Tenth anniversary of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples

On the margins of the 23rd session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in order to benefit from the participation of Indigenous Peoples’ representatives and institutions, and in accordance with General Assembly resolution78/189, the President of the 78th session of the General Assembly will convene a high-level event to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the outcome document of the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples.

Date: Wednesday, 17 April 2024.

Time: 3 to 6 pm.

Venue: General Assembly Hall at the United Nations Headquarters, in New York

Programme

Participation: The high-level event will be open to representatives of Indigenous Peoples accredited to the twenty-third session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

NOMINATION FOR SPEAKERS FROM THE 7 SOCIO-CULTURAL REGIONS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Please be advised that the Office of the President of the General Assembly has invited to nominate one speaker from each of the seven socio-cultural regions to address the high-level event. Each region is requested to select its representative according to their own mechanism and send the name of the representative to Ms. Isabel Avomo Sima (isabel.avomosima@un.org), Senior Advisor of the Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Team in my Office by Wednesday, 10 April 2024. Representatives of the seven socio-cultural regions are encouraged to limit their remarks to 3 (three) minutes.

• Representative nominated by African Region
• Representative nominated by Asia Region
• Representative nominated by Central and South America, and the Caribbean Region
• Representative nominated by the Arctic Region
• Representative nominated by Central and Eastern Europe, the Russian Federation, Central Asia and Transcaucasia
• Representative nominated by North America
• Representative nominated by the Pacific

Please be advised that each region should provide the name of one speaker only.

• Letter from the President of the General Assembly to Indigenous Peoples with updated speakers from 7 sociocultural regions (16 April 2024)
• Letter from the President of the General Assembly with final programme (16 April 2024)
• Letter from the President of the General Assembly to Indigenous Peoples (22 March 2024)
• Letter from the President of the General Assembly with save the date (26 January 2024)
• Official webpage of the President of the General Assembly

World Conference on Indigenous Peoples

The General Assembly, in its resolution 65/198 of 21 December 2010, decided to organize a high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly, to be known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, in order to share perspectives and best practices on the realization of the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including pursuing the objectives of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In its resolution 66/296, the General Assembly further decided that the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples would be held on 22 September 2014 and in the afternoon of 23 September 2014 in New York.

The World Conference was composed of two plenary meetings in the form of an opening and a closing session, three interactive round-table discussions and one interactive panel discussion, with the opening meeting beginning at 9 a.m. on 22 September 2014, followed, in the afternoon, by two round-table discussions taking place simultaneously.

To provide valuable input into the preparatory process for the World Conference, the President of the General Assembly organized on 17 and 18 June 2014 an informal interactive hearing with representatives of Indigenous Peoples and representatives of entities of the United Nations system, academic institutions, national human rights institutions, parliamentarians, civil society and non-governmental organizations, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the present resolution.

The World Conference resulted in a concise, action-oriented outcome document prepared on the basis of inclusive and open informal consultations with Member States and Indigenous Peoples.