The Permanent Forum calls upon Member States to support cross-border cultural communications and initiatives between indigenous peoples of the region to foster their common languages, heritage and traditional knowledge.
The Forum notes with satisfaction the recent activation of the Trust Fund for the support of the Forum, expresses its deep appreciation and thanks to all those who contributed to it and calls upon Governments, foundations and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to give generously to the Fund.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the progress made in operationalization of the United Nations Indigenous Peoples’ Partnership, a joint venture of the United Nations agencies, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNDP, ILO, UNICEF and UNFPA at the regional and country levels, in partnership with indigenous peoples, and reiterates its support to its work, firmly believing that it is critical to the implementation of the Declaration at the country level. The Forum also welcomes the contributions of the Governments of Denmark and Finland to the Partnership and calls upon States Members of the United Nations and others to support the work of the Partnership.
The Permanent Forum notes with appreciation the establishment of a Voluntary Fund by WIPO to enable the participation of indigenous representatives in the work of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, and encourages donors to contribute to the Trust Fund.
The Permanent Forum recommends that, prior to its seventh session, United Nations organizations should provide technical assistance and convene, in cooperation with indigenous peoples’ organizations, regional workshops on the special theme of the seventh session, “Climate change, bio-cultural diversity and livelihoods: the stewardship of indigenous peoples and new challenges”, with the participation of the members of the Forum and other experts, indigenous peoples’ representatives, indigenous parliamentarians, State representatives and representatives of the United Nations system, in order to formulate recommendations for consideration, as part of its preparatory work for the seventh session. The Permanent Forum further recommends that States, organizations and donors provide resources for these regional workshops and that the report on the human rights situation of indigenous peoples in States and Territories threatened with extinction for environmental reasons be included in the discussions held at the workshops.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the organizations and bodies of the United Nations system and Member States organize a regional consultation with indigenous organizations and interested donors to develop a more coordinated, sustainable and longer-term programme in the region which has as its principal objective the strengthening of indigenous organizations so as to ensure that they have the technical capacity to engage with Governments and the international community on human rights.
The Permanent Forum decides to appoint Michael Dodson and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Members of the Permanent Forum, as Special Rapporteurs to organize and undertake a technical review of the proposed international regime on access and benefit-sharing, as recommended in paragraph 48 (i) of the report of the international expert group meeting on the international regime on access and benefit-sharing and indigenous peoples’ human rights of the Convention on Biological Diversity (E/C.19/2007/8).
The Permanent Forum requests that UNICEF, when completing its strategic policy framework on indigenous peoples, include indigenous youth in the design of the policy. In addition, particular attention is needed to reflect the diversity among indigenous children and to focus on vulnerable groups, such as victims of human trafficking and child pornography, as well as groups facing manifold discrimination based on gender, disability or sexual orientation.
The Forum invites the agencies and Governments submitting contributions also to indicate in future the challenges that they face in the implementation of the Forum's recommendations
With regard to paragraph 139 of the report of the Permanent Forum on its sixth session, the Forum calls upon Governments, indigenous peoples organizations, regional administrations and local self-governance organs of the countries of the Arctic region to take an active part in the discussion on the Arctic region at the eighth session of the Forum. The Forum urges the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations to give special consideration to applications from indigenous participants from the Arctic region.
The Forum expresses its appreciation to the Inter-Agency Support Group for its contribution to its work during its third session and in-between sessions, as well as for the documents provided to the Forum. The Forum also expresses its appreciation for the attendance of the session by representatives of the United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, renews its invitation to the United Nations system to continue to attend its sessions, and expresses the hope that this constructive engagement will continue.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations system establish regional inter-agency working groups on Indigenous Peoples’ issues in regions that have not done so, in order to enable a coherent regional approach, similar to the approach taken in Latin America.