The Permanent Forum recognizes that it is important that the Human Rights Council continues to effectively address indigenous peoples’ issues as human rights issues. The Permanent Forum decides to appoint Ms. Ida Nicolaisen and Mr. Wilton Littlechild to undertake a study on the structures, procedures and mechanisms that presently exist and that might be established to effectively address the human rights situation of indigenous peoples, to arrange for indigenous representation and inclusion in such structures, procedures and mechanisms and to submit a report on the subject to the Permanent Forum by 31 December 2007.
The Forum recommends that the World Bank continue dialogue and direct consultation with indigenous peoples, and that a permanent dialogue be held among indigenous peoples, the World Bank and the Forum.
The Forum recommends that African States, United Nations agencies and academic institutions undertake studies on the impact of the doctrine of discovery on indigenous peoples of Africa, with a view to creating understanding and awareness.
The Permanent Forum recognizes that many positive developments regarding the recognition of indigenous peoples and the need to protect and promote their rights have occurred over the past years and welcomes the leading role of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities in Africa in recognizing indigenous peoples on the African continent and promoting their rights. Several African countries have also contributed to the development of the recognition of indigenous peoples. The Forum notes with appreciation the ratification in 2010 by the Central African Republic of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (Convention No. 169); the passage by the Congo of Law No. 5-2011, on the promotion and protection of indigenous populations, and the establishment of a legal platform to address the situation of indigenous peoples in the country; the constitutional progress in Kenya in 2010; and the introduction of quotas for the Batwa indigenous people in Burundi and Rwanda. The practice by African States of supporting indigenous peoples’ rights is developing and should be encouraged.
With the expansion of the mandate of the Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations, the Forum urges OHCHR to assure a full-time staff position to manage the Fund.
The Forum regrets that Indigenous Peoples living in environmental ecosystems and latitudes other than tropical and subtropical forests are ineligible for funding, including the $1.7 billion pledge made at the twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Forum advises the Forest Tenure Funders Group to promote a dialogue with United Nations mechanisms on the rights of Indigenous Peoples when defining the ongoing and future process of funding for Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and other relevant United Nations system agencies, in cooperation with the Permanent Forum, study and summarize practices regarding the implementation of free, prior and informed consent globally, that they widely disseminate successful experiences and that they present their findings to the Permanent Forum at its twenty - fourth session, to be held in 2025.
The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations treaty bodies and mechanisms, as well as the universal periodic review process, scrutinize the reports and human rights records of States, so as to effectively address rights ritualism. This should include ensuring that States’ claims are systematically compared with the concerns raised by indigenous peoples and civil society.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the effort of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to establish a regional human rights mechanism and offers its expertise and cooperation in this matter. The Forum recommends that the mechanism be called the “ASEAN Human Rights Commission” and that the commission explicitly recognize indigenous peoples in its terms of reference. We look forward to a strong commission with full investigatory and implementation powers, which uses the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as its framework in dealing with indigenous peoples’ issues. The Forum also recommends that the commission establish a committee on indigenous peoples in addition to its proposed committees on migrant workers and women and children.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity facilitate the holding of an indigenous peoples’ expert workshop on traditional knowledge in a timely manner in order to feed into the fifth meeting of the Advisory Group on Article 8 (j) and Related Provisions and the fifth and sixth meetings of the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing in order to support the elaboration by indigenous peoples of recommendations on an international regime on access and benefit-sharing. The meeting could be organized back-to-back with the meeting of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues in order to take advantage of the presence of some United Nations agencies, which will be able to provide technical support and information.
The Constitution of Nepal has provisions for special, protected and autonomous regions for Indigenous Peoples. The Permanent Forum welcomes further progress towards realizing the provisions of the Constitution, including by considering the recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to Nepal in 2018 on respect for Indigenous Peoples’ rights to their traditional lands and resources and to self-determination.
The Permanent Forum invites Member States to fully implement recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples following her or his country visits.