The Permanent Forum calls upon the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP and other entities of the United Nations system to develop programmes and projects that support and build the capacity of indigenous women in Africa in order to empower them economically and socially. A good practice in this regard is strengthening the entrepreneurship of indigenous women and facilitating their access to formal markets and financial institutions for their activities. The Forum also encourages States to develop affirmative actions that are aimed at actively including indigenous women in decision-making at all levels and at ensuring that indigenous women’s voices are equally represented in economic, social and political decision-making processes.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the decision by FAO to observe an International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists in 2026 and encourages Member States to support the participation of indigenous peoples in events leading up to the year.
In the light of the emerging international legal framework for local communities, the Permanent Forum recommends that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) prepare, in consultation with other relevant United Nations entities, including the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and before 2022, a comparative legal study that analyses the rights of indigenous peoples and the emerging rights of local communities.
The Permanent Forum recommends that all United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, as well as the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, integrate relevant provisions of the Declaration into their policies, programmes, projects and strategies.
States, United Nations agencies, funds and programs should mobilize support for indigenous peoples who are extremely vulnerable to natural disasters.
The Permanent Forum also notes the International Expert Group Meeting on Urban Indigenous Peoples and Migration, held in Chile in March 2007, and expresses its appreciation to the Government of Canada for providing funding to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean for hosting the event. It also recommends that States, United Nations and civil society organizations and other stakeholders contribute to the implementation of the recommendations contained in the above-mentioned publication.
The Permanent Forum notes with appreciation the active engagement of UNFPA with indigenous peoples in the regions of Latin America and Asia, as well as its detailed reporting on its work in these areas. The Permanent Forum invites UNFPA to continue reporting on its work and recommends that future reports deal with agency activities in all sociocultural regions or, if no relevant activities are under way in a particular region, the challenges to addressing indigenous issues in such regions.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Plurinational State of Bolivia should speed up implementation of the constitutional provisions regarding the freeing of individuals, families and communities in the light of the fact that forced labour and servitude are serious human rights violations that must be addressed with great urgency.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Statistical Commission and the United Nations Statistics Division use the System of Environmental-Economic Accounts in the development of a coherent and integrated set of indicators for monitoring the situation and well-being of indigenous peoples and the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum intends to make the formulation of an indigenous peoples’ development index, based on the human rights affirmed in the United Nations Declaration and international human rights instruments, a recurring part of its agenda. The Forum recommends that the United Nations Development Programme, especially its Human Development Report Office, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights assist the Forum in developing such an index, building on existing initiatives by indigenous peoples and United Nations agencies, and report thereon to the Forum at its fifteenth session
The Permanent Forum encourages national and international financial institutions to target indigenous peoples as beneficiaries of their micro-financing mechanisms and other relevant mechanisms, with the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum invites the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants to prepare a study on the situation of indigenous women migrants.