In approaching Millennium Development Goal 2, "Achieve universal primary education: ensure that all boys and girls complete primary school", especially for indigenous children, the Forum recalls the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions, the International Charter of Traditional Games and Sports and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention against Discrimination in Education
The Permanent Forum requests that UNICEF prepare a report on the state of the world’s children, with a thematic focus on indigenous children. The report should give special attention to the implementation by Member States of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and general comment No. 11 (2009) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on indigenous children and their rights under the Convention. Furthermore, the Forum requests UNICEF to begin to disaggregate data on indigenous children, including from its existing database.
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 Forum welcomes the inclusion in the 2003 Ibero-American Summit of a focus on indigenous children, and recommends that UNICEF report to the Forum on the results of the Summit in that area, and to indicate how lessons can be learned and policy approaches improved concerning indigenous children in other parts of the world with indigenous peoples, specifically Asia and Africa.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Statistics Commission advocate for the promotion of indigenous peoples’ issues in the 2010 round of population and housing censuses and the Demographic and Health Survey, and other surveys and censuses, taking into account the global synthesis report on indicators of well-being, poverty and sustainability submitted at the seventh session of the Forum. The Forum calls on all relevant United Nations agencies to support this initiative.
The Permanent Forum urges States to cooperate with indigenous peoples to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence and discrimination against indigenous women, children, youth, older persons and persons with disabilities and to provide support for measures aimed at ensuring their full and effective participation in decision-making processes at all levels and at eliminating structural and legal barriers to their full, equal and effective participation in political, economic, social and cultural life.
The Forum recommends that UNESCO hold a world forum on education and indigenous peoples with the participation of indigenous peoples that would contribute, inter alia, to enriching the indigenous education concepts and the pedagogic practices.
There generally appears to be positive recognition of the approach to Goal 1 suggested by the Permanent Forum, while there has been less attention paid to Goal 2. In both areas, there appears to be an increase in the number of projects being implemented in Latin America, with limited projects in Asia, and one or two projects in Africa. This is particularly the case under Goal 2, where there is a general lack of reporting from Asia or Africa on intercultural/bilingual education projects or programmes in this area.
The Forum recommends that the United Nations system, in particular UNICEF and WHO, in collaboration with Governments and in consultation with indigenous peoples’ organizations, and with the participation and input from the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, address issues related to the trafficking and sexual exploitation of indigenous girls, and urges States to create programmes of rehabilitation.
We encourage the Economic and Social Council in respect of the following recommendation: the Council should request that the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean continue and strengthen its efforts regarding the production, elaboration and use of relevant information from population census, household surveys and other adequate sources, in strong interaction with indigenous peoples, aiming at improving the socio-economic conditions and active participation of indigenous peoples in the development process throughout the Latin American region. In addition, the Forum recommends that in all relevant data-collection processes, Member States and the United Nations organizations take the steps described in paragraphs 84-88 below
A request of the UNPFII and the UN Youth Unit in DESA to continue facilitating the involvement of the Youth Caucus in its sessions.
The Permanent Forum recommends that UNESCO, the Convention on Biological Diversity, UNICEF and other relevant United Nations agencies convene an expert meeting, in conjunction with the Forum, comprising intercultural and educational experts and United Nations agencies to explore themes and concepts related to bilingual, intercultural and multilingual education in the context of teaching in mother tongue indigenous languages.