As a result of the dialogue between the expert members of the Permanent Forum and Member States, the Forum recommends that all Member States:
(a) Prepare, for the Forum at its sixteenth session, reports on the implementation of the United Nations Declaration in their countries, with a focus on progress and outstanding issues, in particular in relation to legislative measures;
(b) In recognition of the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration, organize activities to commemorate the adoption at various levels, from local to national, including to raise public awareness of the Declaration and the progress achieved.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the initiation of a national dialogue to discuss and achieve key constitutional reforms in the field of justice in Guatemala, and encourages the recognition of indigenous justice systems. The Forum urges Guatemala and the private sector, in addition to the World Bank and other international economic institutions, to acknowledge that serious efforts require structural economic and social reforms rather than rapid growth of gross domestic product in order to reverse widespread and growing poverty among the indigenous peoples of Guatemala. Such crucial reforms must ensure more equitable distribution and access to traditional lands for the indigenous peoples of Guatemala, consistent with the rights affirmed in the United Nations Declaration, and on the basis of respect for and legal recognition of their collective rights, including their self-determined development. Furthermore, the Forum calls upon Guatemala to reinforce the effective and full implementation of the Peace Accords.
The Permanent Forum has paid particular attention to the participation and representation of indigenous peoples in development processes, such as those related to the Millennium Development Goals, data collection and disaggregation, and urban indigenous peoples and migration. The Forum has recommended on numerous occasions that United Nations agencies, international financial institutions and other development actors change their paradigms and approaches to their work with indigenous peoples. This includes increased mainstreaming of indigenous peoples’ issues in their work, respect for the principle of free, prior and informed consent, recognition of collective rights, including treaty rights, and increased participation of indigenous peoples, including women, in programme design, implementation and monitoring.
The Permanent Forum invites the Chairman of the Special Committee to report on the decolonization process within the Pacific region to the Forum at its eighth session in 2009.
The Permanent Forum requests that UNICEF operationalize and implement its strategic framework on indigenous and minority children and report to the Forum in 2012 on measures undertaken to that end.
The Permanent Forum urges OHCHR in the Plurinational State of Bolivia to continue and strengthen its monitoring of the human rights of the Guaraní people to address as a matter of urgency the situation of the families and communities that are subjected to forced labour and other forms of servitude and to report regularly and publicly on developments in that situation. In the area of technical assistance, the Permanent Forum urges OHCHR in the Plurinational State of Bolivia to strengthen the human rights capacities of the Guaraní authorities in Alto Parapetí and other districts where there are serious human rights violations.
The Permanent Forum notes that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a human rights instrument irrespective of the position of individual States, and the Permanent Forum expects that its endorsement will further
imply its utilization as an effective guide for domestic public policy law and practice regarding indigenous peoples’ rights in consultation and cooperation with indigenous peoples themselves.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Human Rights Council consider:(a)The inclusion of an agenda item addressing the human rights of indigenous peoples in the ongoing work of the Council;(b) Including the human rights of indigenous peoples as part of its universal periodic review;(c)The inclusion of indigenous expertise in the new general expert advisory body being established by the Human Rights Council;(d)The interventions submitted by an expert member of the Permanent Forum to the Human Rights Council and the working groups on the ongoing reforms of the human rights mechanisms;(e) Maintaining and strengthening its expertise on indigenous peoples’ human rights issues.
The Forum, further recognizing the long-term benefits for indigenous peoples of training and education opportunities within the United Nations system, such as the establishment of an indigenous fellowship network by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, requests the Office to invite Permanent Forum Members and the secretariat of the Forum to the meeting of the indigenous fellowship network, scheduled to be held August 2004 in Barcelona.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the collaboration with indigenous parliamentarians during the tenth session of the Forum. It encourages the parliamentarians and other elected indigenous representatives from national, regional and local decision-making bodies to establish an international network or organization in order to share common experiences, including those related to the implementation of the Declaration in legislative and other democratic bodies. It further encourages the Inter-Parliamentary Union to install a liaising body with the indigenous parliamentarians to strengthen awareness of the Declaration. The Forum calls upon indigenous parliamentarians to promote the necessary legislative reforms for implementation of the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum notes the progress made by the UNDP Regional Initiative on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Development and the ILO Programme to Promote ILO Convention No. 169 (PRO-169) projects in the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples. The Forum welcomes the decision by UNDP to establish a similar programme in Latin America and calls on UNDP to expand its activities in this manner in Africa.
The Permanent Forum calls on States to enter into discussions with indigenous peoples whose traditional lands are now incorporated in protected areas, with a view to reaching binding agreements that will not only acknowledge the legitimate interests of wildlife conservation but also recognize and guarantee the rights of those communities under articles 8 (2), 18, 19, 26 and 32 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.