The Permanent Forum encourages States to continue cooperating with indigenous peoples to develop fair, transparent and effective mechanisms for the repatriation of ceremonial objects and human remains, at the national and international levels.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, and the advisory bodies IUCN, ICOMOS and ICCROM, scrutinize current World Heritage nominations to ensure they comply with international norms and standards of free, prior and informed consent.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the initiative of UNESCO, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) to review current procedures and capacity to ensure free, prior and informed consent, and the protection of indigenous peoples’ livelihoods, tangible and intangible heritage. During this review process, it would be advisable to review the inconsistency of approaches to natural world heritage and cultural world heritage. The Permanent Forum makes itself available to assist in the review and revision of UNESCO operational guidelines with regard to nominations and site assessments. The Permanent Forum further recommends that UNESCO invite indigenous peoples’ representatives and experts to contribute to deliberations on and recommended changes to procedures and operational guidelines.