The Forum recommends the designation of focal points in the United Nations country teams or the country offices of United Nations agencies, funds and programs, with a mandate to deal with indigenous issues, inter alia, to follow-up on the implementation of recommendations of the Forum, and the objectives of the Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People
The Permanent Forum has paid particular attention to the participation and representation of indigenous peoples in development processes, such as those related to the Millennium Development Goals, data collection and disaggregation, and urban indigenous peoples and migration. The Forum has recommended on numerous occasions that United Nations agencies, international financial institutions and other development actors change their paradigms and approaches to their work with indigenous peoples. This includes increased mainstreaming of indigenous peoples’ issues in their work, respect for the principle of free, prior and informed consent, recognition of collective rights, including treaty rights, and increased participation of indigenous peoples, including women, in programme design, implementation and monitoring.
The Permanent Forum notes the progress made by the UNDP Regional Initiative on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Development and the ILO Programme to Promote ILO Convention No. 169 (PRO-169) projects in the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples. The Forum welcomes the decision by UNDP to establish a similar programme in Latin America and calls on UNDP to expand its activities in this manner in Africa.
The Permanent Forum recommends that OHCHR and UNDP continue their work in support of national human rights institutions and focus on capacity development support to promote and protect indigenous peoples’ rights.
The Permanent Forum affirms that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will be its legal framework. The Permanent Forum will therefore ensure that the Declaration is integrated in its own recommendations on the seven substantive mandated areas — economic and social development, environment, health, education, culture, human rights and the implementation of the Declaration — as well as in the Forum’s work under the special theme for each session and in its ongoing themes and priorities.
The Permanent Forum urges Member States, in their regular reporting to the United Nations human rights treaty bodies and, in particular, to the Human Rights Council through the universal periodic review, to include the actions taken to implement the recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
The Permanent Forum reaffirms and reiterates that self-determination, free, prior and informed consent and accountability form the basis of, and prerequisite for, any relationship that can be called a true partnership for development, and urges all States, indigenous peoples, United Nations bodies, international development agencies, corporations and the private sector, as well as civil society, to uphold these vital principles.