The Global Land Forum brings together diverse voices from across the world to discuss critical issues surrounding land rights and gender justice.
This year’s forum stood out for its emphasis on inclusivity, with the introduction of dedicated pre-events for Indigenous People and Youth. Participants from the GLF shared their reflection on the evolving role of women in land governance, intersection of climate and land exploitation and the persistent structural problems faced by marginalised communities especially women. Their insights highlight both the progress achieved and the work that remains to ensure land rights.
Main Takeaways from the GLF 2025
Beverly and Pallab emphasised the significance of the newly introduced Indigenous people’s Forum held prior to main GLF. For the first time, indigenous leaders around the world gathered in a space to exchange good practices of land rights and ultimately draft an Indigenous People’s Declaration. This initiative, supported by the creation of the Indigenous People’s Mechanism for Solidarity and Coordination with ILC, was a step forward from previous forums where such representation was lacking.
Alice and Moni from India focused more on structural challenges. Alice stressed the need for gender-transformative approaches in land governance and highlighted growing threats faced by land defenders across different countries. The discussion on the subject during the GLF highlighted the problems faced by land defenders in countries like Myanmar, Sudan and Philippines. Moni places emphasis on climate and green energy projects and while essential contribute to land exploitation. The extractive industries like mining continue to exploit land, contributing to inequalities faced by marginalized communities especially women.
Renuka attended the GLF for the first time and valued the platform for bringing together over 100 countries, enabling a sense of global solidarity. She noted the variation in land rights challenges across regions and the importance of shared learning. Both Renuka and Beverly saw strong benefits in the pre-forum events, including the Youth Forum, which produced a declaration outlining young people’s demands for greater involvement in land rights discussions.
Member Participation in Gender Justice Activities during GLF
Due to their strong focus and involvement in events related to indigenous people during the GLF, neither Beverly nor Renuka were able to find time to participate in gender justice activities, despite valuing the gender perspective greatly. Renuka highlighted the common presence of customary land tenure in Thailand’s indigenous communities, which do not allow women to own or inherit land from their family.
The barriers of cultural traditions within patriarchal communities highlight the importance of a gender perspective on indigenous land rights, which both Beverly and Renuka emphasised. Pallab discussed how whilst he too was unable to directly attend any gender justice events, he did attend a panel on direct financing for indigenous people wherein the priority was given to the subject of indigenous women on this matter.
The GLF session focusing on advancing land rights through gender transformative approaches was facilitated by Alice, who also facilitated a session on gender audits. She discussed how she was also a facilitator of a land rights defenders session in collaboration with the Women’s constituency.
Comments on the GLF from a Gender Justice perspective
Following on from her significant involvement in gender justice events at the GLF, Alice commended the GLF for the clear evidence of a present and addressed theme of gender justice at the forum. While other issues of land rights such as climate change are important, the core issue of land rights for women should not be forgotten, she argued. Alice also spoke positively about the youth participation in the GLF this year, and how the pre-event highlighted youth vision and demands for land rights. She then expressed that the forum should provide dedicated sessions for women in a similar way, as the pre-events provided a concentrated platform addressing a specific group. This perspective was shared by Beverly, who also found the youth and indigenous pre-events to be a very positive part of the GLF, and named the addition of a pre-event for women as an improvement to consider for the next GLF.
Similarly to Alice, Renuka considered the GLF to have a strong positive presence of gender justice, with many women attending the forum, and also a large proportion of female panellists and programme leaders headlining events. Whilst there was not necessarily a complete gender balance, Renuka noted that gender justice was passively discussed in a very positive light. In particular, Renuka appreciated the efforts to ensure women’s experience at the GLF was comfortable, as she was not attending with any colleagues or friends, and found the environment to be welcoming and inclusive. This was Renuka’s first time attending the GLF, so she wasn’t able to compare her experience with previous events like Moni, who acknowledged a significant improvement in the addressing of gender justice at the forum, the message of which was conveyed effectively.
Beverly was happy to see the existence of specific events for women in the GLF this year, and the evident increase in female participation in discussions. However, alongside her recommendation for a pre-event for women, she brought up how the topic of tenurial rights for women as a response to combating traditions and indigenous cultural norms that bar women from owning and inheriting land should be a primary focus for both the ILC and GLF during events like these, and one that should not be addressed in an isolated setting.
"Women should be able to take a more aggressive role in asserting and getting a deeper understanding and support of this right” Beverly emphasized.
Pallab expressed disappointment regarding the lack of gender representation in the indigenous pre-event, as the panel on traditional leaders from Colombia consisted of only male panellists, a lack of diversity he found surprising for an ILC event. The main GLF forum, however, demonstrated better gender representation, and Pallab acknowledged the higher participation of women in several sessions he attended, encouraged also by the strong representation of female leaders in the newly elected ILC council.
This year’s Global Land Forum introduced multiple positive changes to the structure of the event, emphasising youth participation and directly addressing crucial issues affecting Indigenous land rights.
This was also the first time a pre-event was used to provide a platform directly for indigenous communities to converse. Based on the perspectives of GLF attendees, the visibility of gender justice is considerably greater than previous events. Techniques such as the indigenous and youth pre-events provide an opportunity for the GLF to focus more greatly on issues of gender justice, providing women with a platform to voice significant gender inequalities affecting their land rights.