The Permanent Forum requests that Member States and other potential donors increase their contributions to the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations, the United Nations Indigenous Peoples’ Partnership and the Trust Fund on Indigenous Issues in order to guarantee the exercise of the right of indigenous peoples to participate in United Nations meetings of specific concern to them.
The Permanent Forum welcomes a third United Nations seminar on indigenous peoples’ understanding and interpretation of treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements.
The Forum recommends that States pay special attention to the situation of uncontacted indigenous peoples, peoples in voluntary isolation, and peoples in isolated and remote localities and displaced peoples from indigenous communities. The Forum recommends that the Special Rapporteur on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people pay special attention in his annual reports to the situation of these peoples. The Forum also considers that the situation of these peoples should be the subject of a special international meeting during the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People.
The Permanent Forum urges the funds, programmes and agencies of the United Nations system to cooperate with States and indigenous peoples in the development and implementation of national action plans, strategies and other measures that aim to achieve the ends of the Declaration, including by providing support for the advancement and adjudication of the collective rights of indigenous peoples to their lands, territories and resources.
The Permanent Forum encourages indigenous parliamentarians to organize a global satellite conference of indigenous representatives with the objective of analyzing as a whole the level of progress in the promotion, protection and exercise of the rights of indigenous peoples around the world within the framework of the seventh session of the Permanent Forum.
The Permanent Forum commends the UNDP Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean for starting a regional initiative building on the Programme’s experience in Asia. The Forum recommends that the initiative be consolidated and that the Regional Bureau implement a regional programme to ensure cross-fertilization of good practices among countries and coherent policy approaches. The Forum encourages the Regional Bureau to strengthen its capacity and, together with the Inter-Agency Support Group, looks forward to supporting those efforts through specialized training workshops for United Nations country teams.
It is stated in article 4 of the Declaration that “Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to self-determination, have the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means of financing their autonomous functions”. The Permanent Forum welcomes the international seminar to assess the global status and trends with regard to indigenous autonomies, held in Mexico City in March 2019, which was organized by the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Permanent Forum and the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. The Forum calls upon States and United Nations entities to continue to discuss these issues in each region. The Forum also encourages the convening of a global conference on the state of indigenous autonomies by the three United Nations mechanisms on the rights of indigenous peoples (i.e., the Forum, the Special Rapporteur and the Expert Mechanism) and invites Member States to host the event.
The Permanent Forum urges States that have not yet done so to ratify the Convention of the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
The Permanent Forum urges States to review their policies on biofuel industries, which, in the name of remedying the impacts of climate change, are resulting in the deforestation of large forest areas and the displacement of indigenous peoples. That increases the vulnerability of indigenous communities and in particular of those living in voluntary isolation.
The Permanent Forum calls upon States to ensure that racial non discrimination is guaranteed in their constitutions. The term “racial discrimination” means any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life. The Forum calls upon States to adhere to the peremptory norm and the absolute prohibition against racial discrimination as well as all other forms of discrimination, including gender and age.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the role that the WIPO Voluntary Fund for Accredited Indigenous and Local Communities has played since 2005 in funding the participation of indigenous peoples in sessions of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore and calls upon States, foundations and other organizations to contribute to the Fund.
Foster the training of indigenous women in order to gain leadership skills to become community advocates and defenders for indigenous women's rights to achieve gender equity