The Permanent Forum acknowledges the signing of the peace accord in Colombia and the efforts to implement it. The Forum takes note of Colombia’s statement at the eighteenth session of the Forum on the need to protect the lives and integrity of indigenous human rights defenders. The Forum is, however, deeply concerned that killings of indigenous leaders have been increasing. The Forum urges the Government of Colombia to intensify its efforts to provide effective measures to prevent further attacks and to ensure peace and security for indigenous human right defenders and leaders.
The Permanent Forum welcomes information from the Government of Bangladesh on progress towards the implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord. It calls upon Bangladesh to make further efforts towards full implementation of the Accord through constructive dialogue and cooperation with the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council, the three Hill District Councils and the Chittagong Hill Tracts Land Dispute Resolution Commission.
The Permanent Forum remains concerned about continuing human rights violations, including arbitrary killings and extrajudicial executions, throughout northeastern India. It echoes the call of indigenous peoples (scheduled tribes) of the region and urges India to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1958, investigate alleged human rights abuses in the region and hold those responsible to account.
With many continuing areas of conflict globally, the Permanent Forum urgently calls upon Member States to focus on ways to achieve peace by utilizing Indige nous Peoples as peacebuilders.
Recalling the recommendation contained in the report of its fifteenth session (E/2016/43-E/C.19/2016/11, para. 52), the Permanent Forum urges States to take measures for settlement, protection and security in post-conflict areas and for the construction of durable and lasting peace, promoting the full and effective inclusion of indigenous peoples, including indigenous women, in any initiative for peace and reconciliation. The Forum also recommends that the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and indigenous peoples, including women and young people, consider indigenous peoples’ traditional conflict resolution systems for achieving durable and lasting peace.
Indigenous Peoples are affected also by the legacy of forced evictions and relocations owing to the establishment by colonial powers of military bases and installations on their traditional lands and territories. The Permanent Forum recommends that colonial States, past and present, ensure remedy and reparations for the affected Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum reiterates its position, as stated in the report on its twentieth session (E/2021/43, para. 10), urging Colombia to promote and guarantee the rights of indigenous peoples, in particular by achieving the goals and indicators set out in the “ethnic chapter” of the peace agreement. In this regard, the Permanent Forum wishes to offer its support, within the terms of its mandate, to facilitate dialogues between the Government of Colombia and indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum is deeply alarmed by the impact of war and armed conflict. The Forum calls upon Member States to impose an immediate moratorium on military conscription among Arctic Indigenous Peoples.
States should take effective measures to eliminate violence against indigenous peoples by studying the root causes of conflict and human rights abuses, developing indicators and methodologies for risk assessment and early warning mechanisms and improving national legislation for the administration of justice with regard to the perpetrators of war crimes.
The Permanent Forum invites the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination to conduct a study on the human rights abuses against Indigenous Peoples of the Sahel region by mercenaries and other non-State armed actors.
Decision-making bodies, including customary and traditional bodies of conflictaffected indigenous peoples, should be recognized as legitimate parties to conflict resolution efforts. Therefore, administrative and customary authorities and traditional leaders of indigenous peoples should receive training on peaceful dispute resolution. Relevant United Nations system entities, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and the International Organization for Migration, should mobilize the financial and technical resources necessary for the worldwide use of peacebuilding tools that have been tested with success in the Sahel and of the Congo Basin
The Forum welcomes the work of the Government of Bangladesh to support peace in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The Forum calls upon the Government to prioritize the implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord of 1997 and to assess the implementation status of the Accord through full, meaningful and effective participation of the Accord signatory party, the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti, Chittagong Hill Tracts regional institutions and traditional governing bodies.