The Indigenous World 2026: Indigenous Persons with Disabilities: Promoting Human Rights through the Implementation of Normative Framework in 2025

Written on 22 April 2026. Posted in Indigenous Persons with Disabilities Global Network (IPWDGN)

As disability rates rise worldwide, their impact on Indigenous communities has become particularly profound and far‑reaching.^[1] An estimated 54 million Indigenous individuals live with disabilities, including 28 million Indigenous women. In the Asia-Pacific region alone, 45 million Indigenous persons with disabilities experience extreme poverty and vulnerability, exacerbated by inadequate services, natural disasters, and climate crises.

Indigenous persons with disabilities are frequently denied autonomy and the ability to exercise their individual and collective rights. They must navigate the tension between asserting these rights and the societal norms that marginalize them.

Conventional disability frameworks often fail to acknowledge Indigenous collective rights and cultural identities. Rooted in colonial perspectives, these frameworks emphasize individual deficits rather than structural barriers, resulting in policies that disregard Indigenous values, social customs, and traditional knowledge systems.

This article is part of the 40^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. Find The Indigenous World 2026 in full here

The relationship between Indigenous Peoples and persons with disabilities, and peace and security has gained increasing global attention, particularly within international human rights discourse led by the UN. While Indigenous communities have long defended land, culture, and self-determination, Indigenous persons with disabilities remain among the most marginalized within these populations. In this context, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, José Francisco Calí Tzay, presented Indigenous Persons with Disabilities, Report A/HRC/57/47 in 2024 within the human rights framework of the UN. The report emphasized that Indigenous persons with disabilities experience compounded and intersectional discrimination rooted in colonial legacies, structural racism, poverty, and geographic marginalization which, together, restrict access to health care, education, employment, and meaningful political participation.^[2]

Similarly, in its General Recommendation No. 39 (CEDAW GR 39), the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, highlighted the gender‑ and disability‑specific vulnerabilities faced by Indigenous women and girls, including Indigenous women and girls with disabilities. It underscored the need to address intersecting forms of discrimination and to adopt culturally-appropriate, disability‑inclusive, rights‑based measures grounded in self‑determination and substantive equality, to ensure their full participation and protection within peace, security and development frameworks.^[3]

Multilateral human rights agenda and institutional focus on Indigenous persons with disabilities

In 2025, global attention on Indigenous persons with disabilities was shaped primarily by multilateral human rights processes within the UN system. Key deliberative spaces, including the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Human Rights Council, CEDAW Concluding Observations (CO) to Member States (such as to Nepal), thematic reporting by UN Special Rapporteurs, and formulation of the CEDAW Road Map 2025 in Nepal, as well as other initiatives in the national context of Nepal, collectively reinforced the principle that Indigenous rights, disability inclusion, intersectionality and sustainable peace are inseparable.

For example, on 26 January 2025, the CRPD committee^[4] invited a “Call for Submission on the draft guidelines on addressing multiple and intersectional forms of discrimination against women and girls with disabilities” to further guide states parties and other duty bearers in addressing the implementation gaps and to collect a repository of good practices when addressing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against women and girls with disabilities. Responding to this call,^[5] the National Indigenous Disabled Women Association Nepal (NIDWAN), Women Enabled International, Asia Pacific Indigenous Women and Girls with Disabilities Network (APIWDN) and Indigenous Persons with Disabilities Global Network (IPDGN), together with regional organizations, submitted a joint report on climate, leadership, sexual health and reproductive rights, and intersectional discrimination linking to women with disabilities and Indigenous women with disabilities.

These discussions emphasized that Indigenous Peoples continue to face structural inequality rooted in colonial dispossession, discrimination, and exclusion from decision-making. Within this broader context, persons and women with disabilities are increasingly recognized as experiencing compounded marginalization requiring targeted yet culturally- and gender-grounded policy responses at all levels. The shift toward intersectionality marks an important evolution in global Indigenous policy discourse, moving beyond generalized rights recognition toward differentiated identities and lived realities.

Indigenous identity and disability

Indigenous men and women with disabilities experience intersectional discrimination shaped by ableism, sexism, racism, poverty, and geographic isolation. Many face barriers to healthcare, education, political participation, and culturally-appropriate services. Historical assimilation policies and institutionalization have further excluded them from community decision-making and traditional knowledge systems. Despite these challenges, Indigenous disability advocates emphasize resilience grounded in collective identity, spirituality, and traditional healing. Global disability advocacy initiatives in 2025 called for: recognition of self-determination and meaningful participation for Indigenous persons and women with disabilities, protection of languages, cultures, and knowledge systems in accessible formats, Indigenous control over education, health, and social services, and social protection measures. These priorities demonstrate that disability inclusion is inseparable from Indigenous sovereignty and peacebuilding.^[6]

Aligning with these guidelines at the national and subnational levels, the Gandaki Province Government adopted the Persons with Disabilities Act in Gandaki Province,^[7] which illustrates attempts to localize global human rights commitments within governance, security, and development frameworks. Pratima Gurung and Krishna Gahatraj from NIDWAN were selected as experts to frame the Act from June to September 2025, which included constitutional commitments to inclusion and social justice in Nepal. The key principles embedded in the Act included equality and non-discrimination, accessibility of public services, participation in governance, protection from violence and exploitation. The Act adopts a rights-based definition aligned with the CRPD, recognizing disability as the interaction between impairment and societal barriers and discussing structural and intersectional discrimination, diverse persons with disabilities, disaggregated data, and access to mother tongue language. Indigenous persons with disabilities and their rights related to dignity and equality provisions therefore contribute indirectly to conflict prevention and social cohesion.

Rights, voices and representation

The recognition of Indigenous men and women with disabilities’ rights, voices, and representation is essential to achieving sustainable peace and security. Peace should not be understood merely as the absence of armed conflict, but rather as a comprehensive condition grounded in justice, dignity, inclusion, and the protection of both individual and collective rights. For many Indigenous communities shaped by histories of colonization, dispossession, and systemic marginalization, peace is closely tied to self-determination, cultural continuity, and equitable access to social, political, and economic resources and access. Within this context, Indigenous persons and women with disabilities often experience intersecting forms of exclusion, making their meaningful inclusion central to any effective peace and security framework.

Representation, therefore, is not symbolic but a practical requirement for equitable and sustainable peace. Participation and representation of Indigenous voices at the 3^rd Global Disability Summit in Berlin in 2025 was exemplary with its Call to Action for Commitments^[8] and hosting four side events in the Summit.^[9] Pratima Gurung,^[10] representative of the IPDGN, centred the voices of Indigenous persons and women with disabilities as speaker in several side events during the Summit and underscored the importance of participation as a key principle of human rights that permeates all aspects of private and public life in a context in which Indigenous persons with disabilities continue to be one of the most marginalized groups in the world. She delivered a compelling call for action, emphasizing that meaningful participation “is not about our individual rights, it is also about collective self-determination. We need to create innovative solutions and our own spaces to be able to participate and express our voices.”^[11]

Represented in several global, regional and national arenas, the voices have echoed for supporting Indigenous-led disability organizations and their voices are a critical step towards inclusive peace. Indigenous persons with disabilities are urging the promotion of intersectional leadership among women, youth, and persons with disabilities that will further strengthen inclusive governance and social cohesion. They collectively assert that when Indigenous persons and women with disabilities participate meaningfully in peace negotiations, disaster response planning, governance processes, and policies become more responsive to real community needs and more capable of addressing structural inequalities.

Context of climate and technology

Peace and security are urgent for Indigenous persons with disabilities in relation to climate change and technological transformation. Climate impacts such as extreme weather, environmental degradation, and displacement threaten ancestral lands, cultural continuity, and access to healthcare, disproportionately affecting those with disabilities. At the same time, inclusive technologies such as assistive devices, telehealth, and digital communication can enhance education, participation, and community resilience, while unequal access or external control may deepen exclusion and undermine sovereignty. Ensuring justice requires disability-inclusive climate action, equitable technological access, free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), and the meaningful leadership of Indigenous persons with disabilities in climate and environmental discussions, digital aspects, and peacebuilding decision-making processes. In this context, there have been gradual initiatives at the global, regional and national levels for disability-inclusive climate action. Access to information and technology has remained critical in this.

Aligning with these, from 24 August through to October 2025, in Nepal, NIDWAN conducted eight national and community-level consultations, including Sagarmatha Sambad (a multi-stakeholder dialogue forum), in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of Nepal, National Foundation for the Development of Indigenous Nationalities, UN agencies and 18 civil society organizations (CSOs) from Nepal. These consultations emphasized the formulation of Nationally-Determined Contribution (NDC) 3.0, incorporating the Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) lens for the first time in Nepal, and highlighting the meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples and persons with disabilities and Indigenous knowledge in both the formulation of NDC 3.0 and its implementation at the local level with all these stakeholders.

Amid numerous climate-related summits, conferences, workshops, and events promoting climate justice initiatives, September 2025 was widely recognized as a Climate Summit month. In this context, the National Summit on Disability and Climate Change 2025 was held for the first time on 16 and 17 October 2025, in Kathmandu, Nepal. The summit, themed “Intersecting Identities, Shared Resilience: Indigeneity, Disability, and Gender in Climate Action”, was jointly organized by NIDWAN and the National Human Rights Commission-Nepal. It brought together more than 65 multi-stakeholders such as the Government of Nepal, UN agencies, European Union, as well as CSOs and community representatives from different provinces of Nepal. It featured panel discussions, interactive sessions, world café-style dialogues, and the Call to Action 2025 aimed at mainstreaming disability-inclusive climate action.

NIDWAN also hosted two pre-COP30 (the UN climate talks held in Brazil in 2025) side events during the SB62 meetings in Bonn, Germany from 17-19 June 2025. The following events:“Climate Finance: Stories from the Grassroots in the Global South”, featuring testimonies of Indigenous women with disabilities, and “Gender-Just, Disability-Inclusive Climate Action”, presented from a disability-justice perspective, emphasized that pre-COP and COP outcome documents must include lived experiences and ensure the availability of disaggregated data on persons with disabilities, particularly Indigenous persons with disabilities.^[12]

In addition to these climate dialogues, a side event entitled “Indigenous and Disability Rights and Inclusion in a Changing Climate” was organized on 12 June 2025 during the 18^th session of the Conference of States Parties to the CRPD. During his opening remarks, t, Dr. Albert K. Barume, highlighted Indigenous voices at the forefront of climate and health justice from the lived experiences of different Indigenous persons with disabilities across the globe who are on the frontline of the climate crisis and discussed the 2024 human rights report on Indigenous person with disabilities.

Furthermore, during London Climate Action Week (23-29 June 2025), the event “Respecting Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Climate Change Research and Action Related to Health and Water and the Way Forward” was convened through collaboration between Minority Rights International, NIDWAN, and the Endorois Indigenous Women Empowerment Network. This dialogue highlighted Indigenous knowledge, health, and water governance perspectives from Nepal, Kenya, and the US, engaging stakeholders from more than 30 countries and initiating broader global conversations on water, ecosystems, and climate justice and technology.

Collectively, these initiatives further positioned NIDWAN to convene more than four side events at COP30 in Belém, Brazil (10-21 November 2025), bringing together representatives from feminist, disability, Indigenous, climate, and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) communities to advance the agenda of disability inclusion and the rights of Indigenous persons with disabilities within global climate negotiations. The NIDWAN team actively participated during the COP process and held several bilateral meetings with the UNFCCC Secretariat and members of the Indigenous Peoples’ Constituency to advocate for the formation of a Disability Caucus and constituencies. The Indigenous Peoples’ Constituency submitted a formal letter supporting the inclusion of Indigenous persons with disabilities in the formation of the Disability Caucus under the UNFCCC.

The NIDWAN and Latin America team of Indigenous persons with disabilities also participated in the Indigenous Women and Youth Global Summit in Brazil during COP 30. They came together to shape a collective message rooted in territory, memory, and collective strength, promoting inclusion and intersectionality while contributing to collective leadership and solidarity around integrating the rights of Indigenous women and women with disabilities. After the COP, post-COP events were held with several conversations in different parts of Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America by Indigenous persons and women with disabilities. All these interventions directly linked disability rights with the peace and security framework, aligning with international norms UNDRIP, CEDAW GR 39, CRPD and 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, including the humanitarian protection principles. Access to technology has remained a challenge for them.

Social development and disability inclusion

Social development and disability inclusion for Indigenous persons with disabilities are essential to achieving sustainable peace, justice, and security within Indigenous communities and the broader society. Integrating disability inclusion into peace and security frameworks is not only a human rights obligation but also a pathway towards transformative, inclusive, and community-centred peace. Across the seven geopolitical regions, initiatives for disability inclusion and movement-building have increased substantially. For example, the Second Asia-Pacific Regional Convening on Movement Building and Leadership Development for Indigenous Women and Girls with Disabilities was held over four days in March 2025 in Kathmandu, Nepal, bringing together representatives from 12 countries through APIWDN, which has been actively working to ensure and promote the rights of Indigenous women and girls with disabilities, particularly in support of the implementation of CEDAW GR 39. The regional convening provided space to reflect on country contexts, leadership development, and strategies for strengthening collective movements.

Similarly, APIWDN participated in the 25^th anniversary celebration of the International Forum of Indigenous Women on 20-21 June 2025, in Lima, Peru, where testimonies of honour, solidarity, and disability inclusion were shared among Indigenous sisters. Dipika Lama from the APIWDN likewise delivered a statement on 10 March 2025 during the 58^th Session of the Human Rights Council Interactive Dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The statement urged the enforcement of legal protections against workplace discrimination, harassment, and violence while ensuring equal access to decent work for diverse women with disabilities, access to social protection, poverty reduction, and health programmes that comply with the CRPD. In addition, the Global Indigenous Women’s Coordination Meeting on 11 March commemorated the opening of the 69^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), fostering constructive dialogue among global leaders, experts, and parliamentarians on Indigenous women and women with disabilities. Participants shared lived experiences, achievements, challenges, and strategies to strengthen their collective presence in global decision-making spaces. Indigenous women with disabilities also contributed as speakers in side events such as “Stepping Up, Standing By, and Speaking Out for Women’s Rights Movements” and “Empowerment of Women Across the Rio Conventions: Gender Perspectives in Addressing Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss, and Desertification”, highlighting global initiatives and the broader role of disability inclusion in advancing gender justice and sustainable development.

The CEDAW committee’s Concluding Observations (CO) on the seventh periodic report of the Government of Nepal, issued on 24 February 2025, highlighted significant gaps in the constitutional recognition of the rights of Indigenous women. In paragraph 46(a), the Committee expressed concern at the lack of explicit recognition of Indigenous women’s rights, including their collective right to self-determination in line with international standards. In paragraph 47(a), it recommended that Nepal amend its Constitution to clearly recognize the rights of Indigenous women, including self-determination, while adopting approaches that respect the diversity of women’s lived realities. The CO further addressed multiple areas related to definitions, implementation mechanisms, monitoring, and evaluation frameworks necessary to advance gender equality and non-discrimination. In response, national-level initiatives aimed at developing a CEDAW Roadmap were initiated on 4 August 2025 by the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens,^[13] in collaboration with UN agencies, CSOs, and other relevant stakeholders. These efforts represent a progressive step forward, including the inclusion of issues affecting Indigenous women and women with disabilities in national gender equality planning processes.

Ultimately, peace and security cannot be achieved without the full inclusion of Indigenous persons and women with disabilities. These perspectives reveal the interconnected nature of human rights, environmental stewardship, cultural survival, and social justice. By supporting Indigenous- and disability-led initiatives, protecting ancestral lands, ensuring accessible and culturally-grounded services, honouring FPIC, and promoting inclusive leadership and governance, societies can move beyond narrow definitions of peace toward transformative and enduring justice. In this way, the empowerment of Indigenous persons and women with disabilities will become not only a matter of rights but a foundation for collective resilience, dignity, diversity and sustainable peace.

Ms Pratima Gurung belongs to the Gurung Indigenous Peoples from Nepal. She serves as a faculty member at Padmakanya College under Tribhuvan University, Nepal. Ms Gurung currently holds the position of General Secretary of the Indigenous Persons with Disabilities Global Network and is the President of the National Indigenous Disabled Women Association Nepal (NIDWAN). You can reach her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This article is part of the 40^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. Find The Indigenous World 2026 in full here

Notes and references

^[1] World Health Organization. Disability overview. https://www.who.int/health-topics/disability Accessed on 20 February 2026.

^[2] José Francisco Calí Tzay, Indigenous Persons with Disabilities, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, A/HRC/57/47, Geneva: UN Human Rights Council, 2024.

^[3] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. General Recommendation No. 39 on the Rights of Indigenous Women and Girls. Geneva: UN, 2022.

^[4] UN. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. New York: UN, 2006.

^[5] United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. Call for written submissions on the draft guidelines on addressing multiple and intersectional forms of discrimination against women an girls with disabilities. Geneva: United Nations, 26 November 2025. https://www.ohchr.org/en/calls-for-input/2025/call-written-submissions-draft-guidelines-addressing-multiple-and?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBEyRFR1d2JWQWhOS0JKU3FvQXNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR7qOlbn7hKpiMuGiK56g4w4KmwdzA7i0ilj_n2xQaRO2z9tnaSMi5bXVrRNwA_aem_ZRjkqE-MQKE7vtS0pqHaVg

^[6] UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Report on Indigenous Persons with Disabilities and Peacebuilding. Geneva: United Nations, 2025.

^[7] Government of Gandaki Province. Province Disability Rights Act. Pokhara: Provincial Assembly, 2020.

^[8] Disability Reference Group. Call to Action for Commitments at The Global Disability Summit 2025- Persons With Disabilities Affected by Humanitarian Emergencies. February 2025. https://www.globaldisabilitysummit.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/DRG-GDS-2025-Call-to-Action.pdf

^[9] International Disability Alliance. Statement of Indigenous persons with disabilities. 2025. https://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/documents/statementofindigenouspersonswithdisabilitiesgds2025-pdf

^[10] UN. Indigenous rights and global peace and security discussions. Global Disability Summit. 2025. Call to action of Indigenous persons with disabilities.

^[11] International Disability Alliance. Participation and representation: Centering Indigenous voices at GDS 2025. 5 April 2025. https://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/blog/participation-and-representation-centering-indigenous-voices-gds-2025?fbclid=IwY2xjawP-

^[12] International Disability Alliance. Statement of Indigenous persons with disabilities. UNESCO. 2025.

^[13] UNFPA Facebook post, 14 December 2025. https://www.facebook.com/UNFPANepal/posts/unfpa-in-collaboration-with-undp-and-un-women-supported-the-national-validation-/1167666175518949/

Tags: Global governance