The Permanent Forum appoints Brian Keane and Elifuraha Laltaika, members of the Forum, to undertake a study to examine conservation and indigenous peoples’ human rights, to be submitted to the Forum at its seventeenth session.
To meet the major challenges facing indigenous peoples in Africa, the Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations system and other entities with expertise on indigenous peoples’ issues in the African region support the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities in Africa to promote and protect the rights of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum takes note of the study by Elisa Canqui on forced labour and indigenous peoples (E/C.19/2011/CRP.4) and urges Member States, in collaboration with United Nations agencies and regional intergovernmental organizations, to increase their efforts to combat forced labour and human trafficking and to put in place adequate instruments to protect victims, paying particular attention to indigenous peoples and the restoration of victims’ rights.
The Forum recommends that the United Nations and Member States recognize the cultural rights of indigenous peoples which include the rights to organize oneself freely and to administer one’s own cultural, sports, social and religious institutions. For this purpose, the Forum encourages the United Nations and the relevant specialized agencies to consider establishing an international centre for multicultural and multiracial studies.
The Forum welcomes the establishment of the indigenous fellowship programme in its secretariat, and calls upon Governments, foundations and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to give generously to the Trust Fund of the Secretary-General in support of the Forum, and to earmark their donations for the fellowship programme.
The Permanent Forum notes with concern the slow progress made in the negotiations on the final protocol on access and benefit-sharing. The Permanent Forum reiterates its requests to the parties to the Convention to take into account the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the negotiation, adoption and implementation of the access and benefit-sharing protocol.
The Forum welcomes the preparation of daily press releases in English, French and Spanish on the discussions of the Forum during its session. The Forum requests the Department of Public Information, in collaboration with the secretariat of the Forum, to:
a) Ensure the widest distribution of the press releases;
b) Develop an overall strategy to fulfil the mandate of the Forum to disseminate information on indigenous peoples and their issues.
The Permanent Forum appoints Darío José Mejía Montalvo, a member of the Forum, to conduct a study on the rights of indigenous peoples facing the global energy mix and to present that study to the Forum at its twenty-first session.
The Permanent Forum recommends that national human rights institutions and commissions address indigenous peoples’ issues and include indigenous experts as members of such bodies.