The Permanent Forum decides to authorize a three-day international expert group workshop on indigenous peoples’ rights, corporate accountability and the extractive industries, and requests that the results of the meeting be reported to the Forum at its eighth session, in 2009. The report of that workshop can feed into the eighteenth and nineteenth sessions of the Commission on Sustainable Development, which will address the themes of mining, chemicals, waste management and sustainable consumption and production patterns, and contribute to the review by the eighteenth session of the Commission.
The Forum welcomes the participation and perspective of indigenous women and girls with disabilities, recognizes the distinct vulnerability and marginalization that such indigenous individuals encounter as members of an indigenous group, and encourages United Nations agencies, and Governments and organizations, to include their views.
The Permanent Forum calls upon the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity to work in partnership with other members of the Inter-Agency Support Group and donors to organize regional workshops for the purposes of information exchange and capacity-building among Governments, indigenous peoples and local communities and other stakeholders with regard to the proposed international regime on access and benefit-sharing. In addition, the secretariat is called upon to provide financial support for indigenous networks to disseminate information, in appropriate and accessible languages, and through appropriate media, to indigenous communities on this issue.
The Permanent Forum urges the Governments of Canada and the United States to eliminate all assimilation policies that further exacerbate the economic and other disparities between indigenous peoples and the rest of the population.
The Permanent Forum also recommends to Member States that the development agenda beyond 2015 recognize, protect and strengthen indigenous peoples’ collective rights, in particular the right to land, territories and natural resources.
The Forum notes that there is a need for capacity-building in national and local government as well indigenous communities in the areas within the Forum’s mandate, and recommends that various parts of the United Nations system, including the International Labour Organization and the secretariat of the Forum, cooperate to provide technical assistance in that regard at the request of Governments and indigenous communities.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the recent entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Forum encourages Member States to accede to the Optional Protocol and requests the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to consider the preparation of a general comment on the economic, social and cultural rights of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum encourages the Commission for Social Development to consider indigenous peoples’ issues at the fifty-sixth session of the Commission as part of its agenda related to the 2017-2018 priority theme “Strategies for eradicating poverty to achieve sustainable development for all”.
The Forum expresses its concerns regarding continued violence against women and, owing to the seriousness of these conditions, reiterates its previous recommendations regarding: human and sex trafficking; prostitution and trans-border issues; the disappearance, or murder, of aboriginal women; issues related to identification and birth certificates; environmental violence; intergenerational trauma; youth suicide; peace and security; conflict prevention and resolution; cultural practices such as female genital mutilation or cutting; bride price and promised brides; racism and discrimination; and data disaggregation.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the intention of the Commission on the Status of Women to make the issue of the empowerment of indigenous women a focus area of its sixty-first session, to be held in 2017. The Forum invites the Bureau of the Commission to consider organizing a half-day session on the issue. The Forum calls upon the Commission to consider the empowerment of indigenous women as a theme in future sessions, pursuant to paragraph 19 of General Assembly resolution 69/2.
The Permanent Forum wishes to express its appreciation to the Inter-Agency Support Group for its contribution to the work of the Forum, and encourages all United Nations agencies to join the Group, particularly those whose area of work is of special relevance for the rights and well-being of indigenous peoples, such as the World Health Organization.
The Permanent Forum recommends that relevant countries among the 44 countries undergoing voluntary national reviews at the high-level political forum in 2017 include indigenous peoples in their reviews, reports and delegations. The Forum invites those Member States to report on good practices of including indigenous peoples’ indicators in the voluntary national reviews to the Forum at its seventeenth session.