The Permanent Forum recommends that urban indigenous issues be given important consideration on the agenda of the fourth session of the World Urban Forum, and notes the organization by UN-Habitat of a round-table event on this theme. The Forum urges States, United Nations agencies and indigenous peoples’ organizations to cooperate with UN-Habitat in the lead up to this and other events at the fourth session, including through input and participation.
The Forum recommends that FAO develop a strategic plan for working with indigenous peoples by defining the FAO mission, vision and conceptual framework for indigenous peoples
The Forum recommends the designation of focal points in the United Nations country teams or the country offices of United Nations agencies, funds and programs, with a mandate to deal with indigenous issues, inter alia, to follow-up on the implementation of recommendations of the Forum, and the objectives of the Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People
Taking into account the Secretary-General’s recommendation to make the twenty-first century "The age of prevention", the wish of the Forum to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and feed into the 10-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action process, the complex cross-cutting nature of issues facing United Nations bodies in formulating appropriate policies, programmes and projects to address the problems of indigenous and tribal communities, and the strong recommendations by indigenous peoples that such policies, programmes and projects should be based on a holistic approach befitting their spiritual values and way of life, the Permanent Forum decides to organize its work for 2005 and onwards around cross-cutting themes that relate directly to the Millennium Development Goals, while considering all the mandated areas of the Permanent Forum.
The Permanent Forum recalls the request it made at its fifteenth session (E/2016/43, para. 47) for UNESCO to host a joint seminar with the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other relevant United Nations mechanisms for the purpose of exploring the development of a new international mechanism on the repatriation of ceremonial objects and human remains. In this regard, the Permanent Forum deeply regrets the absence of UNESCO from the expert group meeting organized by the Expert Mechanism in March 2020 in Vancouver, Canada, to discuss steps for the implementation of such a mechanism. The Permanent Forum recommends the leadership, involvement and cooperation of UNESCO in efforts to implement the recommendations arising from that meeting, as well as the previous recommendation of the Permanent Forum related to the repatriation of ceremonial objects and human remains, including through the creation of an international database and inventory of such items accessible to indigenous peoples as a basis for initiating dialogue. The Permanent Forum wishes to remind UNESCO and other United Nations entities that the repatriation of ceremonial objects and human remains is enshrined in articles 11 and 12 of the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations organizations, funds and programmes, in particular the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), prepare a special report for the Conference on the realization of the rights of indigenous peoples, the objectives of the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People, the Millennium Development Goals and the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015. It also recommends that the report contain disaggregated statistics in relation to indigenous women, youth and children and address associated thematic issues such as economic sustainability and youth employment.
The Permanent Forum recommends United Nations entities that have not done so to incorporate indigenous peoples-driven platforms in order to give advice on and to promote indigenous peoples’ issues, as well as consider the participation of the Permanent Forum together with indigenous peoples in such platforms.
The Permanent Forum recognizes the initial efforts made by FAO towards the elaboration of a methodological discussion platform to address indigenous peoples’ territorial rights. The Permanent Forum recommends that FAO and other interested or partner agencies continue the joint elaboration of the participatory methodology and start using it in the field in order to strengthen the delimitation, titling and negotiated development processes specifically targeting indigenous peoples’ needs
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.
With a view to assessing the effectiveness of the implementation of policies on indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum recommends to the United Nations entities that carry out free, prior and informed consent processes to develop a system for comprehensively documenting these processes.
The Permanent Forum recognizes the need to better consolidate and coordinate activities and capacity-building regarding indigenous issues at the country and regional levels and recommends that UNDP and the United Nations Development Group inform United Nations resident coordinators, regional directors and United Nations country teams, and establish inter-agency coordination mechanisms at those levels.
The Permanent Forum continues to be concerned by the lack of participation of African indigenous peoples. The Permanent Forum recommends that the General Assembly encourage relevant United Nations entities to make the necessary financial and administrative arrangements that allow for the participation of indigenous peoples at relevant United Nations meetings, including online.