The Permanent Forum notes with concern the slow progress made in the negotiations on the final protocol on access and benefit-sharing. The Permanent Forum reiterates its requests to the parties to the Convention to take into account the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the negotiation, adoption and implementation of the access and benefit-sharing protocol.
Given the anniversary of such an important milestone for Member States and indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum encourages those States that have not yet ratified or acceded to the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169) to consider doing so.
The Permanent Forum reaffirms that indigenous peoples’ participation is crucial for the work of the Forum, and it therefore urges States to facilitate this participation, especially those indigenous peoples funded by the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations.
The Permanent Forum recommends that UNDP, OHCHR and ILO facilitate dialogue and provide support to indigenous peoples in the areas of crisis prevention and democratic governance as they relate to extractive industries operating in indigenous territories in order to achieve more effective implementation and protection of indigenous peoples’ rights.
The Permanent Forum urges all Member States and United Nations agencies and country teams to initiate indigenous human rights training and education programmes in their institutions and activities, in particular the existing and emerging international jurisprudence on the human rights and standards contained in the Declaration and their application and relevance at the national and local levels.
The Permanent Forum calls upon United Nations agencies, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, other multilateral financial institutions and bilateral donors to establish clear policy commitments to protect the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples.
The Forum invites the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to present an evaluation of the implementation of the Durban Plan of Action at the sixth session of the Forum (2007) pertaining to indigenous peoples, especially indigenous women
The Permanent Forum encourages FAO to continue supporting indigenous peoples’ organizations in the field of communication for development. In particular, the Permanent Forum recommends that FAO continue to provide support for indigenous peoples’ communication platforms and their activities in the field of participatory territorial development and community-based adaptation to climate change. The Permanent Forum recommends that other United Nations agencies and donors join FAO in that important task and strengthen the reporting and monitoring mechanisms about indigenous peoples’ right to communication as a condition towards free and informed prior consent and self-determined development.
The Forum recommends that the Special Rapporteur on the right to health examine the disparity of health standards for indigenous peoples in developed countries in the light of the fact that United Nations agencies and specialized entities, including WHO, do not undertake health programmes in developed countries.
The Permanent Forum also recommends that WHO and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) engage in an intersessional round table on the pandemic with Forum members to ensure that ongoing mitigation planning and efforts are uniquely adapted to the needs of indigenous peoples, including by applying intercultural approaches to health, such as those applied by PAHO in the Americas.
The Permanent Forum has received information that indigenous peoples who have established community means of communication, such as film-makers and radio hosts, are criminalized and prosecuted for such activities, especially in Latin America. In this regard, the Forum requests parliamentarians to establish legal frameworks that respect the rights enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to end such practices.
The Permanent Forum reiterates the need for States to address the impact of militarization, including suppressing constitutional guarantees, appropriation of land, forcible occupation and displacement, on the land, territorial and other collective rights of indigenous peoples, perpetrated by security forces, including the military, militias and other armed groups.