With the COVID-19 pandemic preventing in-person meetings, the Permanent Forum held virtual regional dialogues with indigenous peoples from all seven sociocultural regions of the world in preparation for its twentieth session. The dialogues highlighted cross-cutting issues affecting indigenous peoples across the globe, including the adverse effects of the pandemic, discrimination, the need for disaggregated data, and indigenous peoples’ rights to lands, territories and resources. A full summary of the regional dialogues is available at the Permanent Forum website.[1] The Forum is committed to continuing to organize virtual regional dialogues in the context of building back better and the recovery from the pandemic. The Permanent Forum invites the secretariat of the Forum to continue to support these dialogues.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the important technical Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of Food Security of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and recommends that FAO and other agencies, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, organize a workshop on the implementation of these guidelines in order to strengthen indigenous peoples’ rights to land, territories and resources consistent with articles 25, 26, 41 and 42 of the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States consider the document entitled “The human development framework and indigenous peoples’ self-determined development or development with culture and identity” (E/C.19/2010/CRP.4) and in particular pay attention to the conclusions and recommendations provided therein.
The Forum, further recognizing the long-term benefits for indigenous peoples of training and education opportunities within the United Nations system, such as the establishment of an indigenous fellowship network by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, requests the Office to invite Permanent Forum Members and the secretariat of the Forum to the meeting of the indigenous fellowship network, scheduled to be held August 2004 in Barcelona.
The Forum reiterates its recommendations on economic and social development made at its second session, in particular those contained in chapter I, section B, paragraphs 26-28, 33-34, 36, 39 and 44 of the report.
The Permanent Forum reiterates that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is the normative framework for the high-level plenary meeting/World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, to be convened during the sixty-ninth session of the General Assembly. The provisions of resolution 66/296 must be given the widest and most generous interpretation possible in order to ensure the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations system conduct a separate consultation with indigenous peoples at the regional and global levels as an integral and critical part of the processes relating to the post-2015 development agenda.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Organization of American States establish a consultation mechanism, composed of experts from indigenous peoples, as part of the effort to ensure national implementation of the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169).
The Forum recommends that a world conference on indigenous peoples in the information society be organized on the occasion of the World Summit on the Information Society (10-12 December 2003), in close cooperation with interested Governments and NGOs. It is recommended that the assistance of the secretariat of the Summit be provided for the organization of such an event. The Forum recommends that a written report on indigenous peoples in the information society be addressed by the focal point of the Forum, Mr. Matias, to the preparatory committee for the Summit before 31 August 2003.
The Permanent Forum thanks the Governments of Canada and the United States of America for hosting its 2011 pre-sessional meeting, and thanks the Governments of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Spain, Norway, Denmark and Greenland and China for having hosted previous pre-sessional meetings of the Forum. The Permanent Forum recommends that States that have not yet done so consider hosting future pre-sessional meetings. The Permanent Forum also requests that the Secretariat organize pre-sessional meetings for future sessions of the Forum.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Plurinational State of Bolivia should speed up implementation of the constitutional provisions regarding the freeing of individuals, families and communities in the light of the fact that forced labour and servitude are serious human rights violations that must be addressed with great urgency.
The year 2022 is the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture. The Permanent Forum therefore recommends that FAO prepare a study on the impacts of industrial fishing on the rights of indigenous peoples in regard to traditional fishing. The Permanent Forum invites the Organization to share the findings of said study at the twenty-third session of the Permanent Forum, to be held in 2024.