The Forum recommends that the Commission on Human Rights appoint or designate a rapporteur to undertake a study on genocidal and ethnocidal practices perpetuated on indigenous peoples, including programmes for the sterilization of indigenous women and girls, the use of indigenous communities as subjects of nuclear testing or for the storage of nuclear waste and as subjects of the testing of unapproved drugs on indigenous women, children and peoples.
The Permanent Forum urges States to expand opportunities to enable indigenous women to participate actively in the political life of the country in which they live. The Forum also urges States to ensure the safety of indigenous women who are defending the rights of their peoples and territories and to prosecute those persons involved in incidents of violence against them.
The Permanent Forum expresses its appreciation to the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) for its training programme established to enhance the conflict prevention and peacebuilding capacities of indigenous peoples’ representatives, which has provided outstanding training for 270 indigenous representatives since 2000, and recommends that this important programme be supported henceforth through the regular budget of the United Nations.
The Forum recalls the Millennium Development Goal to "Achieve universal primary education", especially for indigenous women and girls, as well as the Dakar Framework for Action, "Education for all: meeting our collective commitments", and reiterates its support, with a focus on indigenous women and girls. In accordance with the provision contained in the relevant international instruments, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, International Labour Organization Convention 169 and the UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education, some Governments have in recent years, taking into account their specific situations, formulated policies and programmes to safeguard indigenous peoples’ equal rights to education, and have adopted positive measures to address indigenous education issues. These should be promoted as good practices throughout the United Nations system and broadly to all Member States. Furthermore, to achieve equitable
educational outcomes for indigenous peoples, especially indigenous women and girls, Governments should adopt special measures (UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education).
The Permanent Forum urges States to intensify efforts at the national level to implement Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000 on women, peace and security, including through national action plans that pay special attention to indigenous women.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the work of the Government of Bangladesh with United Nations country offices to support peace in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The Permanent Forum further welcomes the ongoing study on the status of implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord of 1997 and invites the Government of Bangladesh, with the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples, to report on the results of the study at the twenty-second session of the Permanent Forum, setting a timeframe for its full implementation. The Permanent Forum also calls upon the Government of Bangladesh to continue to address all forms of violence, including enforced disappearances, and sexual violence against women in the Chittagong Hill Tracts committed by law enforcement agencies.
The Forum expresses its concerns regarding continued violence against women and, owing to the seriousness of these conditions, reiterates its previous recommendations regarding: human and sex trafficking; prostitution and trans-border issues; the disappearance, or murder, of aboriginal women; issues related to identification and birth certificates; environmental violence; intergenerational trauma; youth suicide; peace and security; conflict prevention and resolution; cultural practices such as female genital mutilation or cutting; bride price and promised brides; racism and discrimination; and data disaggregation.
The Permanent Forum recommends that agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system, in collaboration with indigenous peoples ’ organizations, monitor the high levels of global violence and threats directed at indigenous women human rights defenders. The Forum calls for an immediate halt to the criminalization,
incarceration, intimidation, coercion and assassination of, and death threats to, all indigenous human and environmental rights defenders.
The Forum recommends that UNESCO, other cultural institutions and academic institutions:
(a) Recognize and document the diversity of gender relations in indigenous communities based on active community input and participation;
(b) Examine and document women’s spheres of power in indigenous societies, taking into account traditional mechanisms of gender definition and distinction (e.g., pollution/purity, gender-specific roles in ritual, gendered division of labour);
(c) Examine and document the instrumental role of women in indigenous societies as the custodians of sacred knowledge and power, and as medical specialists;
(d) Highlight and give recognition to women’s instrumental roles in indigenous societies as educators, healers and ritual specialists;
(e) Highlight indigenous women’s traditional skills, arts and crafts and publicize them through the media, cultural institutions etc.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the intention of the Commission on the Status of Women to make the issue of the empowerment of indigenous women a focus area of its sixty-first session, to be held in 2017. The Forum invites the Bureau of the Commission to consider organizing a half-day session on the issue. The Forum calls upon the Commission to consider the empowerment of indigenous women as a theme in future sessions, pursuant to paragraph 19 of General Assembly resolution 69/2.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the work carried out by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in preparation for the 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages and welcomes and supports the action plan for the International Year that was developed in cooperation with Member States, the Forum, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as indigenous peoples and a range of different stakeholders. The Forum calls upon Member States to implement the action plan in partnership with indigenous peoples, respecting the principle of “nothing about us without us”, including the establishment of national steering committees and national action plans for the International Year. States should allocate adequate funding for the successful implementation of the International Year.
The Forum urges the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, in conjunction with other relevant United Nations entities, to convene a workshop on the theme "Indigenous women, traditional knowledge and the Convention on Biological Diversity" in collaboration with the Indigenous Women’s Biodiversity Network and the Commission of Intellectual Property and Commercialization of the Intercontinental Network of Indigenous Women of the Americas.