To meet the major challenges facing indigenous peoples in Africa, the Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations system and other entities with expertise on indigenous peoples’ issues in the African region support the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities in Africa to promote and protect the rights of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States and the United Nations system involved in the processes leading to the development agenda beyond 2015 make concerted and targeted efforts to reach out to, and engage in a truly inclusive process with, indigenous peoples, including indigenous women, youth and persons with disabilities, to ensure that their rights and priorities are included in all processes relating to the definition of the themes and priorities for the post-2015 development agenda and of the sustainable development goals.
The Permanent Forum recommends that forests that have been taken by States from indigenous peoples without their free, prior and informed consent in the name of conservation policies be restored immediately.
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.
Special attention should be paid to indigenous peoples at the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development to be held during the sixty-first session of the General Assembly in New York on 14 and 15 September 2006. Given that indigenous peoples are closely tied to their communities, the impact exerted by their migration is often broader than that exerted by individual migration. In particular, indigenous migration affects the collective rights of indigenous communities and accordingly has consequences for entire communities.
The Forum recommends that the United Nations and Member States recognize the cultural rights of indigenous peoples which include the rights to organize oneself freely and to administer one’s own cultural, sports, social and religious institutions. For this purpose, the Forum encourages the United Nations and the relevant specialized agencies to consider establishing an international centre for multicultural and multiracial studies.
The Permanent Forum recommends that national human rights institutions and commissions address indigenous peoples’ issues and include indigenous experts as members of such bodies.