Recalling the inter-agency support group report on data disaggregation, the Permanent Forum calls for the implementation of the following recommendations:(a)The United Nations system should use and further refine existing indicators, such as the common country assessment indicators, Millennium Development Goal indicators, country progress reports, global monitoring instruments and human development indexes to measure the situation of indigenous and tribal peoples;(b)The national human development reports, produced through nationally owned, editorially independent processes, should systematically include case studies and should include disaggregated data on indigenous and tribal peoples.
The Permanent Forum fully supports plans by indigenous peoples’ organizations and networks in Asia to undertake assessments of how peace agreements that affect them are being implemented in specific countries, and calls on donor agencies to support those initiatives.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the proposal of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, to collect information on best practices in adapting statistical inquiries to the needs of indigenous peoples. The Permanent Forum looks forward to the results of this project and invites the Institute to follow up on this work with the Forum through the Forum secretariat.
The Permanent Forum expresses appreciation to Mr. Michael Dodson for his concept paper on traditional knowledge, and recommends that the paper be widely circulated. The Permanent Forum invites States, United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations and indigenous peoples and their organizations and academic institutions to submit written comments to the secretariat for consideration at the seventh session of the Permanent Forum. The Permanent Forum welcomes the support and notes that the recommendation in paragraph 24 of the report of the Special Rapporteur states that: “the Permanent Forum should commission a study ... to determine whether there ought to be a shift in the focus on the protection of indigenous traditional knowledge away from intellectual property law to protection via customary law ... The study should consider how indigenous traditional knowledge could be protected at an international level by utilizing customary law, including the extent to which customary law should be reflected, thereby providing guidance to States and, subsequently, protection at national and regional levels”. The Permanent Forum would particularly welcome written submissions addressing the above recommendation. The Permanent Forum re-appoints Mr. Dodson as Special Rapporteur to present a follow-up study on indigenous traditional knowledge, taking into account the written submissions, and to present the report to the seventh session of the Permanent Forum in 2008.
The Permanent Forum recommends that all States work in equal partnership with indigenous peoples to develop, implement and evaluate indicators on well-being that provide an overview of the social and economic status of indigenous peoples within a holistic, integrated framework. The Forum also recommends that States invest adequate resources, in accordance with their human rights obligations, to address the indigenous social and economic needs identified by the indicator framework.
The Permanent Forum calls on ILO to provide more information in the future on the status and trends in the practice of traditional occupations.
The Permanent Forum, with the assistance of relevant member of the Inter-Agency Support Group, and in collaboration with indigenous experts, will conduct timely technical reviews at critical stages in the negotiations of international standards on the protection of traditional knowledge, such as the international regime on access and benefit-sharing and the deliberations of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), to evaluate consistency and harmonization with existing and developing international legal instruments, standards and arrangements and, in particular, the human rights of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the activities carried out by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean through its Centre for Latin American Demography — Population Division, in particular its adoption of a rights-based approach that considers indigenous peoples’ individual and collective rights included in the 2006 edition of the Social Panorama. The Forum recommends that the Commission:(a)Increase the number of sociodemographic studies of indigenous peoples, especially those addressing urbanization and migration and their effects on indigenous peoples;(b)Continue to develop a system of sociodemographic indicators on the indigenous peoples of Latin America, in cooperation with the Fondo Indígena, indigenous peoples’ organizations and United Nations agencies;(c)Support production of information by countries on indigenous peoples with reference to access to, quality and cultural relevance of social services, guaranteeing the full participation of indigenous peoples in this process;(d)Organize an expert group meeting to prepare operative recommendations to improve the identification of indigenous peoples in the upcoming 2010 round of censuses and other data sources, ensuring the full participation of indigenous peoples in this process;(e)Produce technical studies and recommendations to States on human rights-based public policies on indigenous peoples in cooperation with the specialized agencies of the United Nations.
The Permanent Forum is pleased to note that indigenous peoples and their organizations increasingly avail themselves of the human rights procedures of the Human Rights Council and the international human rights instruments, and the increasing visibility of indigenous peoples’ issues within those mechanisms. In that regard, the Forum recommends that OHCHR continue to disseminate information and to conduct capacity-building activities on the United Nations human rights mechanisms for the promotion and protection of human rights.
The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations country teams in Asian countries with indigenous populations, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, formulate a matrix of indicators, benchmarks and milestones to assess the outcomes and results of their policies and programmes relevant to indigenous peoples. Furthermore, the Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations agencies and donor agencies expand their funding and technical assistance to support capacity-building of Asian indigenous peoples’ organizations.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the Regional Initiative on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Development of UNDP and, in particular, the pilot projects on gathering disaggregated data in the Philippines and Nepal. The Permanent Forum also recommends that the Regional Indigenous Peoples’ Programme continue this work in other countries.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity facilitate the holding of an indigenous peoples’ expert workshop on traditional knowledge in a timely manner in order to feed into the fifth meeting of the Advisory Group on Article 8 (j) and Related Provisions and the fifth and sixth meetings of the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing in order to support the elaboration by indigenous peoples of recommendations on an international regime on access and benefit-sharing. The meeting could be organized back-to-back with the meeting of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues in order to take advantage of the presence of some United Nations agencies, which will be able to provide technical support and information.