The Permanent Forum recommends that the International Labour Organization (ILO) continue to work with the Forum, United Nations agencies, financial institutions, bilateral donors and other interested parties to further the inclusion of indigenous peoples’ rights in high-level development policies and poverty reduction strategy papers, such as by raising indigenous peoples’ issues with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and its related Development Assistance Committee.
The Permanent Forum requests that UNICEF design, in partnership with other relevant United Nations agencies, a protocol for emergency situations resulting from natural disasters to ensure that, in cases of emergency, there are no violations of the human rights of indigenous peoples, especially indigenous youth, children and women, owing to forced relocation.
The Permanent Forum requests UNESCO to host a joint seminar with the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other relevant United Nations mechanisms for the purpose of exploring the development of a new international mechanism on the repatriation of ceremonial objects and human remains. Furthermore, the Forum calls upon all States with national repositories of indigenous cultural items and ancestral remains, including museums and universities, to work with UNESCO to create an international database and inventory of these items accessible to indigenous peoples as a basis for initiating dialogue.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the report of the technical expert group meeting on indicators, mechanisms and data for assessing the implementation of indigenous peoples’ rights, held in Geneva in September 2010 by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the secretariat of the Permanent Forum. The report sets out important principles and guidance for further work. The Permanent Forum recommends that the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues and, in particular, ILO, OHCHR and the secretariat of the Permanent Forum continue their work to develop a common framework for monitoring the situation and well-being of indigenous peoples and the implementation of the Declaration, including the identification of indigenous-appropriate indicators, possible data sources and linkages to relevant mechanisms. The process should be taken forward in a collaborative manner with other interested institutions, ensuring full consultation and participation of indigenous peoples.
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 UNDP further engage indigenous peoples in the discussion regarding the concept of human development and in the elaboration of its Human Development Reports. The UNDP concept of human development and its work to promote such a paradigm should be more strongly founded on human rights principles and therefore on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. With regard to indigenous peoples, this means recognizing the principles of self-determination, independent development and other peoples’ rights. Thus, national, regional and global UNDP Human Development Reports should reflect indigenous peoples’ views of development from the perspective and with the participation of indigenous peoples themselves.
The Permanent Forum recommends to Member States that the development agenda beyond 2015 adopt a human rights-based approach to development that takes into account issues of equity and sustainability and that incorporates an indigenous holistic concept of development with culture and identity. The Forum also recommends that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples constitute the normative framework of this work.
The Permanent Forum recalls that, to ensure effective implementation, the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights must be aligned with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), of ILO, the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, known as the Escazú Agreement, and the jurisprudence of the human rights treaty bodies. Furthermore, the Permanent Forum recognizes the work of the Human Rights Council to develop an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises. In that respect, the Permanent Forum stresses the need to ensure that the new instrument affirms indigenous peoples’ rights, including with regard to free, prior and informed consent. The Permanent Forum recommends that this instrument explicitly define due diligence processes and their specific methods of implementation. Therefore, the Permanent Forum underlines the importance of full and effective participation by indigenous peoples throughout the development of the instrument.
The Forum, taking into account that States recognized the vital role of indigenous peoples in sustainable development at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, calls upon the United Nations system, other intergovernmental organizations and Governments to establish processes of meaningful participation and partnership with indigenous communities in those processes, including within the context of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework and the poverty reduction strategy papers of the World Bank. The Forum recommends, through the Economic and Social Council, that all States, organs and agencies of the United Nations take into account the Kimberley Declaration adopted by the Summit of Indigenous Peoples on Sustainable Development, held in the territory of the Khoi-San People from 20 to 23 August 2002, as well as the Plan of Implementation of Indigenous Peoples on Sustainable Development, when States begin to implement the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The Permanent Forum, through the Economic and Social Council, invites United Nations agencies, bodies, funds and programmes to identify areas of work within their mandates for collaborative implementation with indigenous peoples’ Kimberly proposals, taking into account the report of the Commission on Sustainable Development on its eleventh session and the multi-year programme of work of the Commission, for the further implementation of Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation as well as the fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgent need for the collection of disaggregated statistical data on the situation of indigenous peoples. Where such data are available, they have shown that the pandemic has affected indigenous peoples differently than other populations, requiring culturally appropriate approaches and solutions. The Permanent Forum reiterates its recommendation to Member States to collect and disseminate disaggregated statistical data on indigenous peoples, in close cooperation with indigenous peoples themselves, in order to support evidence-based policymaking and programming.
Transnational and national extractive industries, at best, consistently disregard their responsibility to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights and to engage in free, prior and informed consent processes. At worst, their practices and behaviours contribute to serious human rights abuses. The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States, as duty bearers, ensure that private sector entities respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights through safeguard and due diligence policies. It further recommends that Member States ensure the application of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework and the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The Permanent Forum welcomes the ongoing international efforts to develop legally binding instruments that ensure accountability and due diligence by transnational companies. The reflection of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in such instruments is essential.
The Permanent Forum notes the work of the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC) as a regional mechanism to provide support to indigenous peoples. The Forum encourages Member States to strengthen the institutional framework of FILAC and to create similar bodies in other regions of the world.