The Permanent Forum welcomes the initiative of the World Bank in compiling and analysing disaggregated data on indigenous peoples, poverty and human development in South-East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, and urges the World Bank to present the results of those studies to the seventh session of the Permanent Forum in 2008.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States and the United Nations system involved in the processes leading to the development agenda beyond 2015 make concerted and targeted efforts to reach out to, and engage in a truly inclusive process with, indigenous peoples, including indigenous women, youth and persons with disabilities, to ensure that their rights and priorities are included in all processes relating to the definition of the themes and priorities for the post-2015 development agenda and of the sustainable development goals.
The Permanent Forum urges the Governments of Canada and the United States to eliminate all assimilation policies that further exacerbate the economic and other disparities between indigenous peoples and the rest of the population.
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.