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Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 79
Session: 10 (2011)
Full Text:
Indigenous peoples have a profound relationship with their environment. This includes their distinct rights to water. The Permanent Forum urges States to guarantee those rights, including the right to access to safe, clean, accessible and affordable water for personal, domestic and community use. Water should be treated as a social and cultural good, and not primarily as an economic good. The manner in which the right to water is realized must be sustainable for present and future generations. Moreover, indigenous peoples’ access to water resources on their ancestral lands must be protected from encroachment and pollution. Indigenous peoples must have the resources to design, deliver and control their access to water.
Area of Work: Human rights, Environment
Addressee: Commission on Sustainable Development, and other UN bodies, such as UNDP, UNESCO, and UNEP.
Paragraph Number: 48
Session: 2 (2003)
Full Text:
With regard to the environmental issue of water, the Forum, recognizing the indigenous peoples’ Kyoto water declaration made at the World Water Forum, held in Kyoto, Japan, in March 2003, requests that the Commission on Sustainable Development and other relevant United Nations bodies (i.e., UNEP, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNDP) consider the declaration in their discussions on this theme in 2004.
Area of Work: Environment
Addressee: PAHO, WHO
Paragraph Number: 45
Session: 18 (2019)
Full Text:
In the context of the implementation of the Policy on Ethnicity and Health, adopted by the executive committee of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in 2017 (CE160.R11), the Permanent Forum invites PAHO and the World Health Organization (WHO) to collaborate with health institutions and policymakers to address issues related to indigenous maternal health, including the practice of indigenous midwifery. It recommends that PAHO prepare a study on the advancements in indigenous maternal health, including best practices used by indigenous midwives and supportive organizations. The Forum invites PAHO to submit the report by 2020.
Area of Work: Health, Indigenous Women and Girls
Addressee: Member States, Annex I Countries
Paragraph Number: 38
Session: 7 (2008)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum calls on all States that have not yet done so to implement the 2005 Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and other international initiatives that address climate change and biocultural diversity in conjunction with indigenous peoples, including indigenous women, in a full and effective way. The Annex I countries should implement their commitments to the Kyoto Protocol by doing all they can to shift their economic systems towards low-carbon systems, instead of relying mainly on the purchase of emission credits to offset their emissions. The fast-industrializing developing countries should also undertake serious efforts to cut their emissions and develop low-carbon energy systems.
Area of Work: Environment
Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 116
Session: 4 (2005)
Full Text:
Foster the training of indigenous women in order to gain leadership skills to become community advocates and defenders for indigenous women's rights to achieve gender equity
Area of Work: Indigenous Women and Girls, Human rights
Addressee: SCBD, SPFII
Paragraph Number: 82
Session: 7 (2008)
Full Text:
A request for the secretariats of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Forum to consult and collaborate with indigenous organizations to promote the role of indigenous peoples as stewards of biological and cultural diversity for the International Year of Biodiversity.
Area of Work: Environment
Addressee: Member States, UN entities
Paragraph Number: 12
Session: 20 (2021)
Full Text:
The global engagement of indigenous peoples at the international level has led to some positive institutional developments, including the establishment of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples can play an important role in the fight against climate change. Member States and United Nations entities should ensure that any activities related to the use of the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples respect indigenous peoples’ own protocols and consent agreements for managing access to their traditional knowledge. Strengthening and ensuring the full participation of indigenous peoples at all levels is also critical for the design and implementation of climate policies, plans, programmes and projects at the local, national and global levels.
Area of Work: Environment, Culture, Methods of Work
Paragraph Number: 159
Session: 9 (2010)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum welcomes the announcement during this session of the Conservation Initiative on Human Rights by eight global conservation organizations — the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the World Wide Fund for Nature/World Wildlife Fund, Fauna and Flora International, Wetlands International, BirdLife International, the Nature Conservancy, the Wildlife Conservation Society and Conservation International — which aims to promote the integration of human rights in conservation policy and practice, based on their common interest in promoting positive links between conservation and rights of people to secure their livelihoods, enjoy healthy and productive environments and live with dignity. The Forum recommends that these conservation organizations ensure the full participation of indigenous peoples in the implementation of the Initiative. The Forum further recommends that conservation organizations that have projects that have led to the eviction of indigenous peoples from their forests provide redress and restitution to such victims.
Area of Work: Environment
Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 81
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum recommends that Governments provide public water and sanitation systems to the villages and rural areas where indigenous people live, and control the pollution of rivers and streams affected by pollution from such toxic chemicals as pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and industrial waste. The Forum also recommends Governments to create programmes to clean up the rivers and streams that have already been polluted and to ban further pollution by agribusiness and industries.
Area of Work: Environment
Addressee: UNDP
Paragraph Number: 84
Session: 20 (2021)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum is concerned about reports of UNDP entering into a strategic partnership with the oil company GeoPark, a private entity that has been accused by indigenous communities of disregarding their rights, to carry out economic development activities in Colombia without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous communities that will be affected. This partnership contradicts standard 6 (indigenous peoples) of the UNDP social and environmental standards, and the Forum urges UNDP to suspend all related partnership activities until a proper free, prior and informed consent process can be carried out.
Area of Work: Methods of Work, Environment
Addressee: Valmaine Toki
Paragraph Number: 44
Session: 14 (2015)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum appoints Valmaine Toki to conduct a study on the relationship between indigenous peoples and the Pacific Ocean, taking into account issues of governance, the effects of climate change, deep sea mining, resources and sustainable development.
Area of Work: Environment
Addressee: WHO
Paragraph Number: 90
Session: 22 (2023)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum commends the Pan American Health Organization for its work on Indigenous maternal and child health and encourages WHO to replicate this work in other regions. The Permanent Forum recommends that WHO include Indigenous Peoples’ organizations and Permanent Forum members in developing and implementing health strategies in the negotiations on a global accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Area of Work: Health, Indigenous Women and Girls
