Reports
Climate/ Environmental Justice and Indigenous Peoples
- International Justice Team
- 18 June 2025
Indigenous peoples represent some of the world’s most historically marginalized communities. They are generally understood as groups with ancestral connections to specific territories, maintaining distinct cultural, linguistic, and spiritual traditions that set them apart from dominant societies. Today, the United Nations estimates that there are more than 476 million indigenous people across over 90 countries, comprising about 6% of the global population. Despite their diversity, they share common experiences of dispossession, marginalization, and resilience in defending their ways of life.
International law deliberately avoids imposing a rigid definition of ‘indigenous peoples’. Instead, it relies on flexible criteria emphasizing self-identification, continuity with pre-colonial societies, and distinct cultural patterns. The widely cited working definition of Special Rapporteur José Martínez Cobo highlights these characteristics, while also recognizing the non-dominant/ minority status of indigenous groups within larger societies. This approach underscores the dual nature of indigenous identity: collective survival as distinct ‘peoples’ and individual protection under minority rights frameworks.
While indigenous peoples fall within the general scope of minority rights, their recognition as ‘peoples’ under international law provides them with stronger claims to collective rights such as self-determination, land, and cultural integrity. This unique status distinguishes them from other minorities, reflecting the need to protect both individuals and collective identities.
At the same time, climate change and environmental degradation have emerged as urgent human rights challenges. The Paris Agreement (2015) recognized the importance of respecting indigenous rights in climate action, while the UN Human Rights Council has linked the right to a healthy environment with the enjoyment of other fundamental rights. Climate change impacts such as deforestation, desertification, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss disproportionately affect indigenous peoples, who often live in ecologically fragile areas and rely heavily on the natural environment for subsistence and culture.
For indigenous peoples, land and environment are not merely material resources but are integral to spiritual, cultural, and communal life. Environmental harm threatens their rights to life, health, food, housing, and cultural survival. Approaching climate change as a human rights issue makes visible the disproportionate burdens borne by indigenous communities while clarifying state and corporate obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill these rights.
International law deliberately avoids imposing a rigid definition of ‘indigenous peoples’. Instead, it relies on flexible criteria emphasizing self-identification, continuity with pre-colonial societies, and distinct cultural patterns. The widely cited working definition of Special Rapporteur José Martínez Cobo highlights these characteristics, while also recognizing the non-dominant/ minority status of indigenous groups within larger societies. This approach underscores the dual nature of indigenous identity: collective survival as distinct ‘peoples’ and individual protection under minority rights frameworks.
While indigenous peoples fall within the general scope of minority rights, their recognition as ‘peoples’ under international law provides them with stronger claims to collective rights such as self-determination, land, and cultural integrity. This unique status distinguishes them from other minorities, reflecting the need to protect both individuals and collective identities.
At the same time, climate change and environmental degradation have emerged as urgent human rights challenges. The Paris Agreement (2015) recognized the importance of respecting indigenous rights in climate action, while the UN Human Rights Council has linked the right to a healthy environment with the enjoyment of other fundamental rights. Climate change impacts such as deforestation, desertification, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss disproportionately affect indigenous peoples, who often live in ecologically fragile areas and rely heavily on the natural environment for subsistence and culture.
For indigenous peoples, land and environment are not merely material resources but are integral to spiritual, cultural, and communal life. Environmental harm threatens their rights to life, health, food, housing, and cultural survival. Approaching climate change as a human rights issue makes visible the disproportionate burdens borne by indigenous communities while clarifying state and corporate obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill these rights.
✨ AI summary
Indigenous peoples represent some of the world’s most historically marginalized communities. They are generally understood as groups with ancestral connections to specific territories, maintaining distinct cultural, linguistic, and spiritual traditions that set them apart from dominant societies. Today, the United Nations estimates that there are more than 476 million indigenous people across over 90 countries, comprising about 6% of the global population. Despite their diversity, they share common experiences of dispossession, marginalization, and resilience in defending their ways of life.
International law deliberately avoids imposing a rigid definition of ‘indigenous peoples’. Instead, it relies on flexible criteria emphasizing self-identification, continuity with pre-colonial societies, and distinct cultural patterns. The widely cited working definition of Special Rapporteur José Martínez Cobo highlights these characteristics, while also recognizing the non-dominant/ minority status of indigenous groups within larger societies. This approach underscores the dual nature of indigenous identity: collective survival as distinct ‘peoples’ and individual protection under minority rights frameworks.
While indigenous peoples fall within the general scope of minority rights, their recognition as ‘peoples’ under international law provides them with stronger claims to collective rights such as self-determination, land, and cultural integrity. This unique status distinguishes them from other minorities, reflecting the need to protect both individuals and collective identities.
At the same time, climate change and environmental degradation have emerged as urgent human rights challenges. The Paris Agreement (2015) recognized the importance of respecting indigenous rights in climate action, while the UN Human Rights Council has linked the right to a healthy environment with the enjoyment of other fundamental rights. Climate change impacts such as deforestation, desertification, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss disproportionately affect indigenous peoples, who often live in ecologically fragile areas and rely heavily on the natural environment for subsistence and culture.
For indigenous peoples, land and environment are not merely material resources but are integral to spiritual, cultural, and communal life. Environmental harm threatens their rights to life, health, food, housing, and cultural survival. Approaching climate change as a human rights issue makes visible the disproportionate burdens borne by indigenous communities while clarifying state and corporate obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill these rights.
International law deliberately avoids imposing a rigid definition of ‘indigenous peoples’. Instead, it relies on flexible criteria emphasizing self-identification, continuity with pre-colonial societies, and distinct cultural patterns. The widely cited working definition of Special Rapporteur José Martínez Cobo highlights these characteristics, while also recognizing the non-dominant/ minority status of indigenous groups within larger societies. This approach underscores the dual nature of indigenous identity: collective survival as distinct ‘peoples’ and individual protection under minority rights frameworks.
While indigenous peoples fall within the general scope of minority rights, their recognition as ‘peoples’ under international law provides them with stronger claims to collective rights such as self-determination, land, and cultural integrity. This unique status distinguishes them from other minorities, reflecting the need to protect both individuals and collective identities.
At the same time, climate change and environmental degradation have emerged as urgent human rights challenges. The Paris Agreement (2015) recognized the importance of respecting indigenous rights in climate action, while the UN Human Rights Council has linked the right to a healthy environment with the enjoyment of other fundamental rights. Climate change impacts such as deforestation, desertification, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss disproportionately affect indigenous peoples, who often live in ecologically fragile areas and rely heavily on the natural environment for subsistence and culture.
For indigenous peoples, land and environment are not merely material resources but are integral to spiritual, cultural, and communal life. Environmental harm threatens their rights to life, health, food, housing, and cultural survival. Approaching climate change as a human rights issue makes visible the disproportionate burdens borne by indigenous communities while clarifying state and corporate obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill these rights.
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