The Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) conduct a study on violence against indigenous women and access to justice, especially in cross-border situations, in cooperation with indigenous women.
The Permanent Forum calls for the cooperation of all States, indigenous peoples, the United Nations system and other intergovernmental organizations in its task of ensuring that the Declaration reaches indigenous peoples in their communities by appropriate dissemination of the text in indigenous peoples’ own languages.
Given the importance of the full range of the human rights of indigenous peoples, including traditional knowledge, culturally appropriate procedures to ensure communication, information, and scheduling, the Permanent Forum calls on all United Nations agencies and intergovernmental agencies to implement policies, procedures and mechanisms that ensure the right of indigenous peoples to free, prior and informed consent consistent with their right to self-determination as reflected in common article 1 of the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which makes reference to permanent sovereignty over natural resources.
The Forum welcomes and supports Commission on Human Rights decision 2003/117 of 24 April 2003 to hold a seminar on treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements between indigenous peoples and States, as a follow-up to the United Nations treaty study final report.
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1999/20.
The Permanent Forum calls upon the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs to publish a comprehensive report on the state of indigenous peoples, similar to the Human Development Report, to mark the Decade.
Indigenous peoples lack recognition, and face poor implementation of their rights and flagrant violations of their rights and their lands, while the need for their free, prior and informed consent and the right to autonomy of self-government is disregarded by local businesses and transnational corporations in mining, logging, and oil and gas extraction, among other sectors. The territories and resources of indigenous peoples are seized and livelihoods are destroyed to the detriment of their knowledge, cultures and languages. In that respect, it is important to remind Member States of their duty to protect.
The Permanent Forum recommends that, in order to ensure access to effective remedies, States enforce corporate compliance with relevant laws and standards. Transnational corporations and other business enterprises should put into place operational-level grievance mechanisms to provide early warning and help resolve problems before they escalate. Significant barriers to accessing effective judicial and non-judicial remedies persist, and the Forum supports the work of the Special Representative in identifying and proposing ways of eliminating those barriers.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the first indigenous media zone, established at the sixteenth session of the Forum, and encourages the continuation of this initiative at future sessions, in cooperation with indigenous community media, and, where possible, encourages United Nations entities to continue collaboration with indigenous community media at the regional and national levels.
The Permanent Forum calls upon the Government of the United States of America to comply with the provisions recognized in the Declaration and to ensure the rights of the Great Sioux Nation to participate in decision-making, as set out in article 19 of the Declaration, given that the construction of the Dakota access pipeline will affect their rights, lives and territory. Furthermore, the Forum recommends that the Government of the United States initiate an investigation of alleged human rights abuses by private security and law enforcement officers that occurred during protests to prevent construction of the pipeline.
Taking into account paragraphs 11, 14, 15, 17 and 26 of the outcome document of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples and article 23 of the United Nations Declaration, the Permanent Forum reminds Member States of the need to implement their commitments through national action plans, strategies or other measures, developed jointly and effectively with indigenous representatives on the basis of the right of free, prior and informed consent, in particular to ensure the adequate training and availability of health professionals in indigenous communities as a matter of urgency.
The Permanent Forum urges States to support the economic activities of indigenous peoples, in particular indigenous women, by enhancing their equal access to productive resources and agricultural inputs, such as land, seeds, financial services, technology, transportation and information.
The Permanent Forum encourages CAPI and other indigenous peoples’ organizations to continue to defend the principle of indigenous peoples’ self-determination that they have followed in asserting their own identity, and thus to continue their efforts to reach agreement with the Government on reforms consistent with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.