ENG- ECMIA Political Declaration on COP31

We, the Continental Network of Indigenous Women of the Americas (ECMIA), reaffirm that the self-determination of our Peoples must guide climate policies, their financing, and accountability, in full respect of our inherent, collective, and pre-existing rights, as recognized in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In the context of the “Super Niño” Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, exacerbated by the climate crisis, several regions of the continent are experiencing months of drought, resulting in water scarcity, water stress, water contamination, and increased wildfire risks. Indigenous women and girls face greater risks and vulnerabilities, as well as an increased burden of caregiving responsibilities in their daily lives, poor sanitary conditions are worsening, school dropout rates are increasing, and Indigenous women and girls are becoming more exposed to violence. Meanwhile, in other regions, flooding disrupts and destroys essential services and basic infrastructure, including formal education. These threats manifest differently across Arctic and sub-Arctic territories, where thawing is accelerating, as well as in arid zones, mountains, coastal areas, islands, forests, and rainforests throughout the Americas. No region should be left out of climate responses.

The health of our peoples is inseparable from the health of our territories and the planet, our Mother Earth. The loss of sacred sites affects our mental and spiritual health. The trauma that colonialism and racism have inflicted across generations deepens when a disaster forces us to leave our territories or when defending them puts our lives at risk. Therefore, protecting health means defending water, seeds, and the conditions necessary for us to remain in our territories with dignity.

It is increasingly difficult to find the medicinal plants and species that give life to our clothing and arts. With every species we lose, the possibilities of transmitting knowledge and carrying out our practices narrow. Protecting the traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples requires respecting our own systems of stewardship, transmission, and decision-making.

The displacement of our peoples within and beyond our countries puts at risk our ability to sustain our languages, cultures, territories, and self-governance. Dispossession, racism, stigmatization, persecution, and violence against women human rights defenders further aggravate these impacts. Through our own systems

of governance and economies, we care for water, conserve seeds, and restore ecosystems

From the Commission on the Status of Women to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and from the preparatory meeting in Lima on the road to Belém, we have consistently maintained that climate policy must be accountable to those of us who live with its impacts and exercise authority and governance in our territories. The authority of our Peoples and our organizations must be reflected in climate-related decisions, from our territories to international negotiations.

In Antalya, we also reiterate the call made by Indigenous Peoples gathered in Santa Marta to build a pathway away from fossil fuels that guarantees territorial rights and effective participation. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) General Recommendation No. 39 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples must guide tangible and verifiable commitments.

Therefore, within the framework of COP31:

1. We urge the Parties to guarantee legal security for our lands, territories, and waters, to recognize our own systems of governance, and to strengthen community life plans as the foundations of a just transition. We demand that climate decisions, policies, and projects respect the right to self-determination and guarantee the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples through their representative institutions.

In implementing the just transition mechanism agreed upon at COP30 (Belém do Pará), we reiterate the importance of the provision adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), under the United Arab Emirates Just Transition Work Programme, paragraph 12(i): "The importance of the rights of Indigenous Peoples and of obtaining their free, prior and informed consent, consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the importance of ensuring that all pathways towards a just transition respect and promote the internationally recognized collective and individual rights of Indigenous Peoples, including the right to self-determination, and recognize the rights and protections of Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact, in accordance with relevant international human rights instruments and principles."

Likewise, we reaffirm the principles of the Santa Marta Declaration, Colombia, which recognizes that a just transition must overcome practices of colonialism and

extractivism, guarantee territorial rights, and prevent militarization and conflicts that threaten the lives of our Peoples.

2. We demand that the Parties establish verifiable commitments, with defined timelines, for the progressive phase-out of fossil fuels, ensuring that energy alternatives and mitigation mechanisms do not reproduce territorial dispossession, the exploitation of our natural resources, or new forms of colonialism.

Renewable energy projects, the extraction of critical minerals, and carbon markets must be subject to environmental, social, and human rights safeguards, independent oversight mechanisms, and corporate due diligence obligations. States must guarantee access to justice, comprehensive reparation for damages, and accountability of the public and private actors involved.

3. We urge the Parties to establish permanent mechanisms for the effective participation and representation of Indigenous women at every stage of the formulation, negotiation, implementation, and evaluation of climate policies, recognizing our authority, knowledge, and decision-making capacity, from our territories to multilateral spaces.

In implementing the Belém Gender Action Plan, in accordance with CEDAW General Recommendation No. 39, we demand national commitments backed by dedicated budgets to strengthen leadership, political training, interpretation in Indigenous languages, and accessibility conditions. These mechanisms must guarantee intergenerational participation, the participation of Indigenous women with disabilities and Indigenous youth, as well as safe and culturally appropriate spaces where Indigenous girls and adolescents can be heard.

4. We demand that States with the greatest historical responsibility for emissions increase their commitments to public, additional, and predictable climate finance, prioritizing grant-based funding that does not increase the debt burden of our peoples and countries.

We urge climate funds and international cooperation agencies to establish direct, simplified, and multi-year access mechanisms for Indigenous women's organizations and networks, recognizing our own forms of organization and governance.

Climate finance must strengthen institutional autonomy, territorial and intergenerational coordination, and our organizations' capacity to define priorities, manage resources, and evaluate results, without imposed intermediaries that restrict our right to self-determination.

5. We demand that the Parties recognize and finance our Peoples' own climate adaptation strategies, particularly those aimed at protecting water, food sovereignty, native seeds, medicinal plants, and Indigenous health and healing systems.

Adaptation policies must recognize the interdependence of physical, mental, spiritual, and territorial health, as well as the differentiated impacts of the climate crisis on Indigenous women, youth, girls, and boys.

We urge the World Health Organization (WHO), in coordination with our organizations, to promote a report on the effects of the climate crisis on the overall health of Indigenous Peoples, including sexual and reproductive health. This report must incorporate the distinct realities of the regions of the Americas and respect our Peoples' sovereignty over their knowledge and information.

6. We demand that the Parties strengthen and capitalize the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, establishing direct access mechanisms for Indigenous Peoples and their organizations, as well as culturally appropriate technical assistance through the Santiago Network.

Reparation measures must recognize the economic and non-economic, tangible and intangible losses and damages resulting from the climate crisis, including impacts on languages, knowledge, sacred sites, spiritual connections, and intergenerational and cross-border relationships with our territories.

We urge States to guarantee environmental restoration measures, territorial restitution where applicable, collective reparation, and protection against forced displacement, recognizing the right of our Peoples to remain in and pursue their life plans within their territories.

7. Building on our proposal, Economía en Equilibrio: una propuesta para la vida, we urge the Parties to recognize and strengthen the economic systems of Indigenous Peoples, grounded in reciprocity, complementarity, collective care, and respectful relationships with Mother Earth.

Climate policies must contribute to the economic autonomy of Indigenous women, ensuring the conditions necessary for us to make decisions about our income, assets, time, and life plans, as well as recognizing and fairly redistributing care work.

We demand that Indigenous knowledge, practices, and production systems be protected against all forms of misappropriation, ensuring respect for community protocols, collective rights, and fair compensation for their use.

8. We demand that States, in coordination with Indigenous women and youth human rights defenders, adopt collective and territorial protection mechanisms with sufficient resources, preventive measures, and emergency response procedures to address the threats, attacks, and violence we face for defending our rights and Mother Earth.

These mechanisms must incorporate gender, intercultural, intergenerational, and anti-racist approaches; address risks associated with criminalization, militarization, and cross-border violence; and guarantee effective investigations, access to justice, and comprehensive reparation.

Furthermore, we demand specific safeguards to protect the territories and rights of Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact.

9. We urge the Parties to incorporate these recommendations into their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans, and other climate policy instruments, establishing budgets, institutional responsibilities, culturally appropriate indicators, and verifiable timelines.

We demand independent monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, developed with the effective participation of Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous women, to ensure transparency regarding how our collective rights, territorial priorities, and proposals are incorporated into climate action decisions and outcomes.

Likewise, we invite the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (PFII), Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) and Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to strengthen its monitoring of climate commitments that affect our rights, taking as reference the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and CEDAW General Recommendation No. 39, and promoting coordination between international human rights mechanisms and the processes of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Indigenous women have always been leaders, and through ECMIA we will continue building alliances, nurturing leadership, and bringing information back to our communities, organizations, and Peoples so that they can influence, implement, and demand accountability for every commitment made in this space. From north to

south across the Americas, the diversity of our Peoples, territories, and systems of governance strengthens a shared demand: climate justice grounded in self-determination and full respect for our collective rights.

Nothing about us without us, everything with us!