Last Updated on August 8, 2025
While 2025 has brought alarming setbacks to Indigenous rights—from violent state repression to sweeping environmental rollbacks—it has also been a year of extraordinary resilience and progress. Around the world, Indigenous communities have secured powerful victories including many landmark legal rulings, bold policy reforms, and hard-won agreements that shift the balance of power toward Indigenous governance and self-determination.
As we mark the UN International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, we honor not only the struggles that remain, but also the victories that show what’s possible when Indigenous leadership is respected, and rights are upheld. These wins, hard-earned and deeply consequential, remind us that the global movement for Indigenous justice is not only surviving—it is thriving.
Finland’s parliament passed a long-awaited amendment to the Sámi Parliament Act on June 19, 2025, securing a sweeping victory for Sámi self-determination after more than three decades of stalled reform. The law was approved by a decisive 150–27 vote, replacing the controversial “Lapp criterion” (which tied Sámi electoral eligibility to traditional livelihoods) with criteria rooted in Sámi-defined identity (ensuring that only the Sámi themselves determine who can vote in and stand for Sámi Parliament elections).
The amended act, prepared in cooperation with the Sámi Parliament, marks a landmark shift toward Indigenous-led governance and cultural autonomy in Finland.
Now let’s look at Taiwan, where a new pilot program has been launched that will let five Indigenous nations test a new tribal council system. Established under Article 2-1 of Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples Basic Law, the initiative will allow the selected group of nations enter into contracts, manage public affairs, and receive funding independently—powers long mediated by central or municipal authorities.
This initiative marks another groundbreaking shift in recognizing Indigenous self-governance at a legal and institutional level, by offering a tangible path toward sovereignty and cultural agency across Taiwan.
In June 2025, a Brazilian federal court issued an injunction that halted a proposed U.S.–based carbon trading project in the Alto Turiaçu rainforest—ancestral territory of the Ka’apor people in Maranhão state. The project sought to generate and sell carbon credits based on the Ka’apor’s forest stewardship. However, Indigenous leaders filed a lawsuit asserting the company failed to secure Free, Prior, and Informed Consent as required by Brazil’s constitution and ILO Convention 169.
The halted project underscores broader tensions in carbon offset politics, where commercial interests often clash with Indigenous rights. For now, the court’s suspension stands until the legality of Wildlife Works’ consultation process is fully assessed. It represents a pivotal victory for the Ka’apor and a precedent for Indigenous-led scrutiny over future climate-finance initiatives.
A coalition of Indigenous communities from across the Pacific Islands have launched a groundbreaking initiative to establish the world’s first Indigenous-led ocean reserve. The new plan, announced at the 2025 UN Ocean Conference, aims to protect marine biodiversity spanning approximately 6 million km² (an area comparable to the Amazon rainforest) across Melanesia and New Caledonia’s protected zones.
This initiative aims not only to preserve biodiversity—including 75% of known coral species and over 3,000 fish species—but also to elevate Indigenous stewardship and cultural sovereignty. Already, local communities have informally protected more than 150,000 km², and the reserve will formalize Indigenous governance over these ancestral waters.
Now we head to Nepal, where the Supreme Court has issued a key order that directs all levels of government—local, provincial, and federal—to fully implement ILO Convention No. 169, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). While both frameworks have existed on paper for years, they were never properly enforced in Nepal’s domestic legal system. That’s now changed.
The Court’s ruling mandates that all national laws, public policies, and development projects be aligned with the principles of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). This means Indigenous Peoples must be consulted, and must consent, before any government or company can move forward with plans that affect their lands, cultures, or ways of life. The decision also requires the protection of Indigenous languages, traditional knowledge, and governance systems. In short, it recognizes Indigenous Peoples not just as communities, but as rights-bearing nations within the state.
Raúl Pineda, former mayor of San Francisco de Ojuera in western Honduras, and his deputy Plutarco Mejía Cardona were found guilty of abusing their authority in granting construction permits for the Agua Zarca Dam in 2010 without considering the rights of Indigenous peoples.
The Agua Zarca project gained internationally notoriety following the 2016 murder of Indigenous leader Berta Cáceres who became a figurehead for Lenca opposition to the dam. The organization that she had co-founded, the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), released a statement at the onset of the latest trial: “At COPINH, we firmly denounce that the imposition of the Agua Zarca project was illegal, illegitimate, and violated the fundamental rights of Indigenous peoples… This trial is an opportunity to reaffirm a historical truth: without prior consultation, there is no legitimacy or legality in any project that affects Indigenous territories.”
In Australia, traditional owners have secured the right to veto mining operations near Juukan Gorge, the site of a 46,000-year-old sacred cave that was destroyed by Rio Tinto in 2020. The new agreement—reached after years of public outcry and negotiation—grants the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples substantial control over mining approvals in their territory.
While some view the move as a turning point in Indigenous-mining relations, others stress that it should never have taken a disaster to recognize these rights. Still, the agreement marks a significant shift in how major companies must engage with First Nations governance going forward.
A similar story from Canada, the Tŝilhqot’in Nation and Taseko Mines reached a precedent-setting agreement over the controversial New Prosperity mine project.
Outflow of Upper Taseko Lake. Photo Kevin Teague/flickr (CC BY 2.0)
For decades, the Tŝilhqot’in fought this project in court — and won historic recognition of their Aboriginal title. Now, instead of endless lawsuits, they have secured an agreement that no mining can happen without their explicit consent. They will hold a 22.5% interest in the project area, and crucially, they will decide if any development happens at all. It’s a powerful step toward replacing Canada’s colonial model of ‘consult and extract’.
In other Canadian news, Canada’s Federal Court approved a class action settlement for survivors of its notorious Indian Hospitals. Between the 1930s and 1980s, thousands of Indigenous people were forcibly segregated in these hospitals, often facing abuse, medical experimentation, and the trauma of isolation from family and community.
Now, survivors can access individual compensation, plus a healing fund and commemoration initiatives. It’s a step — just a step — toward acknowledging the deep scars of Canada’s colonial legacy. It also reminds us that apology without repair is hollow.
Over the past year, we have also seen a notable shift on the international front with Indigenous rights and needs becoming a key component of many decision making bodies. For instance, at RightsCon 2025, Indigenous voices led the call for digital sovereignty and resilience. At the UN Permanent Forum, Indigenous leaders and health experts influenced the design of a Global Plan of Action for Indigenous health. At COP16, UN members approved a permanent decision-making body for Indigenous and local communities, ensuring direct access to biodiversity funding via the new “Cali Fund”.
Hundreds of Indigenous leaders and community members also gathered in Brazzaville for the historic First Global Congress. Organized by the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities in partnership with Rights and Resources Initiative, this summit produced the Brazzaville Declaration—a unified, cross-regional roadmap that demands urgent actions on forest governance and climate justice.
Taken together, these victories offer more than momentary relief—they point to a growing global shift, where Indigenous Peoples are not only defending their rights but reshaping the systems that have long denied them. From the Amazon to the Arctic, from courtrooms to ocean summits, Indigenous communities are reclaiming governance, asserting sovereignty, and setting new standards for justice, sustainability, and self-determination. These wins are not accidental; they are the result of tireless organizing, ancestral knowledge, legal expertise, and generations of resistance.
As we mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, let these stories remind us that the path forward is not paved by governments alone, but by the hands of those who steward the land, waters, and cultures that sustain life itself.
Across the world right now, Indigenous peoples are facing a renewed assault on their lands, rights, and ways of life.
From extractive industries pushing deeper into ancestral territories, to governments rolling back hard-won protections,
the threat is global—and it is growing.
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