The Permanent Forum recommends that, in the context of the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture, FAO and ILO conduct a study on the human rights violations suffered by indigenous peoples in the fishing sector. The Permanent Forum invites those organizations to present their findings at the annual session of the Permanent Forum to be held in 2024.
The Permanent Forum calls upon UNESCO, the Secretariat of the Conference on Biological Diversity, UNDP, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund, the World Intellectual Property Organization and the United Nations Development Group to support indigenous peoples in their process of cultural heritage restoration and strengthening. This process should be guided by indigenous peoples in order to avoid the misuse and distortion of indigenous peoples’ culture, practices and knowledge and to respect their perspectives and aspirations.
The Permanent Forum is concerned that, in their efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, Member States are not complying with the Declaration. In one case, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination requested that Norway temporarily suspend the ongoing construction of the Fosen Vind onshore wind power project, which negatively affects the reindeer herding of the South Sami people. The Government of Norway, having concluded that its administrative and legal processes were sufficient, did not implement the interim measures. The Forum urges Member States to respect and comply with decisions made by the United Nations treaty bodies.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights recognize the human rights of indigenous peoples in the ASEAN declaration on human rights and establish a working group on indigenous peoples. In addition, the Forum urges the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation to establish a human rights commission and a working group on indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the decision of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues to hold, on an exceptional basis, a meeting to consider appropriate ways of promoting, disseminating and implementing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, once it is adopted by the General Assembly.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the initiative of the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to host the International Conference on Biological and Cultural Diversity: Diversity for Development (8-10 June 2010, Montreal, Canada) to develop a joint programme of work on biological and cultural diversity, and requests that future work include broad partnerships with the Permanent Forum, other relevant agencies, indigenous peoples’ organizations and non-governmental organizations
The Permanent Forum notes with concern the slow progress made in the negotiations on the final protocol on access and benefit-sharing. The Permanent Forum reiterates its requests to the parties to the Convention to take into account the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the negotiation, adoption and implementation of the access and benefit-sharing protocol.
National human rights institutions are encouraged to work with indigenous peoples to develop strategies to protect and provide support to indigenous human rights defenders.
The Permanent Forum reaffirms that indigenous peoples’ participation is crucial for the work of the Forum, and it therefore urges States to facilitate this participation, especially those indigenous peoples funded by the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States ensure that the territories of indigenous peoples in Asia be free of State military interventions and that military bases, camps and training centres established in indigenous territories without the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples be removed immediately, consistent with articles 19 and 30 of the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum calls upon United Nations agencies, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, other multilateral financial institutions and bilateral donors to establish clear policy commitments to protect the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples.
Considering the commitment made by the World Bank at the Conference on Poverty Reduction and Indigenous Peoples (New York, 9 and 10 May 2006) to further explore inter-agency mechanisms to support the inclusion of indigenous peoples in national poverty reduction strategies in a limited number of pilot countries, the Permanent Forum recommends that Governments, indigenous organizations, United Nations organizations and bilateral donors fully contribute to that initiative and report back to the Permanent Forum on the progress made and the opportunities and limitations encountered, with a view to replicating the initiative in other countries.