Water Action Decade: Dakar Prep for 2026 UN Conference

Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately affected by the global water crisis and must be central to solutions, according to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The call to action came during the Dakar High-Level Preparatory Meeting for the 2026 UN Water Conference on January 26th.

Indigenous Rights and Water Governance

The Permanent Forum, an advisory body of the Economic and Social Council, highlighted that water is not merely a resource for Indigenous Peoples, but foundational to their life, culture, governance, and intergenerational responsibility.

The Forum emphasized that the current global water crisis is fundamentally a crisis of governance and human rights. Indigenous Peoples face disproportionate impacts from water scarcity, pollution, climate change, and exclusion from decision-making, despite being effective stewards of freshwater ecosystems.

Decisions regarding water allocation, infrastructure, and resource extraction are frequently made without the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples, or recognition of their rights and knowledge systems, the Forum stated.

Preparing for the 2026 UN Water Conference

The Permanent Forum stressed that the meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples is a core condition for the success of the 2026 UN Water Conference, not simply an addition. They must be engaged as rights-holders and partners, not merely as stakeholders.

Good water governance, according to the Forum, requires:

• Recognition and protection of Indigenous Peoples’ water rights, in line with international law and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
• Institutionalized mechanisms for co-governance at basin, watershed, and territorial levels.
• Respect for Indigenous knowledge systems alongside scientific approaches.
• Accountability and remedies for past and ongoing harms to Indigenous Peoples’ waters.

These elements, the Forum argues, are not obstacles to development but enablers of sustainability, stability, and peace.

The Permanent Forum has offered to contribute actively to the preparatory process and invited Member States, UN entities, and partners to engage with them at the next session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, scheduled for April 20 – May 1, 2026. This session will focus on how Indigenous Peoples can contribute as rights-holders through governance, monitoring, restoration, and climate resilience.

Protecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights to water is not only a matter of justice, but a strategic imperative for achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6, addressing the climate crisis, and ensuring lasting impact from the 2026 UN Water Conference, the Forum concluded.