Welcome to the United Nations
Displaying 1 - 12 of 186
Addressee: UNEP
Paragraph Number: 15
Session: 5 (2006)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) adopt an indigenous peoples’ policy and ensure the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples in the formulation of this policy and its programmes and projects.
Area of Work: Cooperation
Paragraph Number: 49
Session: 4 (2005)
Full Text:
The Forum notes that the Fifth World Indigenous Education Conference will be held in New Zealand in November and December 2005, and urges UNESCO to seek to be actively involved in this conference, in particular in dissemination of information on UNESCO projects, programs and activities relating to indigenous education and relevant to UNESCO responsibilities in pursuing Millennium Development Goal 2
Area of Work: MDGs, Education
Addressee: IFAD
Paragraph Number: 7
Session: 10 (2011)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum congratulates the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) on the establishment of an indigenous peoples’ forum on 18 February 2011. This is consistent with international standards and, in particular, with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It is also an example of good practice to be followed by other United Nations entities. The Forum encourages IFAD to: (a) actively promote the participation of indigenous peoples’ organizations in country strategies and programme cycles; (b) improve the design, monitoring and evaluation of IFAD-funded projects by using specific indicators for the well-being of indigenous peoples and by promoting an independent assessment of such projects by indigenous peoples; and (c) improving its advocacy role in disseminating its best practices in terms of development approaches with indigenous peoples at the national, regional and international levels.
Area of Work: Economic and Social Development, Cooperation
Addressee: UNDP
Paragraph Number: 045 (Session 9 Appendix)
Session: 8 (2009)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum greatly welcomes the new global indigenous peoples’ partnership initiative that UNDP is developing with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and OHCHR to promote the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and ILO Convention No. 169. The Permanent Forum hopes to support that initiative, working in cooperation with other actors, by providing advice during the initial phase as well as throughout the process.
Area of Work: Methods of Work, Cooperation
Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 19
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
Member States should consider the adoption and full implementation of comprehensive national indigenous education policies based on the following goals:
Participation:
a) Establishing effective arrangements for the participation of indigenous parents and community members in decisions regarding the planning, delivery and evaluation of education services for their children, young people and other community members;
b) Increasing the number of indigenous people employed as educational administrators, teachers, coaches, officials, curriculum advisers, teacher’s assistants, home-school liaison officers and other education workers, including community members engaged in teaching indigenous culture, history and contemporary society, and indigenous languages;
c) Developing arrangements for the provision of independent advice from indigenous communities regarding educational decisions at all levels;
d) Achieving the participation of indigenous children, young people and adults in education for a period similar to that of other students;
Access:
e) Ensuring that indigenous children, young people and adults have access to all levels of education (including adult education) on a basis comparable to that available to other citizens;
Attainment:
f) Enabling indigenous students to attain skills and graduation rates up to the same standard as other students throughout the compulsory and non-compulsory schooling years;
g) Developing teaching forms and curricula based on mother tongue (additive learning) in primary and secondary education (should be mandatory in order to achieve goal (f) above);
h) Developing curricula for both primary and secondary education which reflect the insights and usefulness of indigenous knowledge systems and are sensitive to indigenous values. Curricula should:
i) Incorporate indigenous histories, traditional knowledge and spiritual values;
ii) Integrate indigenous oral traditions, myths and writings, acknowledging these as unique parts of world heritage;
Indigenous languages, proficiency in the national language, literacy and numeracy :
i) Developing programmes based on the child’s mother tongue (first language) as a foundation for learning and aiming at the maintenance and continued use of indigenous languages;
j) Enabling the attainment of proficiency in the commonly used national language and at least one international language, and numeracy competencies by all indigenous students, including indigenous adults, giving particular attention to indigenous women based on the framework of the United Nations Decade of Literacy;
Capacity-building:
k) Providing community education services which will enable indigenous peoples to develop the skills to manage the development of their communities;
l) Providing education and training services to develop the skills of indigenous people to participate in educational decision-making;
Appreciation, understanding and respect for indigenous cultures:
m) Enabling all students, both indigenous and non-indigenous, at all levels of education, to have an appreciation and understanding of and respect for traditional and contemporary indigenous histories, cultures and identities;
Anti-racism strategies:
n) Promoting anti-racism education, including strategies to empower young people to deal with racism in the compulsory schooling curriculum;
Cultural, social and economic development in education:
o) Indigenous peoples should be resourced and supported to establish their own education systems, including schools, should they so choose. Also, traditional indigenous education and its structures should be respected and supported;
Education for indigenous peoples in custody or detention:
p) Given the overrepresentation of indigenous youth and adults in detention, the Forum urges States to consider culturally relevant and appropriate education for indigenous peoples in detention centres;
q) The Forum asks that education plans, programmes and policies be implemented especially for indigenous girls, boys and women.
Area of Work: Education
Addressee: IFAD
Paragraph Number: 166
Session: 5 (2006)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum supports the willingness of IFAD to consider continuing to operate the World Bank’s Grants Facility for Indigenous Peoples. It recommends that IFAD make every effort to substantially enhance this Facility through its own grant funding mechanism as well as through seeking the contributions of other international financial institutions as well as bilateral and multilateral donors.
Area of Work: Education
Addressee: Australia
Paragraph Number: 32
Session: 9 (2010)
Full Text:
On the basis of information received at the ninth session, the Permanent Forum expresses its deep concern about the changes in policy on bilingual education in the Northern Territory, Australia. The Forum urges the Government of Australia to work with its State and territory education systems to develop models of bilingual, intercultural and multilingual education that are consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Area of Work: Education
Paragraph Number: 125
Session: 4 (2005)
Full Text:
The Forum congratulates the United Nations Development Program for convening a productive session of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues in September 2004, welcomes the expanding membership of the Inter-Agency Support Group and encourages other intergovernmental entities to join the Group, and encourages the Group to continue the practice of the participation of members of the Permanent Forum
Area of Work: Cooperation
Addressee: Member States (CBD)
Paragraph Number: 133
Session: 6 (2007)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum calls upon the States parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity to continue to enhance participatory mechanisms by ensuring that the diverse regional views of indigenous peoples are reflected in discussions on the international regime on access and benefit-sharing. In particular, the parties are urged to ensure adequate representation of indigenous peoples from the seven indigenous geo-cultural regions12 and subregional levels in the Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing and to ensure that they are provided with opportunities to express diverse regional and subregional views.
Area of Work: Environment, Cooperation
Addressee: UN agencies, funds and programmes
Paragraph Number: 121
Session: 2 (2003)
Full Text:
The Forum recommends that executive heads of United Nations agencies, funds and programmes that have not yet done so adopt policies on indigenous peoples and designate focal points for addressing indigenous issues relevant to each respective agency’s mandate in order to facilitate the mainstreaming of indigenous issues within the United Nations system.
Area of Work: Methods of Work, Cooperation
Addressee: Academia
Paragraph Number: 109
Session: 2 (2003)
Full Text:
The Forum recommends the creation and/or consolidation of academic institutions to train indigenous leaders of the world and urges public and private universities to develop curricula on indigenous peoples. The Forum furthermore exhorts the presidents of universities to promote the review of their teaching and research programmes with the objective of valuing and recognizing indigenous and inter-cultural education, and strengthening technical cooperation and the exchange of experience for the training of indigenous
Area of Work: Education
Paragraph Number: 20
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum recommends that the United Nations system consider the following recommendations:
(a) The United Nations system should fully explore the protection, use and promotion of indigenous (including traditional) knowledge and ensure synergies across the relevant bodies currently investigating the issues (specifically the World Intellectual Property Organization, UNESCO, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Health Organization, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and others) and furthermore should invite the Forum to participate;
(b) UNESCO should continue to investigate indigenous pedagogy and its application to indigenous education in collaboration with the Special Rapporteur on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples and the Forum and other relevant bodies. The study should include the use of such strategies as boarding schools and both their negative and positive effects. To assist with this investigation into indigenous education, UNESCO is urged to facilitate regional conferences and a global forum on indigenous education to identify both barriers to educational equity and good practice;
(c) The Forum calls upon Governments and UNESCO to give more attention (by increasing their budgets) to developing quality indigenous education policies (with the participation of indigenous peoples) to achieve the Dakar objectives. “Education for all” is one of the fundamental objectives of the World Education Forum that should be achieved by 2015;
(d) The Forum encourages the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNESCO and other agencies to continue to support, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, intercultural and bilingual education programmes and to promote in particular the right of education for girls;
(e) The Forum should work with UNITAR to coordinate training for indigenous peoples within the United Nations system;
(f) UNESCO is requested to facilitate a world indigenous education conference, with appropriate United Nations partners (the Forum, UNESCO, UNITAR etc.), Member States and indigenous peoples. Furthermore, UNESCO should invite indigenous peoples and the Forum to participate in United Nations activities in the field of education. UNESCO has recently completed and distributed a publication on best practices for indigenous peoples education and this should be promoted throughout the international community;
(g) UNICEF advocates bilingual and cross-cultural education for indigenous peoples and conducts schools for girls and women’s literacy programmes in Latin America, and this initiative should be further encouraged and expanded;
(h) The Forum recommends that relevant agencies and Governments, on a regional basis, should provide technical services and the political and moral support needed for the creation, recognition and functioning of future international indigenous universities;
(i) Taking into account the importance of UNESCO national commissions, the Forum recommends that the Economic and Social Council and Governments facilitate the participation of indigenous peoples in the regional commissions with the incorporation of indigenous representation;
(j) The Forum, to underscore the crucial role of language skills to sustainable development and in celebration of the United Nations Year on Education for Sustainable Development (2005), recommends that the secretariat of the Forum, together with the United Nations Development Programme, UNICEF and UNESCO, explore the possibility of organizing a regional workshop in Asia or Africa on the theme “Indigenous children and language education”, to discuss policies, programmes and practical experiences with bilingual education to strengthen additive learning through the use of mother tongue and the “indigenization” of curricula in formal schooling, among members of the Forum, United Nations agencies, Governments (especially departments of education), indigenous and tribal representatives and indigenous education experts.
Area of Work: Education, Traditional Knowledge
