Last Thursday, Iranian legal scholar Honey Mogani was scheduled to attend a private meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, where more than a dozen Indigenous experts from around the world.
However, Mogani was more than 5,000 miles away in Iran and was waiting for her visa to arrive.
“It’s very stressful,” she said.
Mogani is one of them. 16 core members of A permanent forum on the issue of UN indigenous peoplesor Unpfii, the highest-ranking body within the United Nations system, dealing directly with indigenous concerns and was appointed by the United Nations in 2023. She has not been explained as to why her visa is delayed.
According to interviews with Indigenous advocacy groups and forum participants, obtaining a visa from Iran to the US is not easy, but I have experienced a similar delay two years ago. Their difficulties for the US will come as the Trump administration will strengthen border control and increase deportation. Includes targeting of pro-Palestinian activists.
UNPFII is The largest convened of indigenous peoples around the world A place where supporters talk about issues ranging from climate disasters to the impacts of important mineral extraction in Indigenous communities. Mogani still holds hope that she might receive a visa, and says the Permanent Forum is an important place to assert Indigenous rights.
“This is a matter of justice: the right to full and effective participation of all Indigenous people,” Mogani said.
Visa’s challenges are so prominent this year that all three UN offices representing Indigenous peoples are now in a permanent forum, expert mechanisms on Indigenous rights, and special rapporteurs on Indigenous rights – This month’s letter It calls on UN Member States to “take all necessary steps to promote the timely issuance of visas and ensure unhindered access to all Indigenous participants and obligated owners invited to attend UN conferences and forums.”
“Unfortunately, recent experiences highlight the challenges in issuing visas and access to meetings. Access to venues jeopardizes the meaningful involvement of Indigenous participants in critical discussions,” their joint letter states. “These barriers can have great consequences for including Indigenous voices at the international level.”
Kevin Johnson, dean of law at the University of California, Davis, said the delays were not surprising given that there has been a slowdown in visa approval since Trump took office in January.
“The Trump administration has turned immigration policies into his mind,” he said. “Even if it’s a UN event, I don’t think it’s a priority for the Trump administration.”
The permanent forum on Indigenous Issues was established in 2002 after decades of lobbying by Indigenous supporters who felt the UN system had failed to address Indigenous needs with a focus on UN member states. Since then, indigenous representatives have gathered at the United Nations headquarters in New York City each year to talk about the most pressing issues facing communities, from mercury poisoning to the oil pipeline that snakes through their homeland.
At the end of the 10-day gathering, the forum’s 16 experts (appointed on revolving conditions) write a report summarizing the concerns and pass the information on it to the UN agency or member. For example, in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, the forum works helped to promote UNICEF. Issuing a call to action Affirms the right to education for Indigenous children after the pandemic has prompted widespread school closures. Hannah McGrade, an indigenous Klein Minan Nouger and an Australian human rights lawyer, has been one of these experts since 2019. The forum said it is a valuable opportunity for Indigenous peoples to not only raise awareness of intergovernmental concerns, but also to raise responses to national leaders’ responses.
“It’s not a perfect system, but it’s the only system we can use when our own problems are often unable to be addressed and resolved in our country,” she said.
As UN member states also send appointed representatives to the forum, the assembly provides an opportunity for Indigenous supporters to access high-level government officials who may otherwise not be available to or may not be addressing their concerns.
Every year, the forum addresses a different theme – last year Focusing on indigenous youth – And this year we are focusing on what UN member states are, not to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples. Participants want to provide suggestions on how to do better.
The theme is not about the environment, but the forum is expected to discuss the challenges facing Indigenous people as they want mine. cobalt, lithium Also, many of the other minerals considered essential to transitioning dependence from fossil fuels on energy are found in Indigenous territory. Already, the United States has been accused of ignoring Indigenous rights by allowing multiple tribal nations in the region to negotiate new lithium mines in Nevada on sacred land.
This year’s forum will also weigh the recommendations from several reports written in the preparations for the assembly, two of which address the impact of important mineral extraction in Indigenous communities. Another co-authored by McGlade argues that state governments should create laws that reflect the rights of Indigenous peoples under international law.
Moghani and McGlade also worked on another study of how Indigenous peoples are disproportionately hurt by war and how they should be incorporated into peacebuilding efforts.
But supporters say it is difficult for Indigenous people to have these conversations and advocate for their communities when many people are unable to attend. There is no figure on how many potential attendees have refused or delayed their visas, but experts say many have chosen not to even try.
“I have received a lot of emails and calls from people, representatives of Indigenous people, who are trying to decide whether or not to come to the US at this point because the hostility of people coming from other countries is recognized.
Gabriel Chin, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, said since January the Trump administration’s immigration policy has been trying to make the United States feel difficult to live in if it is not deemed undesirable.
“If you’re self-selecting to keep people from coming, the policy is working,” he said.
Nati Garcia, a staff member of the Cultural Survival for a nonprofit advocacy group, said she knows four people whose visa applications were denied to participate in the Permanent Forum.
“We are definitely worried about the situation,” she said. “That is what motivates us to be more active in being there in expressing our concerns.
Bolero said that concerns about this year’s visas have suggested that future forums will be held in other countries and even online.
“It’s not just in the US, it’s generally becoming difficult everywhere for Indigenous people,” he said. As in the last year, some Indigenous supporters said they were not discouraged from participating in the forum due to possible backlash from the state government. That’s a shame for Bolero, a longtime supporter at the United Nations and who says the annual gathering of the Forum in New York City is a unique and important space for Indigenous peoples.
“This helps us to build a movement and truly call on us to respect our rights as Indigenous people,” Bolero said. “It’s important that we continue doing that.”
