The Forum recommends that the agencies and bodies of the United Nations, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund rethink the concept of development, with the full participation of indigenous peoples in development processes, taking into account the rights of indigenous peoples and the practices of their traditional knowledge.
The Permanent Forum expresses concern over the misappropriation and misuse of indigenous peoples’ cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, and urges States and companies, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, to take effective measures to recognize and protect their rights, in accordance with article 31 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In this regard, the Permanent Forum calls upon Member States to take measures to safeguard indigenous peoples’ rights to intellectual property by adopting laws and public policies, in which it is recognized that indigenous peoples have the right over their creations, knowledge, discoveries, works, traditional cultural expressions and other elements.
The Forum urges international donor agencies, regional organizations and States to incorporate indigenous people’s issues in the formulation of sector policies for development cooperation and to address indigenous peoples’ issues in their joint development programmes and projects to ensure that indigenous peoples and their issues are effectively mainstreamed into their work.
The Permanent Forum calls on States to ensure that indigenous peoples that are undertaking their own mitigation measures are provided with policy support, technical assistance, funding and capacity-building in order to deepen their knowledge on climate change and to allow them to implement more effective mitigation and adaptation strategies. They should gain benefits from the environmental services derived from their territories and resources. Processes and mechanisms for the valuation of these environmental services, and methods that allow them to get adequate benefits, should be developed jointly with them. Efforts to create better documentation of good practices in mitigation and adaptation and to replicate and upscale these practices should likewise be supported.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Inter-American Development Bank reconsider its policy and strategies so as to ensure the inclusion of representatives of indigenous peoples in an advisory body and incorporate the right of indigenous peoples to free, prior and informed consent, without any qualifications, into safeguard policies and project-related instruments.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the General Assembly, by 2020, proclaim an international year of indigenous languages and draw attention to the critical loss of indigenous languages and the urgent need to preserve, revitalize and promote indigenous languages and to take further urgent steps at the national and international levels.
The Permanent Forum recommends that an expert group meeting on urban indigenous peoples and migration be organized by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) in cooperation with the secretariat of the Permanent Forum with the participation of the members of the Permanent Forum, experts from indigenous organizations, the United Nations system and other relevant intergovernmental organizations and interested Governments, for the purpose of formulating recommendations for consideration, as part of its preparatory work for the sixth session. The Permanent Forum requests donors to provide financial resources for this expert group meeting. The Permanent Forum invites the International Organization for Migration to assist in the preparations for this meeting.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States continue to develop legislation to support genuine indigenous representation and participation in decision-making. Legislative measures that create practical, economic, legal and political difficulties for the establishment and functioning of indigenous organizations and institutions worldwide should be addressed in order to allow for cross-border and international cooperation between indigenous peoples of different countries and with and within international organizations on issues and processes affecting them.
The Permanent Forum endorses the recommendations submitted on 8 May 2009 to the fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants by the Indigenous Peoples Caucus to increase and ensure the formal participation of indigenous peoples in that process.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators provide support for the inclusion and methodological development of core indicators for indigenous peoples in the global indicator framework, in particular the inclusion of the indicator on the legal recognition of the land rights of indigenous peoples for the targets under Goals 1 and 2.
The Permanent Forum invites the General Assembly to consider the creation of a distinct United Nations voluntary fund for indigenous youth or the earmarking of existing and future funds to increase and enhance the direct participation of indigenous youth at the United Nations. Furthermore, the Forum encourages every State Member of the United Nations to make multi-year voluntary contributions to such existing and/or future funds.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States support, financially and in every other way, Indigenous Peoples’ development of their own strategies in revitalizing, strengthening and developing their languages parallel to other efforts under the Global Action Plan.