The active participation of indigenous peoples and indigenous organizations should be ensured when matters affecting their rights are discussed by the Human Rights Council and any subsidiary bodies or processes that it decides to establish.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States take steps to establish truth commissions in situations of reported gross violations of the human rights of indigenous peoples. The Forum underlines that the full and effective participation of affected indigenous peoples is a precondition for the establishment and work of truth commissions.
The Permanent Forum recommends that OHCHR take a leading role in ensuring that United Nations country teams undertake their policies or programmes affecting indigenous peoples in cooperation with indigenous peoples’ representatives and organizations.
The Permanent Forum recalls that, to ensure effective implementation, the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights must be aligned with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), of ILO, the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, known as the Escazú Agreement, and the jurisprudence of the human rights treaty bodies. Furthermore, the Permanent Forum recognizes the work of the Human Rights Council to develop an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises. In that respect, the Permanent Forum stresses the need to ensure that the new instrument affirms indigenous peoples’ rights, including with regard to free, prior and informed consent. The Permanent Forum recommends that this instrument explicitly define due diligence processes and their specific methods of implementation. Therefore, the Permanent Forum underlines the importance of full and effective participation by indigenous peoples throughout the development of the instrument.
The Permanent Forum calls upon the member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to recognize the collective rights of indigenous peoples, and calls on ASEAN to ensure that the rights of indigenous peoples are integrated into the development process of the ASEAN charter.
In regard to the rights of indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum reiterates its long-standing position of encouraging the United Nations, its organs and specialized agencies, as well as all States, to adopt a human rights-based approach. At the international, regional and national level, the human rights of indigenous peoples are always relevant if such rights are at risk of being undermined. Human rights are indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated. They must be respected in any context specifically concerning indigenous peoples, from environment to development, to peace and security, and many other issues.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the recommendation to establish a voluntary international mechanism to receive and consider communications from indigenous peoples specifically concerning their claims to, or violations of, their rights to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired. This recommendation deserves further elaboration by indigenous peoples and others concerned. The Forum takes note of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples in this regard.
The Permanent Forum invites Member States to participate in informal discussions on the effective and efficient impacts of the Permanent Forum on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, including in the contexts of biodiversity, climate change, desertification and the enjoyment of human rights by indigenous peoples, in particular efforts to combat violence against indigenous women and children. The Permanent Forum also invites Member States to enhance the effective participation of indigenous peoples in the design and implementation of efforts in the context the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development; the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development”, 2018–2028; the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration; and the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.
The Forum recommends that courts and judicial bodies take urgent step to ensure the protection of indigenous peoples from threats of the use of physical violence by Governments or paramilitary groups controlled by Governments and non-State actors
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.
The Permanent Forum calls the attention of States to the need to create or strengthen national bodies with a mandate for the protection of the rights and interests of indigenous peoples in line with the Declaration. The Forum notes the efforts of certain States to create institutions for the rights and interests of indigenous peoples as Government bodies, including ombudsmen who deal with issues and situations regarding the protection of the rights and interests of indigenous peoples. It recommends that other States draw upon such experiences which highlight the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the relevant treaty bodies take into account the Declaration and urges States to include information regarding its implementation in their reports to the universal periodic review of the Human Rights Council.