A recommendation for expert group meeting on water to carry out a close review and assessment of water allocation, regulation and access policies that affect the rights and health of indigenous peoples and to explore and establish indicators of water well-being for indigenous nations and the world community.
The Permanent Forum requests that UNICEF and UNESCO support intercultural and bilingual education programmes in conjunction with the indigenous peoples concerned, paying special attention to the right of girls to primary and secondary education.
The Permanent Forum recognizes the right to participate in decision-making and the importance of mechanisms and procedures for the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples in relation to article 18 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Forum reiterates that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the World Intellectual Property Organization and the International Maritime Organization should facilitate indigenous peoples’ participation in their processes.
The Permanent Forum requests its secretariat to ensure wide circulation of the above-mentioned report and invites States, members of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues, non-governmental organizations and the private sector, the secretariats of the United Nations Forum on Forests and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to provide comments and additional information and data to both the Special Rapporteur and the secretariat of the Permanent Forum. The contributions can include existing policies, projects and funding related to plantations and forestry, implementation of policies and case studies of good practices.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples should serve as a key and binding framework in the formulation of plans for development and should be considered fundamental in all processes related to climate change at the local, national, regional and global levels. The safeguard policies of the multilateral banks and the existing and future policies on indigenous peoples of United Nations bodies and other multilateral bodies should be implemented in all climate change-related projects and programmes.
The Permanent Forum reiterates its recommendations emanating from the Workshop on Data Collection and Disaggregation for Indigenous Peoples (see E/C.19/2004/2), in particular recommendations 16-22 and 24.
The Permanent Forum calls upon Member States to ensure that the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) is aligned with the rights affirmed in the Declaration, and invites UNEP to organize a dialogue to discuss the Rio+20 outcome, its implications for indigenous peoples and its implementation.
The Permanent Forum urges States to recognize and protect indigenous peoples’ cultural right to water and, through legislation and policy, to support the right of indigenous peoples to hunt and gather food resources from waters used for cultural, economic and commercial purposes. This is consistent with article 25 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Governments, the United Nations system and other intergovernmental organizations should, within the context of the 2005 Millennium Development Goals review and beyond, develop disaggregated data and information on indigenous peoples, in partnership with indigenous peoples. This should include a budget analysis to determine the amount of resources allotted to indigenous peoples. The Forum recommends to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean that it continue to and strengthen its efforts regarding the production, elaboration and use of relevant information from population censuses, household surveys and other adequate sources, jointly with indigenous peoples, aiming at improving socio-economic conditions and active participation of indigenous peoples in the development process throughout the Latin American and the Caribbean region
The Permanent Forum supports collaborations between indigenous groups and conservation organizations that bring together traditional and scientific knowledge holders to add the wealth of current and historical knowledge of indigenous peoples to the analysis of impacts of climate change and to mitigation solutions and adaptation strategies — recognizing and respecting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the provisions of article 8 (j) of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The Permanent Forum recommends that FAO, in coordination with indigenous peoples, organize training and other capacity-building development, as well as establish mechanisms for engagement such as working groups and appropriate representation of indigenous peoples in relevant instruments and bodies of FAO, and provide a progress report on those activities to the Forum at its fifteenth session.
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.