Illuminating Rights in the City of Lights: Renewed commitments to Indigenous peoples within the World Heritage Convention

During 26th to 28th May 2025, a workshop was convened at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris with the ambitious aim of achieving real change in the engagement of Indigenous Peoples in the processes of the World Heritage Convention. The event was co-led by the International Indigenous Peoples Forum for World Heritage (IIPFWH), IUCN, the two cultural Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Committee: International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. I joined five resource persons to support the facilitation of shared learning and dialogue towards three objectives: enhancing Indigenous participation in World Heritage processes; examining ways to integrate Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) into evaluation and monitoring frameworks; and, co-creating an action plan to guide future collaboration.

The topics were wide ranging, sometimes challenging and always illuminating. We discussed the diverse forms of recognition of Indigenous peoples’ rights in many countries, and how this impacts collaboration between the State Parties to the Convention and Indigenous peoples. Participants of the IIPFWH offered first hand accounts of the close cultural and spiritual relationships to nature held by custodians, the knowledge systems, ancestral connections, rich vibrancy of indigenous and minority languages and local governance employed to conserve their heritage. We scrutinised and discussed the specific opportunities along the World Heritage cycle for inclusion, from tentative listing to nomination through to listing and reporting, focusing on the Convention’s Operational Guidelines as a framework. Perspectives on how these processes are perceived and experienced by people on the ground were shared and discussed. The topic of FPIC formed a thread throughout the workshop, and participants shared examples of challenges, yet offering best practices and solutions for how this principle could be meaningfully and effectively implemented. Several good practices and lessons were shared which could form the basis of further learning and exchange, pointing to the huge opportunity that the World Heritage platform has, to lead change in this space.

There is clear commitment by IUCN and all institutional actors to deliver on an action plan, including ongoing capacity building and revision of working methods. This commitment contains a vital subtext, namely the need to build trusted partnerships to effect long term, properly resourced change and collaboration. By viewing Indigenous peoples as partners and recognising their rights, stewardship and role in governing and managing the world’s iconic heritage, we stand to not only act justly, but to better take care of the world’s remaining biodiversity. To give the last word to UNESCO, the commitments made “pave the way for a more inclusive and equitable future where Indigenous Peoples are heard and recognized as full partners and rights-holders in the governance of the world’s shared heritage.”.  More news will also follow at the forthcoming 47^th Session of the World Heritage Committee, taking place in Paris next month.  To learn more about the workshop outcomes and next steps, get in touch: [email protected]