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Addressee: Member States, IPO, UN systems, UNESCO
Paragraph Number: 33
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
Within the framework of the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity and its Action Plan, the Forum recommends that:
(a) All United Nations bodies and Governments initiate new ethnographic studies that re-evaluate stereotypical views on gender relationships within indigenous populations in order to challenge existing misconceptions by highlighting diverse community roles in which indigenous women wield real power and play leadership roles;
(b) Member States with indigenous populations develop multicultural public policies with a view to implementing the contents of the Declaration and strengthening, in an equitable manner, local cultures;
(c) UNESCO promote the recovery of underwater indigenous heritage, the oral tradition and ancient writings with a view to recognizing them as the heritage of humanity.
Area of Work: Culture
Addressee: UNFCCC
Paragraph Number: 78
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum recommends that the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change sponsor a workshop to discuss the merits and mechanisms for the establishment of a working group on indigenous peoples within the Conference of the Parties process, ensuring the participation of indigenous peoples from developed and undeveloped countries as well as interested member States.
Area of Work: Environment
Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 28
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum encourages Member States to facilitate the establishment of civil society organizations, including indigenous organizations, to assist in the preservation and protection of indigenous cultural heritage.
Area of Work: Culture
Addressee: UNESCO, Cultural and Academic institutions
Paragraph Number: 35
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum recommends that UNESCO, other cultural institutions and academic institutions:
(a) Recognize and document the diversity of gender relations in indigenous communities based on active community input and participation;
(b) Examine and document women’s spheres of power in indigenous societies, taking into account traditional mechanisms of gender definition and distinction (e.g., pollution/purity, gender-specific roles in ritual, gendered division of labour);
(c) Examine and document the instrumental role of women in indigenous societies as the custodians of sacred knowledge and power, and as medical specialists;
(d) Highlight and give recognition to women’s instrumental roles in indigenous societies as educators, healers and ritual specialists;
(e) Highlight indigenous women’s traditional skills, arts and crafts and publicize them through the media, cultural institutions etc.
Area of Work: Culture, Indigenous Women
Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 82
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum recommends that Governments conduct studies on how the diversion of rivers and creation of dams, mining and mineral extraction, energy development, the mining of groundwater and the use of aquifers for industrial and commercial purposes will affect the lives of indigenous communities prior to conducting any of these actions in order to ensure that indigenous peoples are not confronted with such problems as increasing scarcity of freshwater, the toxic contamination of indigenous peoples’ territories and the lack of access of indigenous communities and other life forms to water, including oceans.
Area of Work: Environment
Addressee: UN Agencies Funds and Programmes - UN System
Paragraph Number: 32
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
All United Nations systems organizations should recognize that indigenous cultures are intrinsically connected to indigenous peoples’ traditional territories (lands, waters and natural resources).
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: 27
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum recommends that Member States adopt legislation acknowledging that the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples is their inalienable cultural heritage and embodies their cultural identity and that they make available such legislation and information in local indigenous languages.
Area of Work: Culture
Paragraph Number: 37
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
Recognizing the important partnership of WIPO and the Forum, the Forum makes the following recommendations to further this working relationship:
(a) The Forum strongly encourages representatives of indigenous peoples and local communities to participate actively in the work of WIPO in relation to genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions/ folklore, in particular through the submission of comments, case studies and position papers, including on the new WIPO web page established for this purpose;
(b) The Forum calls upon WIPO and member States, funds, foundations and other donors to provide funding to facilitate the participation of indigenous peoples, local communities and the Forum in sessions of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore and in related consultations, caucuses, briefings and workshops;
(c) The Forum recommends that, under the auspices of the Forum and in partnership with the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, WIPO develop, in close consultation with indigenous peoples and local communities, the Forum and other organizations and stakeholders, as appropriate, guidelines, ethical codes of conduct, best practices and practical guides relating to intellectual property issues and the access to and use of traditional cultural expressions and knowledge by, among others, commercial users, ethnologists, folklorists and anthropologists, and museums and archives;
(d) The Forum confirms its readiness and willingness to provide expert input to the work of WIPO on intellectual property, traditional knowledge and folklore, such as its work on studying how customary and indigenous laws and protocols could be recognized and applied within national, regional and international systems for the protection of traditional knowledge and cultural expressions.
Area of Work: Culture
Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 81
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum recommends that Governments provide public water and sanitation systems to the villages and rural areas where indigenous people live, and control the pollution of rivers and streams affected by pollution from such toxic chemicals as pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and industrial waste. The Forum also recommends Governments to create programmes to clean up the rivers and streams that have already been polluted and to ban further pollution by agribusiness and industries.
Area of Work: Environment
Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 31
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum recommends that Member States put in place policies and mechanisms to increase indigenous women’s access to markets and capital in order to enable them to turn their traditional skills into sustainable forms of income generation.
Area of Work: Culture
Addressee: Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
Paragraph Number: 76
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum notes with appreciation decisions VII/16 A-1 of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and its ongoing work with respect to traditional knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities covering many areas for future works to be jointly undertaken by the Convention and the Forum.
Area of Work: Environment
