The Permanent Forum also calls upon Member States to expand indigenous language immersion methods and bilingual schools to support indigenous children and youth to reclaim their languages. The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States, where appropriate, incorporate intercultural and bilingual education in national school curricula, including through language immersion programmes, and ensure that the language of the subnational region or area in which the school is located is part of the curricula. In this regard, the Permanent Forum recommends that Member States, in close cooperation with indigenous peoples, establish educational programmes on indigenous languages for indigenous teachers, filmmakers, translators and interpreters, scientists, information technology specialists and other professionals. Such efforts would support the expansion of domains covered by indigenous languages and, consequently, contribute to language development and maintenance and the restoration of indigenous peoples’ pride in their own languages.
The Permanent Forum expresses concern that indigenous peoples are not receiving adequate information regarding the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals at the national level and encourages Governments, United Nations entities, indigenous peoples and civil society organizations to convene workshops and other forums to ensure their effective participation in implementing the 2030 Agenda.
The Permanent Forum recommends that UNICEF continue to gather data on the issue of children and migration and information on the effects of migration on children, recognizing in particular the situation of indigenous children, the risks of serious exploitation, such as trafficking in human beings for various purposes, and the restoration of rights to victims and vulnerable children, such as street children, through all country-level programmes.
Follow the principle of free, prior and informed consent at all levels and take into account both the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics as established by the Statistical Commission and provisions on human rights and fundamental freedoms and data protection regulations and privacy guarantees including respect for confidentiality. For indigneous peoples living in voluntary isolation, data-collection exercises should not be used as a pretext for establishing forced contact
The Forum is deeply concerned that particular problems and discrimination are faced by indigenous children and youth, including in the areas of education, health, culture, extreme poverty, mortality, incarceration, labour and other relevant areas. The Forum notes the need for new indicators to be developed by the United Nations that will specifically target those problems, and in that regard invites UNICEF to develop such new indicators and share them with other entities of the United Nations system, especially UNESCO.
The Permanent Forum recommends that UNESCO, the Convention on Biological Diversity, UNICEF and other relevant United Nations agencies convene an expert meeting, in conjunction with the Forum, comprising intercultural and educational experts and United Nations agencies to explore themes and concepts related to bilingual, intercultural and multilingual education in the context of teaching in mother tongue indigenous languages.
The Permanent Forum notes the organization of preparatory meetings for indigenous youth for its sixteenth session, including the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus meeting hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The Forum recommends that this practice be scaled up in 2018, with representative participation of indigenous youth through indigenous peoples’ organizations from all regions, and invites FAO to report on progress achieved to the Forum at its seventeenth session.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the study entitled “Indigenous peoples and boarding schools: a comparative study” prepared by a consultant for the secretariat of the Forum and requests that it be made available as a document of the ninth session of the Forum in all official languages of the United Nations and that it be widely disseminated. The Forum decides in particular to transmit the study to UNESCO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, the Human Rights Council expert mechanism on the rights of indigenous peoples, the Committee the Rights of the Child and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The Permanent Forum notes the proposed Celebrate Life through Sports and Culture within the World Indigenous Nations (WIN) Games and Sports, to be held in Winnipeg, Canada, in August 2012. The Forum encourages indigenous peoples, nations and Member States to support the continuing development of sports, traditional games and culture.
The Permanent Forum commends UNFPA for its financial and technical support for strengthening national capacity for censuses, surveys and needs assessments, and for its focus on the 2010 round of censuses, the results of which will be critical for assessing progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. The Permanent Forum recommends that UNFPA vigorously promote the inclusion of indigenous peoples in the 2010 round of censuses, particularly in cases where Governments may seek to avoid questions pertaining to indigenous peoples.
The Forum, taking into account that indigenous children, youth and women are more vulnerable and are often physically and psychologically mistreated, and that children represent the future of indigenous peoples, recommends that the Council support the declaration of an international day or an international year of the indigenous child, to be celebrated with awareness-raising activities to honour the cultural identity of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum thanks the Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional of the Government of Spain, the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, the Swedish International Biodiversity Programme and IFAD for their financial support for the regional, thematic and international seminars on indicators relevant to indigenous peoples, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Millennium Development Goals, and urges other donors to contribute to this important work.