The Permanent Forum also recommends that WIPO organize a second indigenous expert workshop on intellectual property and genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions before 2021
The Permanent Forum takes note of the report (E/C.19/2014/8) and recommendations of the expert group meeting, and reiterates and supports the recommendations contained in paragraphs 62, 63, 64, 70 and 72 of the report, as set out below, which are specifically addressed to entities of the United Nations system and States Members of the United Nations.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States and United Nations agencies recognize indigenous peoples as distinct stakeholders and make a specific separate reference to indigenous peoples, and not simply include them under the terms “marginalized and vulnerable groups”, in both the sustainable development goals and the post-2015 development agenda, including the Small Island Developing States process, and that this recommendation, with the specific recognition of indigenous peoples’ views and priorities for development, should be reflected in the goals and targets to be developed, including appropriate indicators and data disaggregation.
The Permanent Forum urges Governments in the Arctic, Eastern Europe, the Russian Federation, Central Asia and Transcaucasia to fully implement the relevant international obligations related to environmental and social safeguards to assure the conservation of nature and access to natural resources for indigenous peoples within their territories in accordance with Sustainable Development Goals 12, 14 and 15.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the study on Indigenous determinants of health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (E/C.19/2023/5), presented at its twenty-second session. The Permanent Forum calls upon Member States and United Nations entities, particularly WHO, to adopt indigeneity as an overarching determinant of health, including in relation to the relevant Sustainable Development Goals and in policies and practices across the United Nations system.
The Permanent Forum notes that the Constitutional Court of Guatemala issued ruling No. 2112-2016 of 24 October 2017 on indigenous peoples’ intellectual collective property. The Permanent Forum urges Guatemala to comply with the ruling and to adopt laws and policies, respecting the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples.
During the pandemic, indigenous peoples have been seriously affected by a lack of access to energy, health-care establishments, education centres, infrastructure that supplies clean water, and communication services and information technologies. Governments have made a range of efforts to support economic activity in their responses to the economic impacts of the pandemic. The relaxation of environmental and human rights standards in order to support activities that will promote economic growth, such as logging, mining, large-scale agriculture and various infrastructure and energy projects, threaten indigenous peoples’ territories. The Permanent Forum requests Member States to include indigenous peoples in the preparatory process and the outcome of the high-level dialogue on energy to be held by the General Assembly in September 2021, in order to accelerate action on achieving Goal 7 and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement.
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 relevant countries among the 44 countries undergoing voluntary national reviews at the high-level political forum in 2017 include indigenous peoples in their reviews, reports and delegations. The Forum invites those Member States to report on good practices of including indigenous peoples’ indicators in the voluntary national reviews to the Forum at its seventeenth session.
The Permanent Forum also recommends that WIPO organize a second indigenous expert workshop on intellectual property and genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions before 2021
The Permanent Forum recommends that the International Finance Corporation establish a mechanism of engagement with indigenous peoples in the context of its sustainability framework, including Performance Standard 7, on indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum calls on the chairs of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals to address inequalities through the sustainable development goals, with a special focus on indigenous peoples, in order to uphold human rights for all, eliminate discrimination, reduce inequalities and ensure that no one is left behind.