In February 2025, the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) presented its thematic reports for the upcoming 24th session 21 April–5 May 2025.
“Impact of colonization and armed conflicts on Indigenous Peoples’ rights: the imperative of peacebuilding” (E/C.19/2025/7). The document, authored by Hanieh Moghani, Hannah McGlade and Geoffrey Roth, presents findings on the impact of colonialism and armed conflicts on Indigenous Peoples and the continuing need for efforts and processes to build durable peace between colonial-settler and Indigenous communities across regions.
The report draws on philosophical foundations, especially the works of Frantz Fanon, to emphasize the necessity of dismantling colonial legacies, addressing psychological and structural oppression. It calls for transitioning from negative peace, defined as the cessation of violence, to positive peace, characterized by equity, justice and harmony.
The document’s key recommendations include remedying violations of Indigenous Peoples’ rights in armed conflicts, implementing justice mechanisms, ensuring Indigenous participation in governance and dismantling neocolonial practices. The authors call for these peacebuilding efforts also to integrate Indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems, which envision peace as a holistic balance encompassing human, environmental and spiritual well-being.
That recommendation arises from recognition that the lives, lands, territories and cultural heritage of Indigenous Peoples remain central to these remedial dynamics, as land, territory and resources are often targeted by colonial forces for their economic and strategic value. With a focus on enduring legacies of colonialism, the authors point out that land and territorial dispossession has been at the heart of colonial domination, serving as the linchpin of economic and territorial control. They assert:
“The alienation from ancestral lands and territories disrupted and suppressed Indigenous cosmologies, dismantling socioeconomic, health and nutritional systems that had thrived for centuries. This multidimensional dislocation remains a cornerstone of Indigenous struggles today, perpetuating intergenerational poverty and eroding cultural identity.”
Noting how related strategies of fragmentation have perpetuated the disempowerment of Indigenous Peoples globally, the report concludes that land and territorial restitution, as provided in the UN Remedy and Reparations Framework, is foundational to the remedial goal of reparative justice. In its practical recommendations, the report also cites HIC-HRLN’s Impact-assessment and Justice Tool, rooted in those same norms, as means toward that remedial end.
__________
Download the report, “Impact of colonization and armed conflicts on Indigenous Peoples’ rights: the imperative of peacebuilding” (E/C.19/2025/7)
Link to upcoming 24th UNPFII session, 21 April–2 May 2025.
Documents submitted by the Secretariat of the UNPFII:
E/C.19/2025/L.1 Programme of Work AR | EN | ES | FR | RU | ZH
E/C.19/2025/4 Report of the international expert group meeting on the theme “The rights of Indigenous Peoples, including those in voluntary isolation and initial contact in the context of critical minerals” AR | EN | ES | FR | RU | ZH
Documents prepared by Members of the UNPFII:
E/C.19/2025/6 The rights of Indigenous Peoples in the context of critical minerals to ensure a just transition, by Hindou Oumarou, Ibrahim and Hannah McGlade AR | EN | ES | FR | RU | ZH
E/C.19/2025/7 Impact of colonization and armed conflicts on Indigenous Peoples’ rights: the imperative of peacebuilding, by Hanieh Moghani, Hannah McGlade and Geoffrey Roth AR | EN | ES | FR | RU | ZH
E/C.19/2025/5 Evaluating institutional structures to improve the health and wellness of Indigenous Peoples globally: the Indigenous determinants of health measurement instrument, by Geoffrey Roth AR | EN | ES | FR | RU | ZH
E/C.19/2025/3 International financial architecture and the rights of Indigenous Peoples, by Darío José Mejía Montalvo AR | EN | ES | FR | RU | ZH
Photo: Participants of the International Arctic Forum in Murmansk (Russia), 26–27 March 2025. At the center of the photo is Hanieh Moghani, principal author of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues report. Source: FADN of Russia.
