The Permanent Forum welcomes the initiative taken by indigenous peoples’ organizations, States non-governmental organizations and OHCHR to improve the visibility of the situations faced by indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact and recent efforts to respect and protect the rights of these peoples, particularly in the Amazon and Chaco regions of South America and the Andaman and Nicobar islands in India, including the Penan peoples of the forests of Sarawak in Malaysia. The Permanent Forum highlights, in particular, the Santa Cruz de la Sierra Appeal (“Llamamiento de Santa Cruz de la Sierra”), which was the outcome of the regional seminar on indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and in initial contact of the Amazon Basin and El Chaco held from 20 to 22 November 2006 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, with the sponsorship of OHCHR, the Indigenous Work Group for Indigenous Affairs and the Confederacion Indigena del Oriente de Boliva, and with the support of the Government of Bolivia, and the partnership of Denmark, Norway and Spain. The Permanent Forum recommends that OHCHR, other international agencies and States, in partnership with indigenous peoples’ organizations and non-governmental organizations, further replicate and follow up similar initiatives in order to achieve and consolidate sustained long-term policies, mechanisms and procedures that can assure the security and self-determined livelihoods of these peoples, including the guarantee of the inviolability of their territories and natural resources.
Effective access to justice for indigenous peoples implies access to both the State legal system and their own systems of justice. Without accessible State courts or other legal mechanisms through which they can protect their rights, indigenous peoples become vulnerable to actions that threaten their lands, natural resources, cultures, sacred sites and livelihoods. Concurrently, the recognition of indigenous peoples’ own justice systems is pivotal in ensuring their rights to maintain their autonomy, culture and traditions.
Furthermore, the Permanent Forum urges those States that have abstained to reverse their positions and endorse the Declaration so as to achieve full consensus.
The Permanent Forum requests that the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people identify the actions of transnational corporations that may breach the inherent rights detailed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and invites them to present a joint report to the Permanent Forum at its eighth session in 2009.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the secretariat of the Permanent Forum, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, UNDP and the United Nations Programme on Youth cooperate closely with the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus to conduct and support regional and international human rights training programmes to build the capacity and advocacy skills of indigenous youth.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Arctic Council adopt, at its ministerial meeting in 2015, a comprehensive long-term strategy for resource extraction in the Arctic region in order to end present uncontrolled, unmanaged and unsustainable industrial practices, including an ethical code of conduct committing private entities operating in the Arctic to not engage in practices harmful to the environment and to respect human rights, particularly those of Arctic indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States incorporate adequate information on the implementation of the Declaration in their core reports to the human rights treaty bodies.
Indigenous peoples lack recognition, and face poor implementation of their
rights and flagrant violations of their rights and their lands, while the need for their free, prior and informed consent and the right to autonomy of self-government is disregarded by local businesses and transnational corporations in mining, logging, and oil and gas extraction, among other sectors. The territories and resources of indigenous peoples are seized and livelihoods are destroyed to the detriment of their knowledge, cultures and languages. In that respect, it is important to remind Member
States of their duty to protect.
The Permanent Forum recommends that donors, including the European Union, the European Commission, the Department of State of the United States of America, human rights support organizations and others provide long-term funding, legal aid and other resources to assist indigenous human rights defenders, their families, networks and communities.
The Forum recommends that the agencies and bodies of the United Nations, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund rethink the concept of development, with the full participation of indigenous peoples in development processes, taking into account the rights of indigenous peoples and the practices of their traditional knowledge.
The Permanent Forum welcomes information from the Government of Bangladesh on progress towards the implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord. It calls upon Bangladesh to make further efforts towards full implementation of the Accord through constructive dialogue and cooperation with the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council, the three Hill District Councils and the Chittagong Hill Tracts Land Dispute Resolution Commission.
The Permanent Forum appoints Darío José Mejía Montalvo, a member of the Forum, to conduct a study on the rights of indigenous peoples facing the global energy mix and to present that study to the Forum at its twenty-first session.