The Permanent Forum urges States, United Nations agencies and indigenous peoples’ organizations to collaborate with UN-Habitat and other United Nations agencies in their development of policy guidelines for local authorities on urban indigenous issues.
The Permanent Forum urges the Asian Development Bank, in projects that it funds, to ensure that it avoids adverse impacts on indigenous peoples and their watersheds and other fragile ecosystems and to promote the rights of indigenous peoples to land and resources.
The Permanent Forum thus welcomes FAO efforts to develop a policy on indigenous peoples’ issues which will help organization staff to work with indigenous peoples in a more systematic way. With a view to strengthening FAO work with indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum encourages the organization to finalize the draft policy as soon as possible and to submit it to senior management for approval.
The Forum recommends that the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences pay special attention to the impact of violence against indigenous women, including war-related violence and domestic violence.
The Permanent Forum invites Member States to organize intersessional meetings to discuss cooperation on pertinent topics with the Permanent Forum.
The Forum expresses its appreciation to all those who contributed to the Trust Fund for the support of the Forum and calls upon Governments, intergovernmental organizations, foundations and non-governmental organizations to give generously to the Fund
The Permanent Forum recommends that social and environmental impact assessments, including human rights impact assessments and poverty impact assessments, of financial investments and trade agreements directly affecting indigenous peoples be undertaken, and that the resources for those assessments be provided by the sources of the investments and the parties to trade agreements.
The round tables, workshops, hearings and preparatory conferences should focus on action-oriented outcomes based on inclusive and participatory processes, to be accorded official status. A drafting committee could be appointed by the President of the General Assembly for that purpose, in consultation with Member States and indigenous peoples.
Reports received by the Permanent Forum indicate that United Nations agencies, notably UNICEF and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), incorporate indigenous issues into their health programming at the country and regional levels and apply culturally sensitive approaches to health delivery. The Forum encourages those agencies to share their experience in health programming for indigenous peoples with other relevant United Nations agencies working in the field.
Indigenous peoples have been a distinct constituency at the United Nations since 1977 and, with the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the General Assembly in 2007, their inherent rights were affirmed as the international minimum standard. The Permanent Forum reiterates the position of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, namely that it is unacceptable to undermine the status and standing of indigenous peoples by combining or equating them with non-indigenous entities such as minorities, vulnerable groups or local communities. Such attempts, whether by States or United Nations entities, are not acceptable and will be challenged by indigenous peoples and those mandated to defend their rights. The Permanent Forum urges all United Nations entities and States parties to treaties concerning the environment, biodiversity and the climate to eliminate the use of the term “local communities” in conjunction with indigenous peoples, so that the term “indigenous peoples and local communities” would be abolished.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the document of the Commission of the European Communities (COM (2008)), Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council: The European Union and the Arctic Region delivered in Brussels on 20 November 2008 and urges the European Union to begin implementing the recommendations relevant to indigenous peoples from this document.