Rights of Indigenous Peoples

A/RES/79/159View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 68a Rights of indigenous peoples, published in 2024.

What other versions does this mandate have?

15 versions · 2012–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/191

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/191	Rights of indigenous peoples	7,366	91%Compare
2024	A/RES/79/159	Rights of indigenous peoples	7,036	90%Compare
2023	A/RES/78/189	Rights of indigenous peoples	6,423	78%Compare
2023	A/RES/77/203	Rights of indigenous peoples	5,886	85%Compare
2022	A/RES/76/148	Rights of indigenous peoples	5,332	83%Compare

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Subprogramme 2	Inclusive social development	59

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Subprogramme 2	Inclusive social development	59	—

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 subjects

Conferences Human Rights Human Rights Advancement Indigenous Peoples International Decades

What’s in this document?

59 operative paragraphs

Notes with appreciation the work of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, takes note of the reports of the Special Rapporteur,²⁸ and encourages all Governments to respond favourably to the requests of the Special Rapporteur for visits;

²⁸A/79/160, A/HRC/57/47 and A/HRC/57/47/Add.1.

Takes note of the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the rights of Indigenous Peoples,²⁹ the report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples entitled “Indigenous persons with disabilities”,³⁰ and the report of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples entitled “Constitutions, laws, legislation, policies, judicial decisions and other mechanisms through which States have taken measures to achieve the ends of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in accordance with article 38 of the Declaration”³¹ and its annual report on the rights of Indigenous Peoples;³²

²⁹A/HRC/57/25.

³⁰A/HRC/57/47.

³¹A/HRC/57/62.

³²A/HRC/57/64.

Urges Governments and the United Nations system, in consultation and cooperation with Indigenous Peoples through their representatives and institutions, to continue to implement appropriate measures at the national level, including legislative measures, to achieve the ends of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to promote awareness of it among all sectors of society, including members of legislatures, the judiciary and the civil service, as well as among Indigenous Peoples, and invites international and regional organizations, within their respective mandates, national human rights institutions, where they exist, civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and other relevant actors to contribute to those efforts;

Underscores the importance of implementing the outcome document of the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, and reiterates the commitment of Member States to cooperating with Indigenous Peoples, through their own representative institutions, to develop and implement national action plans, strategies or other measures, where relevant, to achieve the ends of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and acknowledges the positive development that several States have developed, or are in the process of developing, national action plans and domestic legislation for their implementation with the coordination of Indigenous Peoples;

Encourages the leadership of the Secretary-General and of the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, as the responsible senior official of the United Nations system, in overseeing the implementation of and in following up on the system-wide action plan to ensure a coherent approach to achieving the ends of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, raising awareness of the rights of Indigenous Peoples and increasing the coherence of the activities of the system in this regard, and encourages the funds, programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations system, resident coordinators and United Nations country teams to implement this plan in full alignment with national development needs and priorities;

Encourages Member States, resident coordinators and United Nations country teams, within their mandates and in coordination with the Governments concerned, to involve Indigenous Peoples regarding issues affecting them in the preparation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks and country programme action plans;

Reminds Member States to work towards achieving the ends of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;

Encourages those States that have not yet ratified or acceded to the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), of the International Labour Organization to consider doing so;

Urges Member States to implement World Health Assembly resolution 76.16 of 30 May 2023, entitled “The health of Indigenous Peoples”, and invites the Director-General of the World Health Organization to take into account the present resolution while developing a global plan of action for the health of Indigenous Peoples within the framework of resolution 76.16 and his mandate for the consideration of the seventy-ninth World Health Assembly;

Reiterates the need for Member States to ensure protection for Indigenous Peoples affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and protection from future health emergencies, and prevent all forms of discrimination, especially in the context of timely, universal, inclusive, equitable and non-discriminatory access to safe, quality, effective and affordable healthcare and services and medical supplies and equipment, including diagnostics, therapeutics, medicine and vaccines, and through the dissemination of accurate, clear and evidence- and science-based information, including in Indigenous languages as appropriate, and to leave no one behind, with an endeavour to reach the furthest behind first, founded on the dignity of the human person and reflecting the principles of equality and non-discrimination, and calls upon Member States to put in place an inclusive response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and engage with Indigenous Peoples and other relevant stakeholders to fully empower all in improving and protecting their own health;

Reaffirms that Indigenous Peoples have the right to their traditional medicines and to maintain their health practices,³³ including, inter alia, the conservation of their vital medicinal plants, as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences, and also reaffirms that Indigenous individuals have the right to access, without any discrimination, to all social and health services;

³³Resolution 61/295, annex, art. 24, para. 1.

Recalls the report of the Secretary-General on the status of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples,³⁴ encourages Governments and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to continue to contribute to the trust fund on Indigenous issues and the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples and invites Indigenous organizations and private institutions and individuals to do likewise, and notes the importance of accessibility, accountability, transparency and balanced geographical distribution in the management of those funds;

³⁴A/79/262.

Also recalls the expansion of the mandate of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples so that it can assist representatives of Indigenous Peoples’ organizations and communities in participating, whether in person or alternatively by electronic means, in other mechanisms and negotiations such as the Forum on Business and Human Rights and in the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, including in its preparatory sessions and in the meetings of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform Facilitative Working Group organized by the secretariat of the Convention, in accordance with their respective rules and regulations;

Decides to further expand the mandate of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples so that it can assist representatives of Indigenous Peoples’ organizations and communities in participating in meetings related to the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage;³⁵

³⁵United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1037, No. 15511.

Notes the ongoing work and potential of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, emphasizes the important role of Indigenous Peoples in achieving the targets and goals set out in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,³⁶ the Paris Agreement³⁷ and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and recognizes that Indigenous Peoples are among the first to face the direct consequences of climate change owing to their dependence upon and close relationship with the environment and its resources;

³⁶Ibid., vol. 1771, No. 30822.

³⁷See FCCC/CP/2015/10/Add.1, decision 1/CP.21, annex.

Stresses the disproportionate impact of climate change on Indigenous Peoples due to their direct reliance on ecosystems, including for meeting their basic needs and engaging in traditional and other economic activities, and further emphasizes that climate change poses a threat to the survival, dignity and well-being of Indigenous Peoples and exacerbates the existing inequities and challenges that they face;

Also stresses the urgent need to enhance adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability of Indigenous Peoples to climate change and extreme weather events, and to support the leadership, knowledge, technologies, practices and efforts of Indigenous Peoples to address and respond to climate change, and encourages Member States to take measures that will ensure the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples in decision-making processes relating to climate change on issues affecting them, including Indigenous women, youth, older persons and persons with disabilities;

Further stresses the importance of enhancing the participation of Indigenous Peoples in processes and negotiations on issues that affect them, including, but not limited to, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement,³⁸and the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework³⁹ under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity;⁴⁰

³⁸Adopted under the UNFCCC in FCCC/CP/2015/10/Add.1, decision 1/CP.21.

³⁹United Nations Environment Programme, document CBD/COP/15/17, decision 15/4, annex.

⁴⁰United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1760, No. 30619.

Encourages Member States and the private sector to ensure more sustainable, environmentally friendly and responsible corporate behaviour that addresses the adverse environmental impact of certain business activities, such as illegal logging and mining, uncontrolled agribusiness expansions, unsustainable large-scale infrastructure development projects and extractive industries on the lands and territories traditionally inhabited by Indigenous Peoples and on the well-being of Indigenous Peoples;

Decides to continue to observe the International Day of Indigenous Peoples every year on 9 August, and requests the Secretary-General to support the observance of the Day from within existing resources;

Encourages Member States and all organizations and bodies of the United Nations system and other international and regional organizations, the private sector and academia, as well as civil society, including non-governmental organizations, to observe the International Day of Indigenous Peoples in an appropriate manner, including through educational and public awareness-raising activities;

Encourages Member States to give due consideration to all the rights of Indigenous Peoples in fulfilling the commitments undertaken in the 2030 Agenda and in the elaboration of national action plans and programmes as well as international and regional programmes, applying the pledge to leave no one behind and to endeavour to reach the furthest behind first;

Encourages States to continue to consider including in their voluntary national reviews for the high-level political forum on sustainable development and their national and global reports information related to Indigenous Peoples on the progress made and challenges in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, bearing in mind paragraphs 78 and 79 of the 2030 Agenda, and also encourages States to compile disaggregated data to measure progress and to ensure that no one is left behind;

Also encourages States, according to their relevant national context and characteristics, to collect and disseminate data disaggregated by ethnicity, income, gender, age, race, migratory status, disability, geographic location or other factors, as appropriate, in order to monitor and improve the impact of development policies, strategies and programmes aimed at improving the well-being of Indigenous Peoples and individuals, to combat and eliminate violence and multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against them and to support work towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda;

Calls upon States to foster an enabling online environment that is safe and conducive to engagement by all Indigenous Peoples, and to take all necessary and appropriate measures to address disinformation and advocacy of hatred constituting incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence towards Indigenous Peoples;

Encourages the Secretary-General to include information pertinent to Indigenous Peoples in the forthcoming annual reports on progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals;

Stresses the need to strengthen the commitment of States and the entities of the United Nations system to mainstream the promotion and protection of the rights of Indigenous Peoples into development policies and programmes at the national, regional and international levels, and encourages them to give due consideration to the rights of Indigenous Peoples in achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda;

Also stresses the need for Indigenous Peoples of all regions to contribute to the high-level political forum on sustainable development, and encourages States to engage with Indigenous Peoples at the local, national and regional levels in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals and to promote Indigenous Peoples’ leadership in their achievement;

Invites the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples to give due consideration, within their mandates, to the rights of Indigenous Peoples as related to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda;

Encourages the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to continue to provide inputs on Indigenous issues to the high-level political forum on sustainable development for consideration in its thematic reviews;

Underlines the need to intensify efforts, in cooperation with Indigenous Peoples, to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence, harassment and discrimination, both online and offline, against Indigenous women, children, youth, older persons and persons with disabilities and to support measures that will ensure their empowerment and full, meaningful and effective participation in decision-making processes at all levels and in all areas and eliminate structural and legal barriers to their full, equal and effective participation in political, economic, social and cultural life;

Urges States to take necessary measures where appropriate to ensure the rights, protection and safety of Indigenous Peoples, including Indigenous leaders and Indigenous human rights defenders, and to promote a safe and enabling environment in which human rights violations, killings, reprisals and abuses against or related to them are prevented and investigated, the perpetrators are held accountable and access to justice and remedy are ensured;

Reaffirms the importance of effective accountability with regard to violence against Indigenous women and girls, including all forms of sexual and gender-based violence, domestic violence, abuse, exploitation and sexual harassment, as well as with regard to taking adequate measures to prevent and eliminate such violence;

Encourages States to consider including in their reports related to Indigenous Peoples and women information on the progress made and challenges in the implementation of Commission on the Status of Women resolutions 49/7 of 11 March 2005, entitled “Indigenous women: beyond the ten-year review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action”,⁴¹ and 56/4 of 9 March 2012, entitled “Indigenous women: key actors in poverty and hunger eradication”,⁴² as well as to consider general recommendation No. 39 (2022) on the rights of Indigenous women and girls of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women;

⁴¹See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2005, Supplement No. 7 and corrigendum (E/2005/27 and E/2005/27/Corr.1), chap. I, sect. D.

⁴²Ibid., 2012, Supplement No. 7 and corrigendum (E/2012/27 and E/2012/27/Corr.1), chap. I, sect. D.

Invites Member States and all organizations and bodies of the United Nations system and other international and regional organizations, the private sector and academia, as well as civil society, to consider the importance of general recommendation No. 39 (2022) of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, with a particular focus on gender equality and the empowerment of Indigenous women and girls;

Takes note of the work of the Commission on the Status of Women on gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, including Indigenous women and girls, and suggests that the Commission consider in a future session the issue of gender equality and the empowerment of Indigenous women and girls as a priority theme;

Recalls the proclamation of the period 2022–2032 as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, to draw attention to the critical loss of Indigenous languages and the urgent need to preserve, revitalize and promote Indigenous languages and to take urgent steps at the national, regional and international levels, and renew its support to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to serve as the lead agency for the International Decade through the global action plan, in collaboration with the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat, and other relevant agencies, within existing resources;

Encourages the adoption by Member States of national action plans with an intergenerational approach to preserve, revitalize and promote Indigenous languages, including sign languages, and engage with public and private actors to enhance the use of digital technologies involving and empowering Indigenous Peoples, while respecting their cultures, traditions and autonomy;

Recognizes the importance of Indigenous languages as a driver for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, and calls upon Member States to integrate the preservation, promotion and revitalization of Indigenous languages in the wider efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda;

Also recognizes the importance of creating international, regional and national initiatives to promote the use of Indigenous languages, such as the Ibero-American Institute of Indigenous Languages, and in this regard encourages Member States to explore the creation of such initiatives;

Invites Member States to consider establishing national mechanisms with adequate funding for the successful implementation of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, in partnership with Indigenous Peoples, and to support Indigenous Peoples, as custodians of their own languages, to initiate and develop appropriate measures for the implementation of the International Decade, with the aim to preserve, revitalize and promote Indigenous languages;

Recognizes that the United Nations pursues multilingualism as a means of promoting, protecting and preserving diversity of languages and cultures globally, reaffirms that linguistic diversity is an important element of cultural diversity, and encourages Member States to adopt public policies with an intercultural approach in their design and implementation, aiming to preserve, revitalize and promote Indigenous languages, the possibility of including educational programmes that reinforce the use of Indigenous languages among children and youth by using an intergenerational approach with the participation of Indigenous elders, as well as the promotion and use of Indigenous languages at the international level;

Recalls the right of Indigenous Peoples to establish their own media in their own languages and to have access to all forms of non-Indigenous media without discrimination, and calls upon States to promote and examine national policies, practices and funding programmes on Indigenous media, including on capacity-building and content production in Indigenous languages by Indigenous content producers and media professionals, especially Indigenous women, and to foster international cooperation, knowledge-sharing and cooperation among Indigenous media and other partners, including mainstream media and Governments;

Encourages Governments to redouble efforts to eliminate child labour, both in legislation and in practice, in the context of respect for the human rights of Indigenous children, including through international cooperation, as appropriate;

Also encourages Governments to promote actions to end hunger and malnutrition in all its forms and achieve food security and improved nutrition for Indigenous children, especially for those living in rural and remote areas, by providing them with adequate access to food, water and sanitation, education, including intercultural and multilingual education, and universal and equitable access to quality health services, and to implement actions for poverty eradication and build sustainable food systems;

Urges Governments to ensure that Indigenous Peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories and that no relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the Indigenous Peoples concerned, after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of return, and to take effective measures to ensure that all Indigenous Peoples, regardless of their tenure status, have access to essential services, including access to safe and affordable water, sanitation, energy and health services;

Encourages transnational corporations and other business enterprises to respect human rights, including the rights of Indigenous children, and to eliminate forced labour and child labour from their operations;

Expresses concern over the misappropriation and misuse of Indigenous Peoples’ cultural heritage, reaffirms that Indigenous Peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, and that they also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, and recalls that States, in conjunction with Indigenous Peoples, shall take effective measures to recognize and protect the exercise of these rights, in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and as acknowledged in national law;

Underscores the need to ensure equal protection of the law and equality before the courts for Indigenous women and girls at all levels and, to that end, the importance of providing systematic gender-sensitivity training, as appropriate, for police and security forces, prosecutors, judges and lawyers, integrating gender considerations into security sector reform initiatives, developing protocols and guidelines and enhancing or putting in place appropriate accountability measures for adjudicators;

Encourages States and entities of the United Nations system to strengthen international cooperation, including to address the disadvantages faced by Indigenous Peoples, and to increase technical cooperation and financial assistance in this regard;

Encourages the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund and other relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, in accordance with their mandates, to carry out research and evidence-gathering on the prevalence and root causes of suicide among Indigenous youth and children and good practices on its prevention and to consider developing, as appropriate, strategies or policies, consistent with national priorities, in cooperation with Member States, to tackle it, including through consultation with Indigenous Peoples, in particular Indigenous youth organizations;

Recalls the report of the Secretary-General on enhancing the participation of Indigenous Peoples’ representatives and institutions in meetings of relevant United Nations bodies on issues affecting them,⁴³ and recalls with appreciation the work led by the Presidents of the General Assembly at its seventieth to seventy-fifth sessions in conducting consultations with Member States, Indigenous Peoples’ representatives and institutions from all regions of the world and existing mechanisms of the United Nations on possible measures to enable the participation of Indigenous Peoples’ representatives and institutions in meetings of relevant United Nations bodies on issues affecting them, which led to the adoption of Assembly resolution 71/321, taking into account the achievements in that regard of other bodies and organizations throughout the United Nations system, to be preceded by consultations with Indigenous Peoples’ representatives and institutions from all regions of the world as an input to the intergovernmental process;

⁴³A/75/255.

Takes note with appreciation of the summary reports of the three informal interactive hearings on possible further measures necessary to enhance the participation of Indigenous Peoples’ representatives and institutions in relevant United Nations meetings on issues affecting them, held at United Nations Headquarters on 17 April 2018, 25 April 2019 and 20 April 2023, recalls General Assembly resolution 70/232, whereby the Assembly requested the President of the General Assembly to conduct timely, inclusive, representative and transparent consultations with Member States, Indigenous Peoples’ representatives and institutions from all regions of the world, and existing relevant mechanisms of the United Nations, on the possible measures necessary, including procedural and institutional steps and accreditation criteria, to enable the participation of Indigenous Peoples’ representatives and institutions in meetings of relevant United Nations bodies on issues affecting them, and also recalls Assembly resolutions 71/321 and 77/203, whereby the Assembly decided to continue the consideration of possible further measures necessary to enhance the participation of Indigenous Peoples’ representatives and institutions in relevant United Nations meetings on issues affecting them at the seventy-eighth session, as originally requested in resolution 71/321;

Congratulates the President of the General Assembly for convening a successful and productive 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 in order to raise awareness of the importance of pursuing its objectives;

Recalls its resolution 78/328 of 6 September 2024 on enhancing the participation of Indigenous Peoples’ representatives and institutions in meetings of relevant United Nations bodies on issues affecting them, in which the General Assembly decided to continue its consideration of possible further measures necessary to enhance the participation of Indigenous Peoples’ representatives and institutions in relevant United Nations meetings on issues affecting them at its eightieth session, taking into account the achievements in that regard of other bodies and organizations throughout the United Nations system, with the aim of adopting procedural and institutional steps;

Raises awareness of the fact that many Indigenous Peoples do not speak any of the official languages of the United Nations, and encourages the United Nations to consider addressing this issue;

Requests the President of the General Assembly to hold, within existing resources, a high-level panel during the high-level week of the eighty-second session of the General Assembly, in 2027, to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and share perspectives and best practices on the realization of the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including to pursue the objectives of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;

Encourages the United Nations system to strengthen cooperation with the Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, considering its fundamental role in the Latin American and Caribbean region in processes of dialogue and consultation between States and Indigenous Peoples;

Decides to continue its consideration of the question at its eightieth session, under the item entitled “Rights of Indigenous Peoples”, and to maintain in the provisional agenda the sub-item entitled “Follow-up to the outcome document of the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples”.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

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Who cites this mandate in the budget?