The Permanent Forum notes with appreciation the work of the trilateral working group on violence against indigenous women and girls and urges Canada, Mexico and the United States of America, in cooperation with United Nations entities, to organize an international expert group meeting, by 2021, on ongoing issues of violence against indigenous women and girls in the region, including trafficking, as well as the continuing crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women.
The Permanent Forum calls upon UNESCO, in its coordination of the International Decade, to give attention to the role of indigenous languages in the preservation of traditional food and knowledge systems that are important to climate change adaptation strategies.
The Permanent Forum also recommends that the Economic and Social Council and the Human Rights Council note the proposal to accredit indigenous peoples’ representative institutions as observers in the General Assembly and to consider accreditation for indigenous peoples’ representative institutions to participate in their meetings and meetings of their subsidiary bodies on issues affecting them.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Commission on the Status of Women consider the empowerment of indigenous women as a priority theme of its sixty-first session, in 2017, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration.
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 again urges Member States to ensure that Indigenous Peoples are afforded full and effective participation in all planning and policy development to address climate change. Indigenous-led climate change policies incorporate the vital knowledge of Indigenous Peoples for land management and stewardship of natural resources while protecting health, equity, justice and sustainability. Principles of free, prior and informed consent must be followed in the development of all climate change policies and actions.
The Permanent Forum, recognizing that indigenous peoples can contribute greatly a range of issues on the international agenda, encourages the President of the General Assembly to consider inviting representatives of indigenous peoples to other hearings and events.
The Permanent Forum calls on Canada and the United States of America to develop national action plans to realize the aims of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and appoint an ambassador or special envoy on global indigenous affairs to promote the rights of indigenous peoples globally, including on participation.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States implement emission reductions to limit the increase in average global temperature to no more than 1.5oC to avoid the increased impact of climate change.
The Permanent Forum also requests that States and United Nations agencies engaging in those events [see rec.31] ensure strong linkages with the outcome document of the World Conference, with particular consideration of paragraph 33, and indigenous participation.
Recalling articles 3–4, 8, 18, 25–26 and 32 of the Declaration, the Permanent Forum urges African States to promote, recognize and protect the collective rights of indigenous peoples to their lands, territories and resources through the development of mechanisms to ensure the legal recognition of land and resource rights, the resolution of land disputes, fair and equitable redress, and the creation of permanent dialogue frameworks to facilitate political participation and representation of indigenous peoples in decision-making.
The 2030 Agenda is now in its fourth year of implementation, yet few countries refer to indigenous peoples in their voluntary national reviews. The Permanent Forum therefore urges countries undertaking voluntary national reviews at the high-level political forum on sustainable development to include indigenous peoples under all Sustainable Development Goals.