Welcome to the United Nations
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Addressee: Member States, UN systems
Paragraph Number: 47
Session: 4 (2005)
Full Text:
The Forum recognizes that:
(a) The right to education is a key instrument for achieving equitable development and respect for cultural diversity. Education is an investment in the future, a means to reduce poverty and counter discrimination; (b) Indigenous peoples have the right, including treaty rights (as relevant) to quality primary education that is sensitive to their holistic worldviews, languages, traditional knowledge and other aspects of their cultures, which contribute to human dignity, identity, and intercultural dialogue; c) Mother-tongue mediated bilingual education is indispensable for effective learning for indigenous children and for the reduction of dropout rates; (d) Any efforts to achieve Millennium Development Goal 2 are likely to fail if impartial and effective implementation of culturally sensitive educational programs, curricula and actions addressing the needs of indigenous peoples are not undertaken; (e) indigenous children experience particular difficulties relating to access to education of quality and sociocultural relevance at all levels. Obstacles are numerous and complex and include, among others, distance to schools, differences in lifestyles, for example, nomadic and semi-nomadic communities, discrimination, violence, extreme poverty and exclusion; (f) Education can be one of the most important tools for combating prejudice and discrimination. National curricula frequently ignore the cultures, treaties, histories, and spiritual values of indigenous peoples and reinforce stereotypes; (g) In many cases, current criteria to measure the achievement of Goal 2 regarding indigenous education are absent or are based on insufficient indicators which do not reflect indigenous educational specificities and are culturally inappropriate and insensitive
Area of Work: MDGs, Education
Addressee: NHRI
Paragraph Number: 26
Session: 13 (2014)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum welcomes the initiatives of national human rights institutions, such as those from Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh, and encourages other human rights institutions to conduct national inquiries on the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands, territories and resources.
Area of Work: Environment, Human Rights
Addressee: ECOSOC, Member States and UN system.
Paragraph Number: 103
Session: 2 (2003)
Full Text:
The Forum recommends that the Economic and Social Council, States and the United Nations system promote the co-administration of archaeological sites which are administered by States in order to contribute to the care, preservation and conservation of those sites and to facilitate processes of development of indigenous peoples.
Area of Work: Culture
Paragraph Number: 77
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum:
(a) Urges all Governments and the international community to fully apply the AKWE:KON guidelines for any proposed development on sacred sites and lands and water traditionally occupied by indigenous and local communities;
(b) Welcomes the establishment of a trust fund for the participation of indigenous and local communities in the work of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and urges Governments to provide funding to ensure an adequate level of participation by indigenous and local communities in the work of the Convention;
(c) Notes the decision by the Conference of Parties to the Convention to negotiate, within the framework of the Convention, an international regime on access to genetic resources and the sharing of benefits arising from their realization, and emphasizes that such negotiations should be developed and should allow the full participation of members of the Forum and indigenous representatives to participate in the negotiations;
(d) Urges indigenous and local comunities to contribute actively to the work of the Secretariat of the Convention on the composite report on the status and trends of traditional knowledge to ensure that the report is truly reflective of the concerns of indigenous and local communities with regard to the loss of traditional knowledge of relevance to biological diversity;
(e) Recommends that the Executive Secretary of the Convention organize, in coordination with other relevant agencies, a workshop on indicators to measure progress in the objectives of the multi-year programme of work and other programmes of work, with the full participation of indigenous peoples and their organizations, in order to incorporate the necessary human and social indicators;
(f) Recommends that the Convention's ad hoc open-ended working group on article 8(j) advance its mandate to develop mechanisms for the effective sui generis systems of protection based on customary laws of indigenous peoples, especially in light of the decision of the Conference of Parties to the Convention to increase the pace in the elaboration and implementation of a proposed international regime on access and benefit-sharing.
Area of Work: Environment
Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 10
Session: 21 (2022)
Full Text:
Member States must take urgent measures to guarantee adequate and effective participation by indigenous peoples in the design and implementation of national plans for the transition to clean and green energy. Where States have already begun the development of such plans without the participation of indigenous peoples, they must take remedial action.
Area of Work: Environment, Participation
Paragraph Number: 116
Session: 7 (2008)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum notes the proposed Celebrate Life through Sports and Culture within the World Indigenous Nations (WIN) Games and Sports, to be held in Winnipeg, Canada, in August 2012. The Forum encourages indigenous peoples, nations and Member States to support the continuing development of sports, traditional games and culture.
Area of Work: Culture, Indigenous Children and Youth
Addressee: Secretary-General
Paragraph Number: 62
Session: 2 (2003)
Full Text:
Recognizing the emerging role of civil society and indigenous peoples in the search for creative solutions as a means of contributing to formulating, developing and implementing policies and programmes of the United Nations system, the Forum welcomes the initiative of the Secretary-General to create a high-level panel to prepare a series of recommendations on the participation of civil society in the work of the United Nations system. The Forum recommends that the Secretary-General ask the high-level panel to hold consultations and to take into account the recommendations of the Forum on the improvement of indigenous peoples’ participation in and contributions to the work of the United Nations system.
Area of Work: Environment
Addressee: UNESCO; Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage
Paragraph Number: 92
Session: 22 (2023)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum calls upon UNESCO, including its Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, to step up its policies, safeguards and actions on the protection of Indigenous Peoples’ tangible and intangible cultural heritage. UNESCO safeguards that reflect robust free, prior and informed consent protocols, as prescribed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, could contribute to the prevention of the destruction and desecration of Indigenous Peoples’ lands and sites by public and private enterprises. Examples include mining activities of the company Rio Tinto on the ancient Aboriginal site Juukan Gorge in Western Australia and the sacred Oak Flat of the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona, United States of America.
Area of Work: Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), Culture
Addressee: Government of Denmark
Paragraph Number: 46
Session: 7 (2008)
Full Text:
A recommendation that the Government of Denmark, in its preparatory work and programme for the fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, engage indigenous representatives and invite the Chairperson of the Permanent Forum and other members of the Forum to participate.
Area of Work: Environment
Paragraph Number: 68
Session: 20 (2021)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum welcomes the launch of online courses on the rights of indigenous peoples offered by Columbia University, OHCHR, Tribal Link Foundation, UNDP and Universidad Indígena Intercultural, and recommends that academic, indigenous and other organizations and the United Nations system seek ways to provide access to these courses for indigenous peoples living in remote areas without Internet or digital devices. Special efforts should be made to make such courses available in various languages, including indigenous languages, and to make them accessible to indigenous young people. The Forum also recommends incorporating more indigenous knowledge into universities, in consultation with the indigenous owners of the knowledge, with the design of online course content that addresses specific local and national indigenous issues in different countries, and increasing the participation and voices of indigenous peoples in online courses.
Area of Work: Education
Paragraph Number: 138
Session: 7 (2008)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum, the expert mechanism on the rights of indigenous peoples and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people should evaluate whether existing and proposed climate change policies and projects comply with the standards set by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. These bodies, together with the members of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues, should collaborate with States and indigenous peoples to effectively ensure that the implementation of the Declaration is central to the design and implementation of climate change policies and programmes.
Area of Work: Environment
Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 43
Session: 17 (2018)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum calls for the implementation on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which gives clear guidance to States on the need for them to minimize childhood exposure to toxic chemicals through water, food, air and other sources of exposure. It is critical that environmental regulators be educated specifically regarding article 24 of the Convention.
Area of Work: Health, Environment
