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Fossil fuel-based mega projects displace locals in Bangladesh, pushing youth out
(news.mongabay.com)
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Indigenous leaders confront overlapping crises at UN, as climate and conflict collide
(indiginews.com)
Illustration by Carrie Johnson/Grist, photos courtesy Getty Images
This story is a collaboration between IndigiNews, Te Ao Māori News and Grist, and is published through the Indigenous News Alliance.
Twenty years after more than 100 countries adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the rights and lives of those it is meant to protect remain under constant threat from compounding crises.
Indigenous lands are battered by record-breaking storms, dessicated by drought, scorched by wildfires, and vanishing under rising seas.
Amid these climate-driven threats, Indigenous peoples continue dying by the hundreds in wars and while defending their lands, even as they are persecuted by government officials.
“Climate change, militarization, extractivism, and legal marginalization reinforce one another,” said Binota Moy Dhamai, Tripura from the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, and a former chair of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP).
This week, hundreds of Indigenous delegates are in Geneva at the 19th annual gathering of that UN body, to find solutions to these abuses and push all countries to more proactively protect Indigenous peoples everywhere.
EMRIP, one of three UN organizations focused exclusively on Indigenous peoples, is composed of seven Indigenous experts, each representing a different region.
As part of the UN Human Rights Council, they focus on developing the data, recommendations, and advice to shape international standards for the fundamental rights of Indigenous peoples and support their enforcement.
READ MORE: At the UN, Mohawk leader calls for UNDRIP watchdogs to ensure standards are met
This year’s session will see Indigenous leaders, governments, and experts for a week of discussions and debates.
Across the week, meetings are expected to cover both longstanding and emerging issues affecting Indigenous peoples, including inadequate disaster relief, artificial intelligence, and resource extraction.
For many Indigenous leaders around the world, the stakes could not be any higher, given the overlapping existential threats of violent conflict and climate change.
“Indigenous peoples always face the brunt of conflict,” said Valmaine Toki, who is Māori and the EMRIP member representing the Pacific region.
Conflict, she said, leads to the dispossession of, and alienation from, their traditional lands even as the people from whom they are stolen are drawn into those fights.
“It’s a lose-lose situation for Indigenous peoples on all fronts,” she said.
Māori law professor Valmaine Toki, Pacific region representative to the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP). Photo courtesy United Nations
Intersecting issues
This year, those gathering in Geneva face a growing list of intersecting issues, including militarization, climate change, extractive industries, biodiversity decline, and digital transformation, Dhamai said.
For Indigenous peoples in the Pacific, for instance, climate change and colonization are inextricably linked.
Those from the South Pacific nation New Caledonia have been part of the Pacific-led effort to hold large countries responsible for the crisis and its impact.
Viro Xulue, who is Kanak and the Human Rights and Indigenous Rights advisor for the Drehu Customary Council, which is a traditional Kanak governance body, said such work is part of the ongoing fight for true independence.
READ MORE: Indigenous peoples bear the brunt of climate change — but get almost none of the money to fight it
“It’s important for us in the process of decolonization,” Xulue said, “because it’s to respect the self-determination and what we want for our future, what we want for our children, and what we want to protect our resources, our moana [ocean], and our dream for the next generation.”
Despite legal victories — such as a 2025 advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice that countries that contribute to climate change are accountable for the damage it has caused — the Indigenous people of New Caledonia are still fighting for their full rights.
“The inequity for Kanak people is always here since 170 years of colonization,” Xulue said.
“The injustice is always here for the Indigenous Kanak. They didn’t resolve the problem of the colonization and the impact of the colonization.”
A wildfire burns out of control along the Coquihalla Highway in 2021. Photo by David P. Ball
Involvement in decision-making
Although the challenges facing Indigenous peoples vary across regions, those attending EMRIP plan to discuss several common themes.
One of them is the ongoing fight for Indigenous involvement in government decision-making. Many countries do not follow international standards, and there is widespread agreement among Indigenous peoples that say they should be included in discussions that could impact them and their land.
In northern “Ontario,” for example, the “Canadian” government has granted mining rights on the vast wetland ecosystem known as the Breathing Lands.
It is part of the Ring of Fire mineral deposit and holds enormous stores of nickel and other valuable metals. It is also a massive carbon sink and a key biodiversity hub.
Extraction projects are proceeding despite strong resistance from First Nations in the area, including the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which represents 49 communities.
READ MORE: Mining reps at the UN promise Indigenous consultation — but things look different on the ground
Kohen Mattinas of Lac Seul First Nation and Constance Lake First Nation is representing Nishnawbe Aski Nation at EMRIP and says that the right of all Indigenous peoples to free, prior, and informed consent must be respected.
Mattinas is also the co-founder of Okiniwak, a youth organization created in response to “Canadian” legislation that allows projects to be “advanced through an accelerated process.”
In addition to its international advocacy, Okiniwak organizes events on Indigenous land.
“We’ve taken it upon ourselves to protect the land and our rights on the front lines,” he said.
For Mattinas, attending EMRIP is an important part of that work.
“Through speaking at these international forums, we’re also able to connect with other Indigenous people around the world who are either facing the same things, or they face similar things,” he said, “and we just kind of learn from each other, bring back that knowledge home, or we are able to collaborate in ways to strengthen both of our messaging or our work.”
Kohen Mattinas, of Lac Seul First Nation and Constance Lake First Nation, addresses the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in ‘New York City’ on April 28. Screenshot courtesy United Nations
Those connections can be even more valuable for Indigenous people from countries that do not recognize their legal status, such as Botswana.
Nichodimas Cooper, who is Indigenous Nama from that nation, said that lack of recognition makes it difficult to bring change on the national level. Cooper said his people face forced assimilation and displacement, and EMRIP offers a unique opportunity to put external pressure on countries.
“We find it as a very important platform that empowers Indigenous peoples like us,” he said.
“We hardly have such a privilege as Indigenous communities to resource ourselves to attend these platforms and be able to inform ourselves on the mechanisms or platforms that are able to make impact within our advocacy’s hope.”
READ MORE: ‘Very concerned’: UN Indigenous Peoples forum impacted by ongoing funding crisis
New and emerging threats
But as Indigenous delegates continue building solidarity, new threats, like artificial intelligence, are emerging.
That has led to a push for data sovereignty and stronger protections against technologies being developed without free, prior, and informed consent.
Dhamai said he hopes EMRIP will provide guidance on these emerging issues, alongside climate finance and the global energy transition — because Indigenous perspectives must shape international standards, rather than respond to them.
This year’s session is also expected to be shaped by reflections on the approaching 20th anniversary of UNDRIP next year.
Nearly two decades after the declaration’s adoption, the central question facing delegates remains remarkably similar to the one asked in 2007: not whether Indigenous rights should be recognized, but whether governments are prepared to uphold them.
Valmaine Toki says that although progress can seem slow, EMRIP is important because it gives Indigenous peoples another avenue when domestic systems fail to address their concerns.
“We as Māori have to go to the UN as an avenue to address, highlight and platform our issues,” she said.
“It’s about putting peer pressure on member states to do the right thing.”
The post Indigenous leaders confront overlapping crises at UN, as climate and conflict collide appeared first on Indiginews.
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Undercount of Native homeless population in Seattle highlights bigger data collection concerns
(ictnews.org)
Nika Bartoo-Smith
Underscore Native News + ICT
KING COUNTY, Washington — Data collection methods on Native communities continue to be flawed, especially by the federal government. The latest example is King County’s 2026 Point-In-Time Count (PIT Count) of unsheltered individuals.
The King County Regional Homelessness Authority report showed that 4.2 percent of unsheltered individuals self-identified as American Indian, Alaska Native or Indigenous. The count happens every two years.
However, leadership at both Chief Seattle Club, a Native-led housing organization, and the Seattle Indian Health Board, a Native-led community health center, agree that that number is likely closer to the 2020 count which was 15 percent.
While these two Native serving organizations that are on the frontlines of addressing homelessness believe that the count method itself is flawed, others argue that it’s not about the method, but the collection process itself.
This latest count emphasizes the larger issue of data collection and the tangible harms it can cause in Native communities, according to Abigail Echo-Hawk, a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma.
Banners during the annual Memorial Walk hosted by Chief Seattle Club display the names of members the organization serves who have passed on. (Hillary Cagey / Sheoletze Media for Chief Seattle Club)
Echo-Hawk is the vice president of the Seattle Indian Health Board and director of the tribal epidemiology center there, the Urban Indian Health Institute.
“The relatives that I serve are going to suffer as a direct result, as funds will be misallocated based on bad data because of the lack of representation of American Indians, Alaska Natives in this report, and Native people will suffer, and Native people will die,” she said.
A flawed method?
Since 2022, the PIT Count in King County has been conducted using a data collection method called respondent-driven sampling.
The PIT Count, mandated by the federal department of Housing and Urban Development, is conducted in a single night and is supposed to provide a snapshot of homelessness across the country.
Essentially, this method involves setting up hub sites around the city then finding people experiencing homelessness around each site. Those people are asked to take a survey, then given coupons and asked to recruit other people experiencing homelessness, according to Zack Almquist, a professor of sociology at the University of Washington who designed King County’s respondent-driving sampling method.
Following the surveys, those responses are used to estimate a larger population figure based on the collected sample.
During the count this year, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority had more than 150 community volunteers surveying at nearly 30 locations across the county.
“[The method is] specifically built for getting hard to reach populations and underserved populations,” said Almquist.
But some people are concerned with the respondent-driven sampling method as a whole and argue it does not work for the urban Indigenous population in King County.
“The methodology is flawed. Period,” Echo-Hawk said. “The flaw starts out with the beginning of the recruitment process.”
For Chief Seattle Club, there is a three-pronged issue with the respondent-driven sampling methodology, according to Margaret Faliano, Chippewa Cree, communications director for the organization. First, the sampling is an approach that relies on individual incentives.
“We’ve seen this in all messaging, like for instance in COVID, to get Indian Country vaccinated,” Faliano said. “Messages that focused on yourself did not work. Messages that focused on the collective, on the elders, on the youth, on the next seven generations, that worked.”
Second, she said that the data collection sites themselves were largely not spaces where Native people experiencing homelessness are accessing services, as there was no coordination with organizations like Chief Seattle Club and the Seattle Indian Health Board.
Third, as with other federally compiled data, there is a multiracial category that does not break down further. This means that if someone identifies as Native and any other race, they are put into the multiracial category, not the Native category.
According to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority 2026 count, 9 percent of individuals identified as multiracial.
“The multiracial category was a throwback to when they considered the United States to be a melting pot. The intention with that category was to eliminate culture, and when we look at that multiracial category, it is from what I consider, and have told every epidemiologist I know, a trash data category,” Echo-Hawk said. “There is no ability to truly analyze what is happening within that multiracial category, and that’s intentional.”
The federal reporting standards are the issue, not the method itself, according to Almquist.
The federal government’s definition for American Indian and Alaska Native is the first challenge.
“When they’re collecting data, the American Indian, Alaska Native definition is inclusive of all people Indigenous to North, Central or South America,” Robert Maxim, Mashpee Wampanoag citizen and a fellow at Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., told ICT. “And so that becomes a challenge because that’s a much broader definition than who the federal government offers service to and has a government-to-government relationship with, which is just enrolled citizens of federally recognized tribes.”
Almquist did also acknowledge a need to build trust and work closely with the Indigenous community in preparation for the next count in 2028.
“I think a lot of the pushback is maybe being mischaracterized on the method and [it’s] more on the federal reporting standards that are required. The federal definition for some of the subgroups, especially the way that it handles multiracial categories, excessively hides the size of many of these populations, and one of the things that really needs to happen is a local report that disambiguates that, so we can see how big the populations really are,” Almquist said.
What can be done
While there is disagreement on if the respondent-driven sampling method itself is suitable for the PIT Count, the fact remains that the Native community experiencing homelessness in King County is being drastically undercounted which can have major consequences for funding.
“The math might work if the appropriate trust existed in order to get the sample size or the unit engagement from the respondents themselves,” Echo-Hawk continued. “The math doesn’t matter if the input of the data is bad.”
Almquist, Echo-Hawk and Derrick Belgarde, chief executive officer of Chief Seattle Club, all agree that there needs to be more engagement with the Indigenous community in Seattle prior to the next PIT Count.
While Almquist proposed unpacking the numbers on a local level, particularly when it comes to the multiracial category, Echo-Hawk and Belgarde believe the respondent-driven sampling method should be done away with all together, as the methods should be Native-informed from the beginning.
“They’re always just focused on creating these one size fits all tools of whatever they’re doing in this case, data collection,” Belgarde, Siletz and Chippewa Cree, said. “The issue is that they developed a tool, put it out there that we said ain’t work, and now instead of scrapping it and figuring out a way that’s more equitable for all communities, they’re just focused on using it and trying to get our input on how they can make it better. But they can’t. It’s fundamentally flawed.”
For now, both Belgarde and Echo-Hawk agree that the King County Regional Homelessness Authority should issue an acknowledgement that this data is flawed and this should not be considered or used when it comes to any funding or other analysis.
UNN + ICT reached out to King County Regional Homelessness Authority for comment, and did not hear back from them prior to publication.
This story is co-published by Underscore Native News and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest.
The post Undercount of Native homeless population in Seattle highlights bigger data collection concerns appeared first on ICT.
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When Super Typhoon Rai — equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane — began battering Batasan Island in Bohol, Philippines in December 2021, Trixy Elle and her husband, two children, and father waded into the storm, fearing they would be trapped in their home. Holding on to one another, they were determined not to let go.
By morning, the house Elle and her husband had spent years building was gone. So was much of the island. They were left with just the clothes on their backs. In the days that followed, the family survived in conditions that stripped life to its barest terms, at one point, eating livestock they had found dead in the storm’s aftermath.
“As a mother, it was up to me to find ways to feed my family,” Elle, a fish vendor, told The Xylom. “It got to the point where we were eating dead chickens, dead pigs. We got to that point because the government’s response took so long.”
The 35-year-old mother felt a deep sense of injustice. The typhoon — locally known as Odette — affected 10.6 million people in the Philippines, killing more than 400 and displacing 1.4 million from their homes. Elle began to question why communities like hers had to endure such devastation despite contributing so little to the climate crisis. “Why are we the ones struggling the most?”
That question propelled her towards climate justice. In December 2025, 67 survivors of the typhoon sued Shell at the Royal Courts of Justice, arguing that the company’s historic emissions contributed to climate change and so worsened disasters like Rai, seeking compensation for the damages caused. Shell did not respond to The Xylom’s requests for comment.
Residents salvage belongings from their destroyed homes in the coastal town of Dulag in Leyte province on December 17, 2021, a day after Super Typhoon Rai hit. Bobbie Alota/AFP via Getty Images
The plaintiffs also contended that Shell has known since the 1960s about the risks climate change posed to vulnerable communities and the role its operations played in worsening those risks. Scientists agree that climate change is making storms like Rai more frequent and more intense.
The case is said to be the first civil case to directly link a major fossil fuel giant to deaths and injuries from climate impacts in the Global South.
Asia lags in climate litigation
Climate litigation has surged globally over the past decade, but the Global South — home to many of the world’s most climate-vulnerable communities — still accounts for less than 10% of the cases.
As of mid-2025, 3,099 climate change cases had been filed, with nearly two-thirds of all cases stemming from the United States, according to the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Excluding the U.S., Europe accounts for the largest share of climate cases at 32%. Asia and Africa are the least represented at 6% and 2%, respectively.
“I remember years ago people would say climate litigation would never take off in Asia because it’s not part of the Asian culture to fight poverty and … to litigate,” Jolene Lin, director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law, said.
Lin disagrees with this line of thinking: she believes that the biggest obstacles to climate litigation stem from weak rule of law.
Read Next
The Pacific won a landmark climate case at the world’s top court. Now they want countries to act.
“In Asia, there are many jurisdictions where judicial corruption is a problem [as well as] the lack of judicial independence,” Lin said. Many judges across the region are still unfamiliar with climate litigation and tend to shy away from such cases, she added.
Another challenge is the shrinking space for activism. In several countries, restrictions on free speech and association make it harder to organize, campaign, and bring cases to court.
Still, more people across Asia are turning to the courts. Lin described 2024 as a “particularly meaningful year” for climate litigation in the region.
That year, South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled that parts of the country’s Carbon Neutrality Act were unconstitutional because they failed to protect the rights of future generations. The case was filed by the environmental organization Youth 4 Climate Action in South Korea, a youth-led movement that leads climate strikes and advocates for clean energy.
Alongside this, the Supreme Court of India recognized protection from the adverse impacts of climate change as a fundamental constitutional right. It stemmed from efforts to protect a critically endangered bird, the Great Indian Bustard, amid concerns that the birds were being killed by collisions with overhead power transmission lines linked to expanding renewable energy infrastructure.
Similar legal challenges are now emerging elsewhere in Asia. In January, a Malaysian climate watchdog sued the federal government in a first-of-its-kind greenwashing case. The complaint alleges a fossil fuel company falsely marketed a fossil fuel-based product as “carbon neutral.”
Read Next
At the UN, Indigenous leaders tackle how to enforce global climate court rulings
Anita Hofschneider & Joseph Lee
Win or lose, the case matters. As Malaysia’s first climate litigation, it will test how judges interpret climate obligations under existing laws and expose where resistance lies, which will create a roadmap for future cases, said Kuberan Hansrajh Kumaresan, head of legal advocacy at Malaysia-based environmental watchdog RimbaWatch.
In April, Malaysian youths sued the government over deforestation, asking the court to enforce the country’s pledge to maintain at least 50% forest cover. They argue continued forest loss threatens generations to come.
“My peers are losing hope for a decent future. It feels like we are more and more out of control of our lives. We cannot sit and continue to watch our government risk our future with every tree they cut down,” Amira Aliya, the youngest applicant in the case, said in a statement.
Cases abroad
Plaintiffs are also increasingly filing cases outside their home countries. The Super Typhoon Rai survivors filed their case in the United Kingdom because Shell is headquartered there. This is a strategic move, as according to Jefferson Chua, a campaigner with Greenpeace Philippines, courts in jurisdictions like the U.K. have more developed climate jurisprudence and stronger mechanisms for assessing corporate responsibility.
Similar cases have increasingly been filed outside plaintiffs’ home countries. For example, in 2023, four residents of Pari Island in Indonesia — where rising sea levels have caused persistent flooding — filed a litigation against the construction company Holcim. They are asking the Swiss cement giant to cut its emissions by 69% by 2040, relative to 2019 levels, as well as to compensate for damages already incurred and fund flood protection measures. The Cantonal Court of Zug in Switzerland admitted the case in December last year.
“[We] don’t contribute to island damage, but our island is now threatened by tidal floods and will be submerged because of the company’s activity,” said Arif Pujianto, a 55-year-old resident of Pari Island.
Ibu Asmania, also a plaintiff in the case against Holcim, said they have the right and the responsibility to protect their island because the place where their families are born is at stake.
The case is still in early stages, but it has already had ripple effects. It has been cited in an Australian challenge to a coal mine permit, and in Switzerland, major commercial law firms have issued alerts to corporate clients warning of the legal risks associated with high emissions, said Johannes Wendland, a legal advisor at HEKS-EPER Swiss Church Aid, which supports the Pari plaintiffs.
Justice in a changing climate
Lin expects a continued rise in climate lawsuits in Asia as awareness grows that the window to act on climate change is narrowing. She also anticipates more cases focused on “loss and damage,” with plaintiffs seeking compensation for climate-related harms.
The rise in climate litigation reflects a broader strategy of seeking accountability on multiple fronts. “This is a very powerful tool for affected communities in the fight for climate justice, but it’s not the only tool,” Wendland said. “It’s not a silver bullet.”
Beyond setting legal precedents, these cases are also creating space for affected communities to be heard and to act.
“What we really want is to inspire other communities to say that this is actually possible,” Greenpeace Philippines’ campaigner Chua said. “We can hold big companies like Shell accountable. And that’s something that even if it takes time, it will take years to do it [and] it’s still possible.”
For litigants like Elle, the fight is about the future.
“That’s what I hope I can do, even though I’m just an ordinary person,” she said. “If one day my grandchildren ask me what I did for nature, at least I have an answer: I fought for your future.”
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Climate-impacted communities across Asia are taking their fight to court on Jul 13, 2026.
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