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 Forum invites the Economic and Social Council and the regional commissions to present reports on the economic situation, scenarios and impacts of free-trade policies, especially the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, with emphasis on indigenous peoples.
During the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the members of the Permanent Forum were not able to register as United Nations experts. Forum members attend many United Nations meetings where their specific status is not recognized. The Forum therefore recommends that Member States include Forum members as United Nations experts, not as part of major groups, in United Nations accreditation processes.
The Permanent Forum recommends that WHO and FAO, together with the Inter‑agency Support Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues, promote dialogue forums at the national and regional levels between government ministries and indigenous peoples to establish culturally relevant strategies for addressing the epidemiological risks and the food and environmental crises resulting from the pandemic, as well as for addressing access to justice and the safeguarding of indigenous peoples’ territorial control.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the role that the WIPO Voluntary Fund for Accredited Indigenous and Local Communities has played since 2005 in funding the participation of indigenous peoples in sessions of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore and calls upon States, foundations and other organizations to contribute to the Fund.
Given the large number of indigenous migrants within and beyond national borders and the particular vulnerability of indigenous women migrants, as well as the lack of adequate data and attention to their problems, the Forum recommends launching a new initiative involving various stakeholders, including the Inter-Agency Support Group, the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in order to face this urgency. The Forum recommends, as a first step, the convening of a workshop on the theme "Migration of indigenous women" in order to highlight the urgency and scale of the issue, including the alarming trend of trafficking indigenous women within and across national borders, and the development of recommendations and guidelines for addressing the problems faced by indigenous migrant women. Participants to the workshop should be a selected number of members of the Forum, relevant United Nations departments, agencies, funds and programmes, and experts from indigenous organizations,
NGOs, intergovernmental organizations, Governments and academia. The objectives of the workshop should be:
a.To underscore the urgency and scale of the issue;
b. To highlight and address the lack of reliable data on the issue and to promote the systematic collection of data (of both quantitative and qualitative nature) by relevant United Nations and other intergovernmental entities, Governments, NGOs, indigenous organizations, and academia;
c. To review and analyse existing data;
d. To provide a report, including recommendations, to the Forum.
The Permanent Forum urges the relevant Governments of States visited by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people to implement the recommendations contained in his reports regarding mega-projects implemented using the territories, lands and natural resources of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Commission on the Status of Women organize a high-level interactive dialogue on the rights of indigenous women, to coincide with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, in 2020, to review progress made towards the Sustainable Development Goals with a focus on linkages with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Forum invites Member States, in co operation with indigenous peoples’ organizations and with the support of the United Nations system, to conduct preparatory processes, with the full and effective participation of indigenous women of all ages.
The Permanent Forum supports the work of the Special Representative to urge States to integrate human rights into those areas that most affect business practices, including corporate law, export credit and insurance, investments and trade agreements. The Forum suggests that the Special Representative urge States to ensure that such business practices comply with the relevant provisions of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Forum urges the Special Representative to incorporate the specific views and distinct perspectives of indigenous peoples on social and economic development. Regarding the Americas, corporations must also comply with therulings of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which construe the States’ obligations under International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention (No. 169) concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries with regard to the Declaration as extending even to States that have not ratified the Convention. The Forum recommends that this principle be applied in other jurisdictions.
The Permanent Forum urges the funds, programmes and agencies of the United Nations system to cooperate with States and indigenous peoples in the development and implementation of national action plans, strategies and other measures that aim to achieve the ends of the Declaration, including by providing support for the advancement and adjudication of the collective rights of indigenous peoples to their lands, territories and resources.
The Permanent Forum commends the UNDP Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean for starting a regional initiative building on the Programme’s experience in Asia. The Forum recommends that the initiative be consolidated and that the Regional Bureau implement a regional programme to ensure cross-fertilization of good practices among countries and coherent policy approaches. The Forum encourages the Regional Bureau to strengthen its capacity and, together with the Inter-Agency Support Group, looks forward to supporting those efforts through specialized training workshops for United Nations country teams.
The Forum reiterates its recommendation that the Economic and Social Council approve the creation, under the auspices of the Forum, of a three-year working group on free, prior informed consent and participatory research guidelines, with the participation of stakeholders concerned, namely Governments, indigenous peoples’ organizations, corporations and States and the United Nations system, with combined funding provided partly by the regular budget and partly through the Voluntary Fund, the World Bank and corporations, that includes a focus on how free, prior informed consent and participatory research guidelines relate to economic, social and environmental projects and the protection of indigenous knowledge and natural resources.