ICIR 7: Call for Abstracts

“Ecocracy: Power to the People, Justice for All Planetary Community”

UGM, Yogyakarta, 23-25 Oktober 2025

*Offline and Online
Free of charge, but participants will be responsible for their own transportation and accommodation

For generations, Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) have used their living traditions and communal systems to preserve biodiversity, protect fragile ecosystems and lead locally relevant adaptations to environmental changes. Their knowledge and systems have served as the foundation for community resilience and opposition against forms of exploitative and detrimental development. Numerous other vulnerable groups, including women, diverse gender identities, individuals with disabilities, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities, have developed their own ingenious and innovative strategies to endure hardships and pursue their ambitions within oppressive social and political structures. Similar to IPLCs, those disadvantaged groups endure and prosper, demonstrating resilience in the midst of interrelated forms of discrimination.

Those knowledge, systems and ingenious strategies require consistent engagement, consultation, consolidation, discussion, and shared decision-making to maintain and adapt, a process known as ecocracy. When threatened by development or expropriation, many IPLCs engage in ecocracy as a form of struggle, using democratic means to preserve their local knowledge and systems. Ecocracy may also refer to ingenious strategies used by any group, including the vulnerable, to struggle for social and environmental justice through democratic means. As envisioned, ecocracy is a way of thinking, an agenda, and a method for achieving justice for all living things on Earth.

The 7^th International Conference and Consolidation on Indigenous Religions (ICIR) calls for the advancement of ecocracy, envisioned as a way of thinking, an agenda, and a toolkit of strategies for achieving justice for all living beings on Earth. It emphasizes people’s engagement and empowerment in addressing and contending with rising authoritarianism and the repressive practices of the powerful. The trendy rise of democratic authoritarianism has polarized society, fractured communities, and endangered the planet. Democracy is readily seized by elite coalitions, environmentalism is largely limited to the powerful and wealthy, and public participation has devolved into empty rhetoric and jargon. People are subject to human rights violations, the environment is under threat, making it ever more challenging to pursue human dignity, flourishing, and socio-ecological justice.

To contend with the rising democratic authoritarianism, how can communities and groups infuse their knowledge into local systems and ingenious strategies to empower the people? How can civil society organizations consolidate and foster inclusive and intersectional social movements for justice for all planetary communities?

The 7^th ICIR invites academics of any discipline, researchers of any subject, practitioners of any field, CSO activists on any issue, community members, and any independent individuals to participate in and consolidate around “Ecocracy: Power to the People, Justice for all Planetary Community”. Those interested may offer their critical and creative views and experiences in papers, posters, movies, and performances concerning (but not limited to) the following themes:

1. Human rights, democratization, and the future of the planet
2. Intersectionality of rights: religion or belief, women, children, disabilities, and environment.
3. Democracy, social movements, and power to people
4. Development, polarization, and cultural creativities
5. Dialogue, conflict and peacebuilding
6. Digital world, religious/artistic creativities, and wellbeing

For those interested, please send your abstracts of 250-350 words in English or Bahasa Indonesia through this link https://s.id/abstract_ICIR7

Important dates:

Contact person:

rumahbersama@icir.or.id