Indigenous Mbororo woman to speak at Paris Agreement signing ceremony on 22 April in New York

United Nations, New York, 20 April 2016 — Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, an Indigenous woman from the Mbororo pastoralist community of Chad, is the speaker selected to represent civil society at the 22 April signing ceremony of the historic climate agreement that was reached in Paris last December.

A record number of countries are expected to sign the agreement at a ceremony hosted by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at UN Headquarters on 22 April, which is also International Mother Earth Day.

“For all Indigenous Peoples, from any corner of the world, livelihoods are linked to natural resources, for our food and medicine, for everything, so if there are floods or droughts, the impact is greater for us,” said Ms. Ibrahim, who is Coordinator of the Association des Femmes Peules Autochtones du Tchad (AFPAT), a community-based organization working for the rights and environmental protection of the Indigenous Peule women and people of Chad. “Climate change threatens our basic rights, our cultural values, and the very survival of these communities,” she added.

Read the entire press release here.