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 appoints Brian Keane and Elifuraha Laltaika, members of the Forum, to undertake a study to examine conservation and indigenous peoples’ human rights, to be submitted to the Forum at its seventeenth session.
The Permanent Forum encourages indigenous parliamentarians to organize a global satellite conference of indigenous representatives with the objective of analyzing as a whole the level of progress in the promotion, protection and exercise of the rights of indigenous peoples around the world within the framework of the seventh session of the Permanent Forum.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the initiatives of national human rights institutions, such as those from Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh, and encourages other human rights institutions to conduct national inquiries on the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands, territories and resources.
The Permanent Forum strongly urges Member States to uphold the linguistic rights of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum urges States to increase the provision of funding to indigenous peoples and communities for water and wastewater systems in order to improve the quality of drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, as well as address water pollution and degradation in indigenous communities.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the annual report of OHCHR to the Permanent Forum provide a summary of relevant reports, decisions and recommendations of the Human Rights Council, its subsidiary bodies and special procedures, as well as the universal periodic review working group, United Nations treaty bodies and other relevant United Nations reports and conferences.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Asian States:(a)Adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as adopted by the Human Rights Council on 29 June 2006, before the end of the sixty-first session of the General Assembly;(b)Recognize indigenous peoples constitutionally and legally as peoples, promote legal reform, in particular with regard to the recognition of indigenous peoples’ collective land rights and their customary laws and institutions, which promote diversity and pluralism;(c)Adopt laws regulating the activities of investors and mitigating the negative impact of economic liberalization on the territories of indigenous peoples;(d) Have national laws in conformity with relevant international norms and standards;(e)Establish land commissions or mechanisms that address violations of indigenous peoples’ land rights, facilitate the restitution of alienated land and settle disputes;(f) Establish full transparency regarding projects on indigenous territories by States and corporations, through the implementation of the principles of free, prior and informed consent, in accordance with customary laws and practices of the respective indigenous peoples;(g) Abandon transmigration policies and programmes and prevent illegal migration to indigenous territories.
The Permanent Forum recommends that intergovernmental organizations such as the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Secretariat of the Ibero-American Summit, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, establish a working group to promote the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Plan of Action of the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People.
The Permanent Forum takes note of the study by Elisa Canqui on forced labour and indigenous peoples (E/C.19/2011/CRP.4) and urges Member States, in collaboration with United Nations agencies and regional intergovernmental organizations, to increase their efforts to combat forced labour and human trafficking and to put in place adequate instruments to protect victims, paying particular attention to indigenous peoples and the restoration of victims’ rights.
The Forum recommends that States include independent indigenous experts in national human rights commissions
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research and other relevant United Nations agencies and offices provide necessary information and training on the universal periodic review process for and with indigenous peoples.