Relations with the Commission on Sustainable Development should be strengthened, inter alia, by ensuring that the Chairpersons of the Commission and the Permanent Forum are invited to present statements at each other’s annual meetings and that cooperation between the secretariats of the Commission and the Permanent Forum is enhanced.
The Permanent Forum considers continued analysis of national reports on the Millennium Development Goals vital in order to ensure that they take into account the realization of the rights of indigenous peoples and indigenous perspectives.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the United Nations Secretariat collaborate with indigenous peoples’ organizations in investigating violations of indigenous peoples’ human rights committed by United Nations peacekeepers.
The active participation of indigenous peoples and indigenous organizations should be ensured when matters affecting their rights are discussed by the Human Rights Council and any subsidiary bodies or processes that it decides to establish.
The Permanent Forum supports the work of the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its current effort to draft a general comment on the status of indigenous children worldwide, supports the Committee’s effort to secure broad input from indigenous peoples and encourages wide dissemination of the final report to indigenous peoples, States and United Nations bodies and agencies.
The Permanent Forum expresses its appreciation to the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) for its training programme established to enhance the conflict prevention and peacebuilding capacities of indigenous peoples’ representatives, which has provided outstanding training for 270 indigenous representatives since 2000, and recommends that this important programme be supported henceforth through the regular budget of the United Nations.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Executive Office of the Secretary-General urgently set up a meeting between the Permanent Forum and the High-level Panel on United Nations System-wide Coherence in the Areas of Development, Humanitarian Assistance, and the Environment to secure the integration of indigenous peoples’ perspectives into the ongoing process of furthering system-wide coherence.
The Permanent Forum recommends to the Human Rights Council that, in the course of a universal periodic review, the situation of indigenous peoples of a country under consideration also be examined.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the reports of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, on the international seminars on “Constitutional Reforms, Legislation and Implementation of Laws regarding the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” held in Geneva and Tucson, Arizona, in July and October 2005, respectively (E/CN.4/2006/78/Add.5). Concerned about the status of recommendations and the implementation gap, the Permanent Forum recommends to indigenous peoples’ organizations, non-governmental organizations and interested United Nations organizations and States that they hold United Nations expert seminars regarding the implementation of the Special Rapporteur’s recommendations and request that the results of the meetings be reported to the Permanent Forum at its sixth session.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the initiative taken by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the secretariat of the Permanent Forum to convene a first expert meeting on the nexus between indigenous peoples and migration and endorses the recommendations of that meeting and requests further inter-agency cooperation and collaboration regarding data collection and case studies on indigenous peoples and migration, in particular the creation of a task force to specifically address migration issues of indigenous peoples within the existing Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues for the Permanent Forum. Such a task force could assist with studies by indigenous leaders and experts and promote capacity-building projects dealing with the migration of indigenous peoples.
In anticipation of the first session of the Human Rights Council, the Permanent Forum recommends that indigenous issues be a standing item in the agenda of the Human Rights Council and that due attention be paid to the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples. The role of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people should be maintained and further strengthened within the Human Rights Council.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination elaborate a general comment on discrimination in housing, taking into account the situation of indigenous peoples.