Andrea Carmen To Speak At 12th World Wilderness Congress In August

The organizers and hosts of the 12th World Wilderness Congress are excited to announce that Andrea Carmen will speak at the Congress!

Andrea Carmen, Yaqui Nation, became a staff member of the International Indian Treaty Council in 1983 and its Executive Director in 1992. Andrea was IITC’s team leader for work on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and in 1997 was one of two Indigenous representatives to formally address the UN General Assembly for the first time at the UN Earth Summit +5.

In 2006, Andrea was selected as Rapporteur for the UN Expert Seminar on Indigenous Peoples’ Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources and their Relationship to Land”, the first Indigenous woman to serve as a Rapporteur for an UN Expert Seminar. Andrea has been an invited expert presenter at many UN bodies, fora and seminars addressing a wide range of issues. These include Human Rights, Cultural Indicators for Biological Diversity and Food Sovereignty, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Participate in Decision-making, Indigenous Children under State Custody including impacts of Boarding and Residential Schools, Climate Change, Indigenous Women’s Reproductive and Inter-generational Health including impacts of Environmental Violence, Enhanced Participation for Indigenous Peoples in the UN System, International Repatriation and Cultural Rights, Indigenous Languages, Impacts of Toxics Pesticides on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and Indigenous Children’s right to Environmental Health.

In 2006, Andrea was selected to serve as Rapporteur for the UN Expert Seminar on Indigenous Peoples’ Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources and their Relationship to Land, the first Indigenous woman to serve as Rapporteur for an UN Expert Seminar.

In February 2019, Andrea was selected by North America Indigenous Peoples, Tribes and organization to represent them on the new Facilitative Working Group for the UNFCCC Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform in its first three years of operation, and in 2021 served as its co-chair. She is currently represents Indigenous Peoples on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Climate Crisis Commission.

Andrea has three sons and two grandsons. She lives in Tucson Arizona where she and her husband Angel Valencia have a family farm using traditional native seeds and pesticides-free growing methods.

The 12th World Wilderness Congress (WILD12) is a global forum to coordinate and mobilize the protection of Earth’s remaining wilderness and wild places. It convenes thousands of delegates from around the world approximately every 4 years to seek and agree upon new actions and principles in the stewardship of Earth. WILD12 is hosted by the Oceti Sakowin on behalf of the Sicangu Lakota Treaty Council, and will place a special emphasis on reinterpreting wilderness through Indigenous perspectives.

To register for WILD12, please visit the link below.