The Permanent Forum recommends that the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights recognize the human rights of indigenous peoples in the ASEAN declaration on human rights and establish a working group on indigenous peoples. In addition, the Forum urges the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation to establish a human rights commission and a working group on indigenous peoples.
Indigenous peoples have a profound relationship with their environment. This includes their distinct rights to water. The Permanent Forum urges States to guarantee those rights, including the right to access to safe, clean, accessible and affordable water for personal, domestic and community use. Water should be treated as a social and cultural good, and not primarily as an economic good. The manner in which the right to water is realized must be sustainable for present and future generations. Moreover, indigenous peoples’ access to water resources on their ancestral lands must be protected from encroachment and pollution. Indigenous peoples must have the resources to design, deliver and control their access to water.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the organization of a workshop by the Indigenous People’s Center for Documentation, Research and Information in recognition of the historical role played by indigenous peoples within the United Nations system.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations system promote understanding of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples among decision makers, public officials, justice systems, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations.
National human rights institutions are encouraged to work with indigenous peoples to develop strategies to protect and provide support to indigenous human rights defenders.
The Permanent Forum invites Member States to fully implement recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples following her or his country visits.
Include relevant information on the rights of indigenous peoples, in particular indigenous women by engaging indigenous organizations in the reporting process to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and other relevant human rights bodies, encouraging indigenous women through their organizations to become involved in the reporting process to the Committee
The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations agencies and actors coordinate in the development and implementation of an international research project on the sexual and reproductive health of indigenous peoples, ensuring an active partnership with indigenous peoples and organizations in all stages of the project.
The Forum recommends that UNDP establish regional initiatives on indigenous peoples and strengthen further its HURIST program in all regions of the world that include all the countries of each region with an indigenous regional coordinator as is the case in Asia
The Forum, taking note with appreciation of the conclusions and
recommendations of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHabitat) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights joint publication entitled “Indigenous peoples’ right to adequate housing: a global overview”, recommends that UN-Habitat, jointly with the Office of the High Commissioner, organize an expert group meeting in 2006 to review the status of progress on indigenous peoples’ housing rights globally and identify and document best practices, and report on the outcome and recommendations of the meeting to the Forum at its sixth session.
The Permanent Forum expresses appreciation to Mr. Parshuram Tamang and Mr. Yuri Boichenko for their draft questionnaire for United Nations agencies and requests the secretariat of the Permanent Forum to use the questionnaire in seeking information from agencies for its future sessions. The Permanent Forum also supports requests from States that they receive a similar questionnaire and requests the secretariat to carry through this request, in consultation with members of the Permanent Forum.
The Forum calls on all relevant United Nations system and other intergovernmental entities to pay special attention to the human rights and concerns of indigenous peoples, in particular indigenous women, when designing, implementing and evaluating their policies and programmes, and to promote the meaningful participation of indigenous women. In particular, the relation of indigenous women’s issues to the design, implementation and evaluation of programmes, in the context of the 10-year review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action on Human Rights and the United Nations Millennium Declaration, needs to be addressed.