The Permanent Forum welcomes the evaluation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that took place in Guatemala, the results of which were presented to the experts of the Permanent Forum, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples. The Forum recommends that similar practices be implemented by other United Nations country teams and other countries.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the capacity-building efforts being carried out by the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity with the Indigenous Women’s Biodiversity Network for the Latin American and Caribbean Region, thanks to the patronage of the Government of Spain, and encourages other donor Governments to consider sponsoring similar efforts in other regions, in particular in Africa and in the Pacific region.
In the context of the United Nations system-wide coherence, in particular gender equality architecture reform, the Permanent Forum recommends that States and the United Nations system ensure the inclusion of the priorities and demands of indigenous women.
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 Permanent Forum recommends to Member States that the development agenda beyond 2015 recognize indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination, autonomy and self-governance, together with their right to determine their own priorities for their development, to participate in governance and policy decision-making processes at the local, national, regional and international levels and to develop mechanisms for consultation and participation of indigenous peoples, building on the fundamental right to free, prior and informed consent and full participation in the development process. The role of the United Nations country teams in that respect is crucial.
The Permanent Forum encourages UNFPA to organize, in full cooperation with indigenous peoples, a global symposium on indigenous young people and women during the summit to be held Nairobi in November 2019 to advance the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development so that their key concerns are incorporated into the review and appraisal of the Programme of Action
Special attention should be paid to indigenous peoples at the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development to be held during the sixty-first session of the General Assembly in New York on 14 and 15 September 2006. Given that indigenous peoples are closely tied to their communities, the impact exerted by their migration is often broader than that exerted by individual migration. In particular, indigenous migration affects the collective rights of indigenous communities and accordingly has consequences for entire communities.
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.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the resolution of the seventeenth Ibero-American summit of Heads of State which calls for a world conference on indigenous peoples, to be organized by the United Nations, and urges States to support this initiative at the General Assembly level.
The Forum recommends that States where indigenous peoples live formulate and implement public policies with gender and ethnic considerations, taking into account the multicultural and multi-ethnic composition of their populations.
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 Permanent Forum expresses concern over the misappropriation and misuse of indigenous peoples’ cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, and urges States and companies, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, to take effective measures to recognize and protect their rights, in accordance with article 31 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In this regard, the Permanent Forum calls upon Member States to take measures to safeguard indigenous peoples’ rights to intellectual property by adopting laws and public policies, in which it is recognized that indigenous peoples have the right over their creations, knowledge, discoveries, works, traditional cultural expressions and other elements.