How Indigenous Peoples Actually Get Heard in Treaty Negotiations

Field note from Plastics INC 5.2 where the rules keep changing but are similar to UNFCCC

Sorry for the delay of this deep dive. I'm now at the Plastics INC 5.2 negotiations.
(Deep dive was supposed to be public on Wednesday, but was super busy).

I was asked to participate in the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Plastics during what's presumably the crucial final round of negotiations, before heading straight into BBNJ negotiations one day after 5.2 ends.

Welcome to my life: Back-to-back (treaty) negotiations where the future of Indigenous Peoples gets decided in rooms most people will never see.

Through observing the Indigenous caucus here, I thought it would be good to share the meeting maze that most of us navigate without a proper roadmap. You already know the basics. You attend contact groups, you write position papers, you make interventions in plenary. But if you have treaty negotiations coming up, I want to take a step back and go through it again.

I'm writing this from Plastics INC 5.2, where 175 States are trying to draft a global plastics treaty. It's my first time in this particular circus, but I've spent years in UNFCCC climate negotiations. Same game, different crisis.

So, today I’m sharing some insights on how international treaties actually get written, and how Indigenous Peoples can work the system instead of getting worked by it.

The Meeting Maze (And Where Indigenous Voices Can Actually Land)

Think of treaty negotiations like a building with different floors. Each floor has different rules about who gets to speak.

Ground Floor: Plenary Sessions Everyone's invited. Indigenous Peoples can make statements. Sounds democratic, right? Wrong. This is theater. Real decisions happen upstairs.

Second Floor: Contact Groups This is where States hash out specific treaty articles. Indigenous Peoples observe but can't speak unless a States gives up their floor time. Spoiler: They rarely do.

Third Floor: Informal Meetings Even more restricted. States only. Indigenous Peoples can observe if there's space. Can't speak.

Fourth Floor: Informal-Informal Meetings (The Golden Zone) Here's where it gets interesting. These are the smallest meetings where real compromise happens. And here's the rule nobody tells you: Indigenous Peoples can speak in informal-informal meetings IF no State objects.

But here's the key: This mostly works when Indigenous Peoples or IP rights are actually being discussed. Traditional knowledge provisions? Yes. Finance mechanisms? Probably not. COP procedural rules? Definitely not.

Fifth Floor: Bilateral Meetings One-on-one conversations between the Indigenous caucus and States, this is where the real work happens.

The Informal-Informal Hack

When you spot an inf-inf forming around traditional knowledge, sacred sites, or Indigenous rights provisions, here's your play: