The Permanent Forum recognizes the initial efforts made by FAO towards the elaboration of a methodological discussion platform to address indigenous peoples’ territorial rights. The Permanent Forum recommends that FAO and other interested or partner agencies continue the joint elaboration of the participatory methodology and start using it in the field in order to strengthen the delimitation, titling and negotiated development processes specifically targeting indigenous peoples’ needs
The Permanent Forum calls upon United Nations agencies, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, other multilateral financial institutions and bilateral donors to establish clear policy commitments to protect the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples.
With a view to assessing the effectiveness of the implementation of policies on indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum recommends to the United Nations entities that carry out free, prior and informed consent processes to develop a system for comprehensively documenting these processes.
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 continues to be concerned by the lack of participation of African indigenous peoples. The Permanent Forum recommends that the General Assembly encourage relevant United Nations entities to make the necessary financial and administrative arrangements that allow for the participation of indigenous peoples at relevant United Nations meetings, including online.
The Permanent Forum recommends to the President of the sixty-eighth session of the General Assembly the continuation of the practice, established during the sixty-sixth session of the Assembly, of appointing a State representative and an indigenous peoples’ representative to conduct inclusive informal consultations on his behalf in order to build consensus on the themes of the round table and panel discussions and the content of the outcome document of the World Conference, as well as to ensure the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples in the process.
The Permanent Forum recalls that, more than 10 years ago, the International Fund for Agricultural Development established an indigenous forum, which the Forum has repeatedly recognized as a good practice and recommended that other United Nations entities should follow. However, despite these recommendations, other entities have not done so, with the notable exception of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Forum reiterates its recommendation that United Nations entities should incorporate indigenous-driven platforms in order to give advice on and promote indigenous peoples’ issues and should consider the participation of the Permanent Forum together with indigenous peoples in such platforms.
The Permanent Forum urges all States to substantially increase the human, financial and technical resources made available to implement the Declaration, in accordance with article 39 thereof, and to overcome the remaining gaps between the formal recognition of indigenous peoples and the implementation of their rights.
The Forum recommends strengthening the mechanisms for collaboration with United Nations agencies and Governments, and monitoring compliance with and the implementation of its recommendations made to United Nations agencies and Governments.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the efforts of the indigenous Global Coordinating Group to respond to the request of the President of the General Assembly as its sixty-eighth session, which concluded with the nomination of two indigenous advisers. The Forum urges the President of the sixty-eighth session to formalize their designation so as to start the consultation process on the high-level plenary meeting/World Conference on Indigenous Peoples as soon as possible, by June.
The Permanent Forum commends the establishment and achievements of the Regional Indigenous Peoples’ Programme of UNDP in Asia, and calls on UNDP to ensure that the funding of that programme will be increased and that similar programmes will be set up in other regions.
The Permanent Forum encourages all Member States to contribute to the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations as an essential way to ensure the participation of indigenous peoples in all United Nations meetings and to increase their capacity at the international and local levels.