The Permanent Forum recommends that States, United Nations organizations and indigenous peoples’ organizations elaborate and develop strategies and action plans for communication, education and public awareness on indigenous issues during the Second International Decade, addressing different audiences. Toolkits should also be developed for use in the implementation of such plans.
The Forum urges Governments, in addressing economic and social development issues, to make efforts to adopt general strategies that include considerations for the needs and rights of indigenous peoples in the policies, laws and administrative issues that affect them, and they should include participation and consultations with indigenous peoples. Governments should also consider implementing special policies directed to employment creation for indigenous peoples, facilitating access to credit and the creation of small and medium-sized businesses.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States, the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations system ensure that the processes relating to the definition of the development agenda beyond 2015 are formulated in accordance with the objectives of sustainable development, as defined in the Indigenous Peoples’ International Declaration on Sustainable Development and Self-Determination, adopted by the Indigenous Peoples’ International Conference on Sustainable Development and Self-Determination, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2012, and also recommends that culture be affirmed as the fourth pillar of sustainable development.
The Permanent Forum encourages the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to continue its efforts in operationalizing the principle of free, prior and informed consent in its investments, including through the engagement of indigenous experts in project delivery teams.
The Permanent Forum recommends that international financial institutions unequivocally acknowledge the collective right of indigenous peoples to their lands, territories and resources in their safeguard policies and in all development project contexts (not merely in exceptional circumstances). Banks should not support any projects that affect indigenous peoples without prior recognition of and effective guarantees for their collective rights to own, control and manage their lands, territories and resources.
Building upon the study prepared by members of the Permanent Forum on the situation of indigenous persons with disabilities, with a particular focus on challenges faced with respect to the full enjoyment of human rights and inclusion in development (see E/C.19/2013/6), and in the light of the call in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to “leave no one behind”, the Forum is concerned that the experiences and rights of indigenous persons with disabilities require further study and examination. In that regard, the Forum calls upon the secretariat of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as the focal point within the United Nations system on matters relating to disability, to conduct a qualitative study with regard to indigenous persons with disabilities, in all seven regions of the world.
The Permanent Forum acknowledges the project of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), entitled “Linking indigenous peoples with regional development”, which involves indigenous leaders and communities in Australia, Canada and Sweden, and encourages OECD and its member States to expand the project.