 Mohan, welcome to Cooper Union, what's happening with human rights around the world. Today we're focusing on the UN permanent forum on indigenous issues, indigenous peoples impacting international institutions, looking at the indigenous peoples strategies at the historic 20th session, taking place now at the UN headquarters. I'm very fortunate to be joined by two amazing activists. First, Brian Keen, founder of Landis Life, one of the historic NGOs really building a movement to make sure indigenous peoples voice is heard at the international arena. He also played a huge role with USAID to develop policy that impacts indigenous rights around the world. And most recently was the representative to the UN permanent forum for North America, but also the rapporteur for three full years, showing the confidence that the world has and his ability to crystallize all those conversations and comments made during the two week session to the recommendations that can then change the conditions on the ground. And also with Priscilla Kim-Om, a youth participating in her first UN permanent forum. And I'd like to welcome you both, Brian, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, Josh, it's nice to be here. Brian, could you maybe share what were some of the highlights of the first week that took place last week? I know one important event was that the first cabinet indigenous member of the United States, Secretary of Interior, Deb Hallen, gave one of the main speeches at the opening of the permanent forum. Could you maybe highlight some of her speeches? And I know Anna Norgum was elected as the chair again for the permanent forum, a Sami woman who also focuses on Fisher rights. Could you maybe share some of the highlights of both of their speeches that you saw that are really important for indigenous peoples around the world? Sure, well, I think to put it into context, this is the 20th anniversary of the forum, as you mentioned. And this comes after almost a hundred years of indigenous peoples trying to get a voice within the UN first. It was the League of Nations, with Descahey, the great Iroquois leader who went to Geneva to try to get the Onondaga peoples' right to self-determination recognized by the League of Nations. He was not let in. And then indigenous peoples continued over nearly a century to try to get a voice that led to the creation of the UN working group on indigenous populations in the 70s, which led to the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, the permanent forum, the export mechanisms. So we've got all these infrastructure now within the UN that indigenous peoples have a voice. It might not be as strong as we would like to see it, but they do have a voice within the UN system. So we go from 98 years ago, the door being closed to indigenous peoples, to the opening session of this year's 20th anniversary forum. We had Secretary Holland speaking and the vice president of Bolivia speaking, both indigenous. So I think it was pretty historic. And I think that Secretary Holland's speaking, I think her message was pretty clear that, the U.S. is back, where concerned with human rights, the Biden administration is gonna take these issues seriously and is going to be promoting indigenous peoples' rights, not just in the United States, but around the world. And we'll do that through foreign policy and foreign assistance. Yes, and so I think this is a very historic moment and I think that the forum, although it's different this year because of the COVID pandemic, they're only meeting two hours per day publicly. But I think that it provides a good opportunity for the forum members to do something new with their report. I'm not sure what they're going to do, but as you know, over the first 20 years, the forum just generated recommendations and recommendations and recommendations. And there was no, a lot of them don't go, aren't listened to by governments, by UN agencies and things like that. So I think this is a good moment for the forum to sort of reflect on how they want to write the report. And maybe put a little bit more analysis, a bit more of the viewpoints of the forum members into the report and less recommendations because after 20 years, a lot of the times they're repetitive, the recommendations. We need to focus on seeing how we can get governments to act on the recommendations that have already been made. Really good points. And it's one of those aspects. It was historic that on July 28, 2000, resolution 2000, backslash 2022 did create the forum. And it was important because it also, as you pointed out, brought into a whole lot of areas, economic and social development, culture, environment, education, health and human rights. And as you talked about it, it really is a focus now, I'd say not only on the ideas, as you said, with all the recommendations, but really focusing more on the implementation. Did you hear anything new from Chair Norgum about how it might move forward or certain areas that she wanted to focus on as well? I know she did talk about missing women and Indigenous girls. She brought up a lot of different examples about what's going on. What are some of those highlights you'd like to share? Yeah, so I think that one thing is that this current COVID crisis that we're going through with the past year has really brought out a lot of the inequalities that still exist for Indigenous peoples. A lot of them, they still are lacking access to healthcare. They lag behind all other segments of the population in all of the development indicators. And I know Norgum highlighted that in her opening statement. And she also talked about the theme of this year's forum, which is peace, justice, and strong institutions, the role of Indigenous peoples in implementing Sustainable Development Goal 16. Now, Sustainable Development Goal 16, the goal is to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, to provide access to justice for all and to build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels. And so she asked the questions, how can this be done? How do we guarantee access to justice for all? What do effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions look like? And what kind of recommendations can the forum propose to move us towards realization of this SDG 16? She also pointed out that the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples really makes clear what Indigenous peoples' rights are. And you've got the individual rights, human rights, like everyone has, and then Indigenous peoples also have collective rights. And those can be sort of distilled as the right to self-determination, as well as collective ownership of lands, territories, resources, and knowledge. And so how do we incorporate those collective rights into the Sustainable Development Goals? She also talked about how Sustainable Development Goal 16 is key to preventing conflict and solving conflict. So we see conflicts around the world that are mostly based on competition or natural resources. And a lot of the times these natural resources are in Indigenous peoples' territories. So Indigenous peoples have a key role to play in building peace, creating peace. And then as you said, she talked about the individual conflict that's happening and she highlighted the point about missing and murdered Indigenous women, which is a huge problem all around the world. Here in the United States and in Canada and Mexico on the border areas, it's a big problem that the governments really have to deal with, they formed a tri-national working group during the Obama administration. And then that kind of wasn't so supported by the last administration. And now that President Biden is in office and now that Secretary Holland is in Interior Department, they have picked up the ball again on this issue and Secretary Harlan recently created a special unit within the Department of Interior to investigate these issues and try to find out what's going on and find solutions. So I think those are kind of what she highlighted as these problems and then linked the problems to, you know, they don't just happen in a vacuum that Indigenous, as we see governments like in the Philippines and other places as they criminalize Indigenous peoples, they enact new legislation, terrorism legislation in order to delegitimize what Indigenous people are doing to protect their lands and resources. Hand in hand with that, we see increases in violence, increased killings. And sometimes, and I pointed this out in her statement, sometimes it's done by military, sometimes it's done by paramilitary and sometimes it's done by paramilitary and military working together. So, and I guess the last point I'll mention that she brought up, which is very important which was something that Indigenous people have been working on for a long time is the idea of increased participation of Indigenous peoples in the UN system. As you know in 2014 at the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, governments committed to moving forward a process that would see increased participation of Indigenous peoples in the UN system. So, the idea is how do we, what kind of status will Indigenous peoples have? And so that examination or that process of dialogue on this issue kind of came to a halt because of COVID and Anne is urging the president of the General Assembly to pick that ball up again, appoint some Indigenous people and government representatives to move this process forward. And because I think Indigenous people have a lot to contribute to the whole UN process. Yeah, I agree. That was definitely the point she echoed about the contribution of Indigenous peoples wisdom. One, to prevent the harms, but two, she brought up a great point where I agree where she said, we proved for millennia that we could live in our lands without destroying it. And especially as you're looking at this new 2030 agenda of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, we have so much to offer and you really need to listen. And that takes me back. And the other point you brought up as well was the legislation. And I know we in Hawaii with MSA International was able to get a new study adopted at this legislature on missing women and Indigenous girls to look at a Hawaii perspective on that. And when you talked about that and you mentioned asking the world to listen, it brings me back to really where land is life was formed. There where Marcos Tarana was giving the only speech for Indigenous peoples at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. And he says, I'm here to tell you, but will you listen? And can you maybe share how land is life over the 20 years has brought Indigenous peoples from Africa to the Amazon to be able to give that message to the world and to provide that wisdom to the world on ways we can go forward together? Sure, as you mentioned, land is life was founded in 92. The UN was having their Earth Summit down in Rio and a group of Indigenous leaders decided to hold their own Earth Summit in a little valley outside of Rio. So we were able to build a village there and I think about 900 Indigenous leaders around the world showed up. Yeah, Marcos was the only Indigenous, they gave him seven minutes to speak to the Earth Summit and he made a very strong statement. He said, we're not here to play Indigenous, we're here to fight for life. And so that was the birth of land is life and that's what we've been trying to do now. It'll be 30 years next year. So when the forum was finally created, we thought that this, you know, now that Indigenous peoples have a space in the UN, a high level space that we really needed to support that. So a lot of effort, as you know, you helped every step of the way was made to make sure that Indigenous people could participate and that they could participate effectively. So over the first 20 years of the forum, we have, you know, funded, coordinated the participation of hundreds of Indigenous people at the permanent forum. And, you know, with you for most of those years in order to make sure that they participate effectively, we would hold three-day trainings just before the forum. And so I think that we've had a positive impact on the forum. One thing that we were talking about before coming on the air is, you know, the situation back, oh, it must be 15 years ago now in the Democratic Republic of Congo, reports of atrocities coming out there and against the Ambuti people. And so we had an Ambuti leader that we work with come to the forum and with the then first chair of the forum, only had Rek Maga, a Sami man who was the first chair. We were able to help him to get a meeting with the UN Security Council who then approved new peacekeeping forces to go to the DRC, the Democratic Republic of Congo. So it didn't solve everything, but I think it was an important milestone in the forum. And I think that that's something that, for me, we need to strengthen this year. So this year I've been asking the US government as well as the members of the forum to make recommendations on the idea of the Security Council making indigenous peoples a standing agenda item so that every time they meet they're being updated on the situation of indigenous peoples around the world's crisis situations and so that they can take the necessary action to make sure these situations don't get any worse and see if they can contribute to solving some of these conflict situations. Yes, and really the Zino Fasi is one example of really putting an indigenous issue on the international agenda because there was no action being taken. The people were being forced to kill their own members or be killed themselves, forced to eat them. And I remember taking him down to Amy Goodman to be on Democracy Now and the campaign that was really ignited around the world was at the permanent forum, was the entry point, but then it organized at the UN up to the Security Council getting more peacekeepers there earlier. And then of course the other side as you really started to get into is policy. And you also had a unique role being with USAID. Do you tell us how you were able to then even shift US government policies to have a positive ripple for indigenous rights around the world? Sure, so I, as you know, in 2013 I got a call out of the blue asking if I would be interested in taking on this new position that was created by Congress, by Senator Patrick Leahy of Advisor for Indigenous Peoples Issues for US Foreign Assistance. So I worked with USAID, State Department, Treasury because they make the decisions as to what the US votes, how the US votes at World Bank and regional development banks, I consider all that foreign assistance. And with the US missions to the UN in Rome, New York and Geneva, in order to advance Indigenous Peoples Issues. So we did a whole lot of things from creating interagency working groups on Indigenous Peoples Issues, working with the interagency on issues of environmental human rights defenders, strengthening the US position at the World Bank and at the regional development banks, how the US evaluates projects that are gonna be funded by World Bank or any of the regional development banks, how we will vote on those projects and really looking at what their impacts are gonna be on Indigenous Peoples, strengthening the US position on Indigenous Peoples at the UN. So, you know, while I was there, we supported strengthening of the expert mechanism on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, the outcome document, which mentions, you know, free prior and informed consent and two of the paragraphs, which the US would never kind of touch those words before. And then I think what I hope to be the most effective way is I developed a policy for USAID, the policy for promotion of the rights and interests of Indigenous Peoples. And it's a policy that sets the bar at free prior and informed consent for Indigenous Peoples for all programs and projects that have significant impacts on them. It's tailored to the way that USAID works so that it lays out step-by-step how Indigenous Peoples should be included in the development of development programs and projects in the implementation, in the evaluation, the monitoring. And so, but a policy is only as good as its implementation. So, the trick now is how do we ensure that the policy is fully implemented? And hopefully with this new administration and hopefully we'll have a really good administrator of USAID soon. It looks like some of the power will be the administrator of USAID. So I'm hoping that we'll get Congress to fund and USAID to commit to full and effective implementation of this policy. And then one more thing that I kind of try to, since I worked on this for so many years, I'm still pushing USAID and State Department and Treasury on these issues. I think that it would be good. What I'm trying to do now is to link up with LGBT organizations, persons with disabilities, gender rights organizations, youth organizations so that we can push the new USAID administrator to change the whole paradigm of how the US supports development so that we go at it from a human rights-based approach, whether it's Indigenous Peoples, LGBT, women, youth, persons with disabilities. We should be making sure that all of our development recognizes and supports their rights. Exactly, no, that's really good. Thanks for taking us on the end way that two decades of direct action and diplomacy from the grassroots to the global level and always showing how they're linked and definitely as well, the holistic human rights-based approach. We'll now go to Priscilla, who's there at the UN Permanent Forum for her first year ever. Fortunately, it's virtual. But Priscilla, what has been some of the highlights so far in the first week and a half for you as a Khmer Khrom youth? Thank you, Joshua. Yeah, as one of the interns at the Khmer Skopje Khrom Federation, I was so honored to be able to directly contribute to the work of KKF at the Permanent Forum as well as give a speech. I think giving the speech was definitely one of the highlights. I was a little bit nervous, but once I got talking about the issues of our Indigenous micron people and giving recommendations to ultimately the whole world about what we can do to help our people, I was thrilled and as well as also learning from the other Indigenous organizations and the member states about what they're doing to help and how they can improve the work that they're doing to help the Indigenous people around the world. I've learned so much because this is not something you get to really learn in school, live from actual Indigenous peoples around the world. Now, that's a great point. And I remember right before the Permanent Forum started, while we're getting ready to go there, a youth in the Mekong Delta actually just had copies of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He had a transit into the Indigenous language and he was distributing that. And he was actually arrested, detained, intimidated, interrogated, and you were able to share his story and maybe bring his voice from the Mekong all the way to the global movement. Can you share a little bit about those recommendations and what you spoke about there? Yeah, so that was on the Future Work, I believe, item seven. And so we really focused on the SCGs as well as UN Drip within our recommendations because while many Indigenous peoples' organizations and member states are focusing on implementing the SCGs and protecting the rights of our Indigenous peoples and their right to self-determination, our people are just learning about the UN Drip which was established in 2007, so many, many years ago. And so the fact that they're only trying to learn it now and understand it in their kind language and then they're being prevented from doing that and not only that, but threatened. Yeah, that was our main focus and it really was painful for us because we're trying to work at the United Nations well meanwhile in Vietnam, our people aren't able to learn about their rights. Very important. You also talked about it from the education standpoint which is excellent because it is true. You actually get to apply the theories from the classes that you're taking and the tests that you're taking college and using it not only beyond the grade, but for good. And so it is exciting. I know here in Hawaii, we actually have two courses, one at University of Hawaii West O'ahu, one at Kamakuku Center for Hawaiian Studies where students are actually participating in side events. And maybe you could share about the side event that's gonna be happening tomorrow during the UN PFII. What will it be covering? Yeah, so we'll be having assignment tomorrow and KKF will be there to likely cover all of the issues that we haven't been able to talk about at the permanent forum through interventions due to lack of time and whatnot. So we'll be going back over our human rights violations. That was our main speech that we, our intervention that we hope to talk about as there are many since the pandemic has happened. It's been increasing. And so this in addition to land rights, issues with Vietnam's law and cybersecurity and a bunch of other things, but we're very excited to talk about it with other people from around the world in Asia. Right, so it'll be a human rights and sustainable development in ASEAN and University of Hawaii and Hawaii's human rights is hosting a dozen side events. But Brian, if you could take us out in the final moment, land is life also has a couple of important side events and it's done great work. Could you share some of those as well? We have an event tomorrow on the experience of Indigenous peoples and self-determination with regards to their in the Amazon with regards to how they are recovering from COVID. And then we have on Thursday another side event on the situation of security and human rights of Indigenous peoples in Asia. Land is Life has just launched a human rights defenders fund for Indigenous peoples in Asia, which is modeled on, you know, we have one in Columbia, one in the Arctic and one in Africa. And so now we've just started this one in Asia. And so we'll be talking about what's going on there, Philippines, Northeast India, other areas. So I think you can find out about all the side events at the UN Permanent Forum's website. And we hope to see people there. Thank you so much, Brian. And thank you so much, Priscilla, for giving people an insight into that international institution of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. And I know we'll all continue to organize to make sure that we can realize the right of self-determination. Mahalo Nui and thank you everyone for joining us today at Cooper Union.