In regard to the rights of indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum reiterates its long-standing position of encouraging the United Nations, its organs and specialized agencies, as well as all States, to adopt a human rights-based approach. At the international, regional and national level, the human rights of indigenous peoples are always relevant if such rights are at risk of being undermined. Human rights are indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated. They must be respected in any context specifically concerning indigenous peoples, from environment to development, to peace and security, and many other issues.
The Permanent Forum commends OHCHR for conducting training sessions on the rights of indigenous peoples for its staff in a number of Asian and African countries. The Permanent Forum recommends that OHCHR continue to expand such training and capacity-building efforts for its staff, both at headquarters and in country teams in all regions.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the decision of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues to hold, on an exceptional basis, a meeting to consider appropriate ways of promoting, disseminating and implementing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, once it is adopted by the General Assembly.
The Permanent Forum supports an initiative to declare an International Year of Quinoa, recognizing the importance of quinoa to indigenous people and that it is a natural food with a high nutritional content.
The Permanent Forum recalls the fourth preambular paragraph of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which affirms that all doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating superiority of peoples or individuals on the basis of national origin or racial, religious, ethnic or cultural differences are racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally condemnable and socially unjust. Legal and political justification for the dispossession of indigenous peoples from their lands, their disenfranchisement and the abrogation of their rights such as the doctrine of discovery, the doctrine of domination, “conquest”, “discovery”, terra nullius or the Regalian doctrine were adopted by colonizers throughout the world. While these nefarious doctrines were promoted as the authority for the acquisition of the lands and territories of indigenous peoples, there were broader assumptions implicit in the doctrines, which became the basis for the assertion of authority and control over the lives of indigenous peoples and their lands, territories and resources. Indigenous peoples were constructed as “savages”, “barbarians”, “backward” and “inferior and uncivilized” by the colonizers who used such constructs to subjugate, dominate and exploit indigenous peoples and their lands, territories and resources. The Permanent Forum calls upon States to repudiate such doctrines as the basis for denying indigenous peoples’ human rights.
The Permanent Forum takes note of the 2009 report of the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, particularly the general observation, and the nine individual observations on implementation of ILO Convention No. 169 on indigenous and tribal peoples. The Forum welcomes the increased attention paid by the Committee to ILO Convention No. 169 and calls upon the Committee to fully incorporate the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in its individual observations as a source of interpretation of the Convention.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the results of the 2018 High-level Expert Seminar on Indigenous Food Systems, in particular the creation of an online global hub on indigenous food systems, and would like to recommend that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) continue work on: (a) Indigenous young people towards the creation of a forum on indigenous young people in the coming years; (b) Indigenous food systems, in particular in relation to the links with traditional knowledge, climate change and the respect of indigenous peoples’ rights to their lands, territories and resources; (c) Indigenous women (the global campaign on indigenous women and the leadership and food security schools for indigenous women).
In relation to the preparation for the high-level plenary meeting/World Conference, the Permanent Forum welcomes the study entitled “Rights of indigenous peoples: achievements and challenges in the Latin American countries”, prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in collaboration with indigenous peoples, and encourages States, agencies and regional commissions to undertake similar studies.
Considering the statements made by Brazil at the fifteenth session, the Permanent Forum welcomes the willingness of the Government to engage in dialogue concerning the status, conditions and rights of the indigenous peoples of Brazil, many of whom have faced the suspension of the land demarcation process. The Forum respectfully requests Brazil to uphold its national and international obligations to recognize and respect the human rights of indigenous peoples, as affirmed in the United Nations Declaration and ILO Convention No. 169. Furthermore, the Forum urges the interim Government of Brazil to safeguard the status of the National Indian Foundation and its mandate with regard to the indigenous peoples of Brazil.
The Permanent Forum encourages APG to continue to defend in a cooperative and constructive manner, the principles of self-determination and free, prior and informed consent in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which the Plurinational State of Bolivia has incorporated into its domestic law and applied through its Constitution
The Permanent Forum was presented with horrific testimonies of Indigenous children incarcerated in prisons and other holding facilities. The Permanent Forum reminds Member States to fulfil their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child in relation to the arrest, detention, or imprisonment of a child. No child should be in prison. In that regard, the Permanent Forum notes the finding in 2022 of the Supreme Court of Western Australia that the extensive solitary confinement and significant reduction in liberty of children, primarily Aboriginal children, was unlawful. The Permanent Forum calls upon Australia to respect the Court decision and remove its reservation to article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States review and reform their child protection policies and systems to prevent undue removal of Indigenous children from their families and communities.
To meet the major challenges facing indigenous peoples in Africa, the Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations system and other entities with expertise on indigenous peoples’ issues in the African region support the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities in Africa to promote and protect the rights of indigenous peoples.