The Permanent Forum recommends that all indigenous peoples make use, whenever appropriate, of the early warning measures and urgent procedures established by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. These early warning measures and procedures are aimed at preventing existing situations from escalating into conflicts and respond to problems requiring immediate attention to prevent or limit the scale or number of serious violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The Forum also recommends that the Committee’s Working Group on Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedures urgently address the serious human rights violations and the criminalization of indigenous peoples in the Amazon in order for the Committee to take effective measures.
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.
States, United Nations agencies, funds and programs should mobilize support for indigenous peoples who are extremely vulnerable to natural disasters.
As part of the active engagement of IFAD with indigenous peoples’ issues, the Permanent Forum recommends that the Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility be incorporated into the organization’s general budget so as to guarantee sustainability and the transfer of good practices and lessons learned within IFAD programmes and projects. The Permanent Forum also recommends that the facility extend its funding directly to indigenous peoples’ organizations. Support for indigenous peoples’ organizations should have as its point of departure the co-administration and co implementation of the projects.
The Forum takes note with appreciation of the focus and work of UN-Habitat, particularly regarding the ongoing study jointly initiated with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on indigenous peoples and the right to adequate housing, and recommends that UN-Habitat submit a report on the conclusions and recommendations of this study to the Forum at its fourth session, and that it participate in the dialogue.
The Permanent Forum encourages the African Governments and the intergovernmental agencies to intensify dialogue among themselves under the supervision of the African Union, more precisely within the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, with special emphasis on poverty eradication based on the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum once again reiterates its concern that reports developed and presented by many States on the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals and poverty reduction strategy papers still do not adequately include and address indigenous peoples, nor do they include their participation, and it therefore calls on States to rectify this situation and on United Nations agencies to support their efforts. Furthermore, the Forum encourages the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to integrate indigenous peoples’ issues into the global, regional, national and local human development reports, and in particular to include indigenous experts in preparing those reports and to guarantee that indigenous peoples’ issues are mainstreamed in them.
The Permanent Forum is concerned about reports of UNDP entering into a strategic partnership with the oil company GeoPark, a private entity that has been accused by indigenous communities of disregarding their rights, to carry out economic development activities in Colombia without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous communities that will be affected. This partnership contradicts standard 6 (indigenous peoples) of the UNDP social and environmental standards, and the Forum urges UNDP to suspend all related partnership activities until a proper free, prior and informed consent process can be carried out.
The Permanent Forum calls upon the World Bank to include the rights of indigenous peoples in its knowledge and learning activities for staff and management. Instruments for learning, such as the Nordic Trust Fund, should include training on how operational policies in place regarding the rights of indigenous peoples should be fully implemented.
The Permanent Forum recognizes the need to better consolidate and coordinate activities and capacity-building regarding indigenous issues at the country and regional levels and recommends that UNDP and the United Nations Development Group inform United Nations resident coordinators, regional directors and United Nations country teams, and establish inter-agency coordination mechanisms at those levels.
The Permanent Forum is concerned at the lack of implementation of its previous recommendations that States implement the agreements reached in peace accords, and encourages States to engage in constructive dialogue with indigenous peoples, including the Maya, Garifuna, Xinka, Jumma, Kanak, Naga, Chin, Amazigh, Tuareg and Maohis peoples, and provide information to the Forum at its sixteenth session on the status of the agreements. In accordance with articles 3, 4, 5, 18 and 27 of the United Nations Declaration, the Forum urges the States concerned to engage in implementation with the full participation of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum expresses its readiness to examine existing practices and
ways of developing various forms of administrative and territorial autonomy for
indigenous peoples’ communities whose representatives lead a traditional, nomadic
way of life, as part of the development of the guiding principles on indigenous
peoples’ autonomy and self-government as recommended in the study on indigenous
peoples’ autonomies: experiences and perspectives (E/C.19/2020/5). Such work will
be conducted by an online working group of the Permanent Forum. Indigenous
peoples’ organizations, representative decision-making bodies and institutions,
together with United Nations system entities, Member States and other stakeholders,
are invited to contribute financially and practically and to take an active part in the
work of the working group.