By Lucas Kasosi (Maasai, CS Fellow)

​Each year on February 2, the world observes World Wetlands Day, marking the 1971 adoption of the Convention on Wetlands in Ramsar, Iran. What began as a modest international agreement has grown into a global framework for recognizing the ecological, social, and economic importance of wetlands, ecosystems once dismissed as wastelands, but now understood as essential to life on Earth.

In October 2025, four Indigenous communities in Guatemala—Maya Kaqchikel de Sumpango, Maya Achí Chicaj, Mam de Cajolá, and Maya Mam de Todos Santos Cuchumatán—submitted an alternative report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), with support from the Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples Clinic at Suffolk University Law School and Cultural Survival.

By Prabindra Shakya (Newa) and Johnson Jament (Mukkuvar)

The Metals Company (TMC), a Canadian firm at the forefront of deep-sea mining, has rapidly expanded its operations across the Pacific, targeting areas vital to Indigenous and other coastal communities in Asia and the Pacific. Although the TMC is not yet commercially mining the seabed, they are pushing to begin mining aggressively – applying for U.S. permits in 2025 and conducting pilot collections (such as 2,000 tons for Nauru).

By Akash Poyam (Gond/Koitur, CS Fellow)​

By Dev Kumar Sunuwar (Koĩts-Sunuwar, CS Staff) 

Nepal’s human rights record was reviewed by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the fourth time on January 21, 2026. During the 51^st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, members of the international community assessed Nepal’s progress and the persistent challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples.

By Edson Krenak (Krenak, CS Staff)

After four years of frequent visits to Sigma Lithium's site in the Jequitinhonha Valley in Brazil, the situation at the tailings facility has become very concerning, prompting the Minas Gerais public prosecutor to file a public civil lawsuit against Sigma Lithium.  

By Dev Kumar Sunuwar (Koĩts-Sunuwar, CS Staff)

By Gerard Tiwow (Minahasa)

 “Nowhere in Indonesia has the old culture so fast and so completely disappeared as in the Minahasa”  – Hetty Palm, Ancient Art of Minahasa (1958)

Por Brandi Morin (Cree/Iroquois) 

A orillas del río Bobonaza, en la provincia de Pastaza, Ecuador, se encuentra la “oculta” y próspera comunidad Kichwa de Pakayaku. Ubicada en lo profundo de la Amazonía, llegar a Pakayaku requiere conducir dos horas desde la ciudad de Puyo hasta el puerto fluvial y luego emprender un viaje en canoa de casi dos horas.

By Zuhira Musa (Fulani, CS Intern)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
20 December 2025


According to Indigenous organizations in Russia, Indigenous leaders and UN-engaged human rights defenders are being arrested, searched, and interrogated on fabricated charges of "terrorism" and "extremism" for their peaceful human rights work and cooperation with UN mechanisms.

Guía práctica para los pueblos indígenas sobre el uso de las Directrices de la OCDE para proteger sus derechos

Los Pueblos Indígenas de todo el mundo se enfrentan a amenazas cada vez mayores derivadas de la extracción de recursos a gran escala, la agroindustria y los proyectos de infraestructura que se llevan a cabo en sus tierras. Estas actividades suelen provocar la pérdida de medios de subsistencia, la desestructuración de las comunidades y la erosión del patrimonio cultural.