, our health is broken. But we also bring solutions. Our traditions bring our communities together and restore balance. Across the United States, some of the highest youth suicide rates are in places like Pine Ridge, Standing Rock and White Mountain Apache. During the Dakota Access Pipeline protest, we saw something different. Youth suicide dropped to zero. Why? Because we are not isolated or invisible. We are on the front lines, protecting water, standing with our people and carrying purpose. We are recognized as leaders. This is the lesson. Indigenous girl youth do not only need services, we need purpose, belonging and a role in defending our communities. When we are connected to land, culture and collective action, our health transforms. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women affirm our rights. Yet Indigenous girl youth remain invisible and implement especially in our times of conflict. On behalf of plume, we offer three recommendations. First, recognize indigenous girl youth as leaders in health responses and ensure our direct participation in decision making, including at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Second, invest in indigenous led intergenerational health systems including midwives, land based healing and community led mental health rooted in culture. Third, address root causes. There is no health without land and no safety without self determination. Uphold, hold, free, prior and informed consent. If there is no consent, there is no project. We are not only surviving conflict, we are leading healing. Invest in indigenous girl youth. Trust us. Stand with us. Thank you.

I thank the representative of plume and now I would like to give the floor to the distinguished forum member, Lee Nan.

I see.

Just now I'd like to comment on the intervention from the Japanese indigenous organization. Well, as I see it, there is one group of indigenous people beyond areas of conflict. Their right to health and other rights have been seriously violated. These indigenous peoples who live near or on military bases, their land, their resources have been encroached upon. Military bases create toxic substances which contaminate the environment in which they live. Sometimes military aircrafts crash, causing casualties. Even worse, the troops stationed there commit sexual violence against indigenous women and girls. This is outrageous. And the victims seldom get judicial justice and reparations. These people, though they do not live in wartime, however they live under the threat of war. I propose our forum include this group of indigenous people in our site so their interests, their rights are never ignored, neglected and forgotten.

Thank you Chair Forum member and I invite the First People's assembly of Victoria to take the floor. This will be the last speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm the co Chair of the First People's assembly of Victoria representing first peoples in lands now known as Victoria.

Today I come with pride as the first treaty in Australia has recently been finalised between the assembly and the State.

I come here with a simple request

that the Australian government and our indigenous brothers and sisters stand with us in supporting Australia's first treaty. Treaty is not symbolic, it is structural. It is about the redistribution of power in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. At its core, Treaty recognises that healthy

and thriving First Peoples communities are only possible when First Peoples are the decision

makers in matters that affect our lives. For too long, policies and programs have been designed for us rather than with us.

This has contributed to persistent inequalities, inequities including in health.

Treaty seeks to change this.

Throughout treaty negotiations, the assembly has used

the Declaration as a foundational framework ensuring

that the inherent rights of first peoples are protected.

Now the statewide treaty puts United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

into action through the establishment of Galangwal, a First People's representative and deliberative body.

Treaty creates a mechanism for the exercise

of self determination consistent with articles 3, 4 and 5.

Kalang waal will exercise the functions and powers of collective self government and will

contribute to a global shift toward recognising Indigenous political authority and First Peoples advancing self determination. The treaty also establishes a truth telling

body in line with Articles 8 and

11 continuing the work of sharing our

truths as necessary for healing and for

improved social and emotional well being. It affirms our right to participate in

decision making consistent with Article 19 ensuring

that state decisions impacting first peoples cannot

be made without our meaningful engagement and it creates a framework to make agreements

and further treaties consistent with Article 37,

embedding a future where relationships between first

peoples and the state are negotiated, not imposed. Through these mechanisms. Treaty transforms systems that have historically excluded us into systems that are accountable to us. This work is not only about justice, it is about health. It is about creating the conditions for

our people to thrive strong in culture, strong in our lands, strong in identity and strong in community.

And when first peoples thrive, our nations thrive.

We urge the Australian government and all

Indigenous peoples to support our nation's first treaty.

I thank the representative of the First People's assembly of Victoria. We have exhausted the time allocated to this item and heard the last speaker in the general discussion on this item. I thank all speakers for their active participation and I apologize to those that we could not hear due to time constraints. We will meet again Tomorrow morning at 10:00am in this conference room to commence our consideration of agenda item 5d entitled here Human Rights Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Annual Review of Progress on the Implementation of general recommendation number 39 2022. In the morning we will hold an interactive dialogue without pre established list of speakers and in the afternoon we will hold a general discussion with a pre established list of speakers under the same item. I would like to remind representatives of Indigenous Peoples organizations that their online registration for the discussion with a pre established list of speakers for agenda item 4 on Friday, April 24th will be open on Thursday morning 23rd April from 9 to 11am Finally, I want to thank the interpreters for giving us this extra time. We appreciate it.

The meeting is adjourned.

The meeting is adjourned.