The Permanent Forum urges the Governments of Colombia and Ecuador to take immediate action to protect the indigenous peoples whose territories are in the border area between the two countries. The Forum encourages the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples to work with the two Governments to address this situation in close cooperation with the indigenous communities concerned.
The Permanent Forum calls on States, in consultation with indigenous peoples, to establish national judicial institutions tasked with identifying lands, waters, coastal waters and other resources to which the indigenous peoples concerned have established ownership and usufruct rights, and to demarcate such lands and resources.
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.
6. The Permanent Forum welcomes recent proposals made by the Sami to address cross-border collaboration and urges the States involved to work constructively with the affected indigenous peoples in these matters. The Permanent Forum also welcomes the Inuit Nunangat Policy of Canada, by which Inuit Nunangat is recognized as a distinct geographic, cultural and political region that encompasses the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Nunavut, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut. The Permanent Forum invites other Member States to develop, in close cooperation with indigenous peoples, similar arrangements that recognize indigenous peoples’ ancestral territories
The Permanent Forum reiterates its call to Member States to establish mechanisms and processes for comprehensive dialogue and consultations with indigenous peoples in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent in relation to any project that will have an impact on their territories and resources. In this regard, the Forum expresses concern regarding the lack of consultation by the Government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia with the indigenous peoples who will be affected by the mega-hydroelectric project of El Bala-Chepete and Rositas, including the Guarani, Mosetén, Tacana, Tsimané, Leco, Ese Ejja and Uchupiamona peoples. The Forum urges the Government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to respect the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples and ensure that they are able to exercise their rights in accordance with international human rights standards.
Positive developments have been achieved in setting international human rights standards for the rights of indigenous peoples to lands, territories and resources, including by regional human rights mechanisms in Africa and the Americas. The Permanent Forum welcomes those developments, including the recent decision of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in the case of the Ogiek community in Kenya. The Forum encourages indigenous peoples and States to engage further with regional mechanisms and to implement their decisions effectively.
The Permanent Forum therefore requests the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel to support Member States in the Sahel and the Congo basin in this work, in collaboration with indigenous peoples. In general, indigenous peoples should be invited to contribute to the implementation of the mandate of the Office. Other initiatives of importance to indigenous peoples are the Joint Force of the Group of Five for the Sahel and the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative. The Permanent Forum invites the Office to attend its twenty-second session, to be held in 2023, to share information on progress in its work.
In the discussion on reconciliation and intergenerational trauma, there was agreement that healing requires a return to culture and a relationship with the land. The Permanent Forum recommends that Governments support programmes led by indigenous peoples to address intergenerational trauma as a way of moving towards true reconciliation.
The Permanent Forum urges all agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system to incorporate the recognition of the collective rights of indigenous peoples to lands, territories and resources into their policies and programmes at the country level and to report to the Forum on progress made at its eighteenth session.
The Permanent Forum recognizes that land conflict is a controversial issue and encourages Member States and indigenous peoples to continue dialogue to find common solutions.
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.
The Permanent Forum requests United Nations entities, in particular those working on land tenure and changes in land use, to advance the research on securing the land and territorial rights of indigenous peoples, taking into account the negative impacts of, inter alia, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) global pandemic and regional conflicts.