Each year, the Expert Mechanism holds a five-day session in which representatives from states, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Peoples’ organisations, civil society, inter-governmental organisations and academia take part.
The 19th session of the Expert Mechanism will take place in-person from 13-17 July 2026 in Palais des Nations, Geneva
Global Transformation Pathway T4 is hosting a workshop, taking place July 13–14, 2026, at the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The workshop brings together Indigenous Elders and Indigenous-led, place-based project leads from the Arctic, Asia, the Pacific, and Africa to co-write a resource document titled “Healing Relationships: Indigenous Concepts of Health, Traditional Medicines, and Lessons for One Health.” The aim is to describe Indigenous concepts of health and healing as expressed through traditional medicines, relationships with biodiversity, territorial stewardship, and Indigenous governance and to draw out what these systems can teach global One Health policy.
This builds on the Ărramăt Project’s ongoing collaboration with WHO, and reframes “One Health” beyond the conventional coordination of human, animal, and environmental sectors centring Indigenous knowledge systems, governance, and systems of care as core to the causal pathways behind biodiversity and health outcomes.
The Expert Mechanism provides the Human Rights Council with expertise and advice on the rights of Indigenous Peoples. It assists Member States in achieving the goals of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Expert Mechanism conducts studies to advance the promotion and protection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights by:
- clarifying the implications of key principles, such as self-determination and free, prior and informed consent
- examining good practices and challenges in a broad array of areas pertaining to Indigenous Peoples’ rights,
- suggesting measures that States and others can adopt at the level of laws, policies and programmes.
