The Permanent Forum is concerned about legislative and regulatory processes that criminalize the establishment and management of community radio stations. The Forum encourages States to expressly recognize community media in their domestic law and to adopt effective actions to enforce the right of indigenous peoples and communities to have their own media.
The Permanent Forum urges States to review their policies on biofuel industries, which, in the name of remedying the impacts of climate change, are resulting in the deforestation of large forest areas and the displacement of indigenous peoples. That increases the vulnerability of indigenous communities and in particular of those living in voluntary isolation.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the participation at its sixth session of indigenous parliamentarians from, inter alia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Greenland, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, the Russian Federation, Sweden, and encourages indigenous parliamentarians to continue participating at future sessions in their own capacity, with designated seating arrangements.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Saramaka People vs. Suriname (28 November 2007), which aptly applies the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Permanent Forum urges the Working Group of the Organization of American States, which is elaborating the draft American declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, to consider the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the minimum standard.