The "Global Voices for Climate Justice in a Time of Uncertainty" panel was held on June 24th, 2025, as part of the Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: Path to COP30 and Beyond. Hosted by the Women’s Earth and Climate Network (WECAN) from June 23-28, 2025, the assembly served as a crucial platform for climate action.

The panel featured distinguished leaders such as Mary Robinson, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, and Christiana Figueres. The broader assembly convened over 125 grassroots and frontline women leaders, advocates, and policymakers from 50 countries. Across 25 unique panels, participants presented diverse visions and strategies to accelerate a transformative path towards a healthy and just world.

The Women’s Earth and Climate Network (WECAN) hosted the Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: Path to COP30 and Beyond from June 23-28, 2025. This virtual forum united over 125 grassroots and frontline women leaders, advocates, and policymakers from 50 countries. Through 25 panels, participants shared diverse strategies for a healthy and just world.

A significant session, "Women for Forests: Protection & Reforestation: Part 2," took place on June 25. It featured prominent women leaders and experts from various global organizations, discussing critical forest protection and reforestation initiatives. The assembly offered interpretation in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

The Global Women's Assembly for Climate Justice: Path to COP30 and Beyond, hosted by the Women's Earth and Climate Network (WECAN) from June 23-28, 2025, featured the panel "Rematriating the Land: Indigenous Sovereignty and the Land Back Movement" on June 24.

Prominent Indigenous leaders participated, including Bryanna R. Brown, Janene Yazzie, Taily Terena, and Pluma Bárbara Moreno Torres, with moderation by Dr. Lyla June Johnston. These leaders represented diverse nations from Canada, Diné Bikéyah, Brazil, and Puerto Rico.

The assembly convened over 125 grassroots women leaders, advocates, and policymakers from 50 countries. Across 25 panels, participants showcased varied visions and strategies to accelerate a transformative path toward a healthy and just world.

The Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: Path to COP30 and Beyond, hosted virtually by the Women’s Earth and Climate Network (WECAN) from June 23-28, 2025, convened over 125 grassroots and frontline women leaders, global advocates, and policymakers from 50 countries. This forum featured 25 unique panels showcasing diverse visions, projects, and strategies to accelerate a transformative path to a healthy and just world, with interpretation available in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

Among the key sessions was the panel “Healing Justice in the Climate Crisis: Restoring Mind, Body, and Spirit,” held on June 25th. Panelists included Cara Page (Changing Frequencies, Healing Histories Project, Turtle Island/USA), Zainab Salbi (Daughters for Earth, Turtle Island/USA), Dr. Vivian Tatiana Camacho Hinojosa (Ancestral Traditional Medicine, Bolivia), Nina Simons (Bioneers, Turtle Island/USA), and Daiara Tukano (Indigenous activist and artist, Brazil). Resources shared during this panel and across the entire Assembly are available here.

On Earth Day, during the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York, WECAN hosted "Protecting Land, Rights, and Future Generations: Indigenous Women on the Frontlines of Climate Action and Earth Defense." This event brought together Indigenous women leaders globally to share firsthand experiences of colonization and climate disruption, while highlighting powerful solutions.

They showcased strategies upholding Indigenous rights and sovereignty, bringing health and justice to communities. The event also honored women land defenders protecting ecosystems, often at great personal risk. Panelists discussed democracy, reciprocal economies, rights of nature, and Indigenous rights as vital ways forward for the world.

On November 18, WECAN hosted a COP29 press conference where women leaders advocated for a fossil fuel phaseout and a Just Transition. Speakers emphasized the importance of climate finance for equitable solutions and accountability, also highlighting efforts for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The panel featured Eriel Tchekwie Deranger (Indigenous Climate Action), Dr. Amiera Sawas (Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty), and Osprey Orielle Lake (WECAN).

WECAN organized a COP29 press conference featuring Brazilian Indigenous women leaders. They advocated for Indigenous rights, forest and water protection, community well-being, and global climate action, with a focus on the path to COP30 in Belém, Brazil.

Speakers included Puyr Tembé, Concita Sôpré, and Lucimara Patté, all co-founders of Ancestral Indigenous Women Warriors (ANMIGA). Moderated by Osprey Orielle Lake (WECAN), the event highlighted the critical role of Indigenous women in safeguarding Amazonian biodiversity and connected biomes.

On November 16, WECAN hosted a COP29 Press Conference, advocating a new legal and economic framework based on living in balance with Earth's natural systems. Prominent speakers discussed the Rights of Nature movement, highlighting its potential as a systemic framework for defending biodiversity, communities, and the climate.

WECAN presented "A Global Initiative for a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Nature," outlining a strategy for national and subnational governments to adopt this declaration. To learn more about this vital initiative, please visit: wecaninternational.org/ron-declaration

On November 5, WECAN Executive Director Osprey Orielle Lake addressed the GLOBE COP26 Legislators Summit at the Scottish Parliament. She urged global leaders to reject false solutions, advocating for climate justice, Indigenous rights, keeping fossil fuels in the ground, and greater inclusion of women and frontline communities in decision-making.

Lake highlighted that current country commitments fall short of the Paris Agreement's 1.5-degree target. She presented a "Call to Action" from the Global Women's Assembly for Climate Justice, outlining how existing frameworks can achieve this goal. This call represents millions of women and feminists worldwide.

Read the Call to Action Statement and Framework Recommendations.

WECAN Executive Director Osprey Orielle Lake addressed world governments at the UN ahead of COP26, declaring a refusal to sacrifice future generations for corporate greed and political power. She urged leaders to fight for social, racial, economic justice, and Indigenous and human rights, emphasizing that communities need climate justice now.

Lake demanded an end to "sacrifice people" and "sacrifice zones," challenging governments to confront the fossil fuel industry and deliver the promised $100 billion for a just transition. Highlighting that current commitments fall short of the 1.5°C target, she presented a "Call to Action" from the Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice, outlining existing frameworks.

Read the Call to Action Statement here and the Framework Recommendations here.

In June 2022, Osprey Orielle Lake delivered a presentation at Scenarios Forum Session 93.

Her talk, titled "Addressing the gender dimension in socioeconomic scenarios," explored policy and climate change impacts on gender equality, and gender equality's role as a driver of change.

During WECAN's Climate Week events, Thilmeeza Hussain, Permanent Representative to the UN and Ambassador from the Maldives, spoke with WECAN Executive Director Osprey Orielle Lake. Their discussion focused on climate justice policies, women's leadership, and accelerating just, resilient, community-led solutions.

This event was part of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) three-day Climate Justice Forum. Titled "Facing the Climate Emergency on the Road to COP27: Solutions and Perspectives from Global Women and Gender Diverse Leaders," the forum took place September 20-22.

Indigenous women are leading global efforts to uphold Indigenous rights, sovereignty, and Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in interactions with financial institutions and corporations. These institutions often perpetuate human and Indigenous rights violations, particularly in extractive industries. A recent event highlighted the need for these entities to implement FPIC, Indigenous rights, and due diligence, while investing in climate justice solutions centered on Traditional Ecological Knowledge.

Given the climate crisis, respecting Indigenous knowledge, ways of life, and FPIC—including the right to say “no” to extraction—is paramount, as 80% of Earth's biodiversity remains on Indigenous lands. This discussion took place at a formal side-event of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 2022, featuring Indigenous women leaders and global advocates like Sônia Guajajara and Casey Camp-Horinek.

International women leaders convened a press conference to discuss feminist and women-led visions for a healthy, equitable future. They shared insights from global movements, examined the impacts of international climate policies, and proposed strategies and alternatives.

Speakers included Neema Namadamu (DRC), Casey Camp Horinek (USA), Anne Songole (FEMNET, Kenya), Taily Terena (Brazil), and Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN).

Facing escalating climate and ecological crises, humanity seeks a new legal framework and economy based on living in balance with Earth, where human rights do not extend to dominating nature. The Rights of Nature movement offers a systemic solution, rapidly growing globally.

A recent press conference showcased how this framework protects biodiverse ecosystems, Indigenous sovereignty, and human rights. Advocates from organizations like WECAN and Health of Mother Earth Foundation shared insights.

During the event, a White Paper on the Legal Rights of Nature Framework, co-authored by WECAN, Movement Rights, and the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN), was released. Read the report here.

At a COP27 UN Side Event, "Women for Climate Justice" convened grassroots, frontline, and Indigenous women leaders with international climate justice organizations. They addressed the root causes of interlocking crises, advocating for solutions rooted in a climate justice framework.

Discussions highlighted crucial areas like forest and biodiversity protection, Indigenous rights, agro-ecology, and fossil fuel resistance. Speakers emphasized safeguarding women land defenders and promoting community-led solutions, showcasing diverse global leadership in climate action.

A COP27 press conference, "Accelerating a Feminist Green New Deal," highlighted the necessity of a cross-cutting approach to the climate crisis, firmly rooted in feminist principles and actively combating historical oppressions.

Organized by the Feminist Green New Deal Coalition, with WECAN as a founding member, the event featured speakers who discussed vital feminist policies and frameworks. These discussions aimed to advance just climate policies, emphasizing the integral role of feminist perspectives in effective climate action.

Indigenous women from the Amazon, leading global and local movements, issued urgent calls to action at a COP27 press conference. They highlighted ongoing efforts to protect their communities and territories from governments and corporations violating Indigenous and human rights through harmful extractive projects.

Speakers, including Sônia Bone Guajajara (Federal Deputy of Brazil) and Patricia Gualinga (Spokeswoman for Mujeres Amazónicas Defensoras de la Selva), demanded stronger Indigenous rights, forest and water protection, and global climate action.

Global movements are addressing the escalating climate crisis, with women and gender-diverse leaders amplifying their voices in response to COP27. This event featured direct reports from the negotiations, sharing critical insights, report releases, and urgent calls to action, alongside global women's demands, struggles, and solutions.

The diverse panel included leaders from Indigenous communities, youth activists, and environmental organizations worldwide. Representatives from groups like DIVA for Equality, Reacción Climática, Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines, The Chisholm Legacy Project, Amazon Watch, and the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) offered vital perspectives from most affected peoples and areas.

Women leaders are developing critical strategies for national and international divestment from fossil fuels and deforestation. They advocate for a Just Transition, demanding accountability from financial sectors and governments to prioritize people and the planet.

During a WECAN press conference at COP27, speakers shared vital reports and strategies to end the fossil fuel era, support impacted communities, and address Indigenous rights. Featured speakers included Eriel Tchekwie Deranger (Indigenous Climate Action), Tzeporah Berman (Fossil Fuel Non Proliferation Treaty), Leila Salazar-López (Amazon Watch), and Osprey Orielle Lake (Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN)).