SIRGE Intervention at the 24th Session of the UNPFII

24th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) 21 April - 2 May 2025 - Statement

Item 5 (g) Thematic dialogue on the financing of Indigenous Peoples’ work and participation across the multilateral and regional system

Intervention by SIRGE Coalition, Cultural Survival, Tallgrass Institute, Batani Foundation, Earthworks and Society for Threatened Peoples

Presented by Bryan Bixcul (Maya-Tz’utujil), SIRGE Coalition Global Coordinator 

Delivered on 23 April, 2025. 

Thank you, Madam Chair, dear members of the Permanent Forum, Indigenous sisters and brothers.

I’m making this statement on behalf of the SIRGE Coalition. 

I speak on behalf of a coalition of Indigenous-led and allied organizations to highlight urgent and systemic challenges Indigenous Peoples face in the context of mineral extraction. These include: the lack of binding legislation to uphold our rights; the proliferation of voluntary mining standards that fall short of international human rights obligations; the absence or inadequacy of grievance mechanisms to address harms; and the lack of a global traceability system to monitor the origins and impacts of minerals throughout the supply chain.

To support the full realization of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the context of mineral extraction, we respectfully urge the Forum to adopt the following recommendations and positions:

1. We urge the Forum to call on Canada and Australia—where a significant proportion of the world’s publicly listed mining companies are headquartered—to enact legislation requiring companies operating in their territories and abroad to implement Articles 3, 4, 18, 26, 28, and 32 of UNDRIP, uphold Indigenous Peoples’ rights to Self-determination and Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), and align with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

2. We recommend the Forum affirm that any mining standard failing to fully uphold the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), in accordance with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, is inadequate and undermines Indigenous Peoples’ rights. We further recommend the Forum reaffirm that while voluntary mining standards may support the implementation of rights, they must never be treated as substitutes for binding legal obligations.

3. We urge the Forum to recommend that States, companies, and financial institutions take concrete steps to operationalize existing commitments by ensuring that grievance mechanisms are established and made accessible, independent, and culturally appropriate, and that they are available to Indigenous Peoples throughout the entire lifecycle of a project—from planning to closure.

4. We urge the Forum to recommend that States, companies, and financial institutions support the development of a global traceability system to track the origin and impacts of minerals throughout the entire supply chain, with mandatory public disclosure of associated environmental and human rights risks and harms.

We want to remind everyone that this is an Indigenous Peoples’ Forum. Only with binding laws, strong accountability, and full respect for Indigenous Peoples’ rights and governance can the energy transition be truly just.

Thank you.