The Permanent Forum takes notes of the recent publication of the adolescent-friendly version of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by UNICEF, the Forum and the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus. The Forum recommends that UNICEF, Member States and indigenous peoples translate this publication into all languages, in particular indigenous languages. The Forum also recommends that Member States, indigenous peoples and others use this publication in the curricula of studies of indigenous and non-indigenous youth.
The Forum urges States and the United Nations agencies to support the attendance and participation of indigenous youth at future sessions of the Permanent Forum
The Permanent Forum reiterates previous recommendations that WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and UNFPA, as well as regional health organizations and Governments, fully incorporate a cultural perspective into health policies and programmes and reproductive health services aimed at providing indigenous women with quality health care, including emergency obstetric care, voluntary family planning and skilled attendance at birth. The roles of traditional midwives should be re-evaluated and expanded so that they may assist indigenous women during their reproductive health processes and act as cultural brokers between health systems and indigenous peoples.
Indigenous women’s collective rights and the decolonization of State structures are essential to implementing general recommendation No. 39. The Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) conduct and present a study by 2025 on the impacts of colonization on the rights of Indigenous women and girls, including within the context of the UN-Women strategy for the inclusion and visibility of Indigenous women, in collaboration with other United Nations entities. The study should identify critical action areas and strategies to advance the implementation of general recommendation No. 39.
The Permanent Forum reiterates the call, made at its fifth and eleventh sessions, upon United Nations agencies and funds to conduct and support regional and international human rights training programmes aimed at building the capacity and advocacy skills of indigenous youth. The Forum further recommends the use of youth forums, social media and other popular cultural forms of communication to disseminate information and training material on the rights of indigenous youth and to facilitate consultation processes at the national and international levels.
The Forum welcomes the new initiatives undertaken by UNICEF with regard to indigenous children, in particular the ongoing development of a digest on the indigenous child, as well as a number of case studies aimed at understanding development programming to fulfill the rights of indigenous children. The Forum requests UNICEF to make the digest and the results of those studies available to the Forum at its third session.
The Permanent Forum requests that UNICEF design, in partnership with other relevant United Nations agencies, a protocol for emergency situations resulting from natural disasters to ensure that, in cases of emergency, there are no violations of the human rights of indigenous peoples, especially indigenous youth, children and women, owing to forced relocation.
The Permanent Forum takes note of the under the auspices of a steering committee consisting of the Women's Refugee Commission, Equality Now, Equal Rights Trust, Tilburg University, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women). The Forum therefore calls upon those Member States whose constitutional provisions and legislation require review, as a matter of urgency, to support this global campaign, consistent with the Declaration and the rights of indigenous women highlighted in articles 21 and 22. (Corrigendum. E/2014/43/Corr.1-E/C.19/2014/11/Corr.1)
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.
In support of their country-level programming, and with a view to a deeper appreciation of indigenous peoples’ perceptions of such interventions, UNICEF and UNFPA should undertake a study on the social, cultural, legal and spiritual institutions of indigenous peoples and how these affect the rights of women and children as laid out in local, regional and global frameworks.
The Permanent Forum intends to develop a working practice for its next session that will engage the Youth Caucus more actively in its work.
Improve and increase indigenous women's economic and social conditions through: (a) expansion of employment opportunities; (b) Promotion of the professionalization of their traditional skills, arts and crafts; c) Access to resources, including microcredit, new technologies and agricultural input; (d) Support the regional meetings of indigenous women and organize training on international, regional and national mechanisms