The Permanent Forum calls on the European Commission, United Nations agencies, the World Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank, bilateral development agencies, export credit agencies and international and regional financial institutions, such as the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, to review, strengthen and implement their policies with regard to indigenous peoples in general, and indigenous peoples in Asia in particular, and to use the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,1 as a framework for reference.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the study entitled “Free, prior and informed consent: a human rights-based approach” (A/HRC/39/62), prepared by the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It encourages Member States, United Nations entities, including the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank, regional development banks, the private sector, civil society organizations and other stakeholders, to use the study as guidance for understanding the principle of free, prior and informed consent when working on issues of concern to indigenous peoples. The Forum also encourages indigenous peoples to use the study to guide the development of their own community protocols on free, prior and informed consent for engaging with these stakeholders.
The Permanent Forum is concerned that the regional presence, representation and services of United Nations agencies in the Asia-Pacific region are limited mostly to the Asian subregion, and recommends that all United Nations agencies review their operations to provide equal services to the Pacific subregion and identify their operations separately according to the two subregions.
The United Nations system and other intergovernmental organizations and donor agencies should implement, at the country level, existing policies on indigenous peoples or develop such policies if they do not exist, and should strengthen the capacity of institutions to implement such policies and programs in an effective and sustainable manner
The Permanent Forum encourages the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to continue its efforts in operationalizing the principle of free, prior and informed consent in its investments, including through the engagement of indigenous experts in project delivery teams.
The Forum decides to devote special attention to the follow-up to global United Nations conferences, and in that regard requests its secretariat to prepare a technical background paper.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the policy guides that are being developed by UN-Habitat, including on housing for indigenous peoples in the urban setting, which will be presented at the upcoming session of the World Urban Forum, to be held from 3 to 7 November 2008, in Nanjing, China. States are encouraged to support the production of the guidelines.
The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations entities review language and terminology on native breeds, local seed varieties and endemic varieties of plants and animals. The Permanent Forum recommends differentiating such terminology from indigenous peoples’ foods, seeds and breeds, by avoiding the use of the term “indigenous” to dispel confusion.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the President of the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session convene a two-day interactive thematic event immediately prior to the World Conference, with the participation of Member States and representatives of indigenous peoples, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, to allocate more time for an interactive dialogue and build commitment from Member States, the United Nations system and other stakeholders, and the Permanent Forum.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the progress made in the development of community-based tools to monitor the implementation of the Declaration, the outcome document of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and encourages collaboration and contributions from Governments, the agencies of the United Nations system, indigenous peoples and civil society organizations to the Indigenous Navigator framework and other tools in order to strengthen community-based monitoring of global commitments made under the Declaration, the World Conference and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Forum requests international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank and other regional organizations, to design special programmes for indigenous women to provide them with access to capital and microfinance programmes, taking into account the traditional mechanisms of each community.
The Permanent Forum encourages Member States to review recommendations made at past sessions, renew efforts at their implementation and report on progress made by 2021. It invites the United Nations system to support the States’ efforts in this regard.