UNESCO-IISNC

Conference dates: 19-21 August 2026, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

The International Institute for the Study of Nomadic Civilizations under the auspices of UNESCO (IISNC), in collaboration with partner institutions and networks, is organizing an international, interdisciplinary conference titled “Nomadic Futures: Cultural Rights, Knowledge Systems, Climate Resilience”, to be held on 19-21 August 2026. Coinciding with COP17 to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the United Nations International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP), this conference will critically examine the status of cultural rights and political recognition for mobile pastoralists and nomadic peoples. Cultural rights, ways of knowing and climate resilience will be explored as integrated elements rather than separate spheres.
This conference responds directly to the recommendations in the 2024 report on the Situation of Mobile Indigenous Peoples written by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by creating an interdisciplinary platform to examine the legal recognition, cultural rights, mobility, land tenure, and political participation of mobile Indigenous Peoples. The conference also engages with international developments that increasingly recognize mobility as a culturally embedded practice and form of intangible heritage constituted through complex ecological, social, and epistemological relations. UNESCO’s recognition of transhumance and pastoral mobility as Intangible Cultural Heritage reflects the significance of intergenerational knowledge transmission, seasonal movement, oral traditions, customary social institutions, and collective relationships to land in sustaining mobile lifeways across generations.