The Forum recommends that immediate steps be taken within the framework of the Commission on Sustainable Development to protect water from privatization and from bilateral and multilateral governmental agreements and other incursions that affect the integrity of waters and impoverish communities, particularly indigenous women. The Forum recommends that the Commission appoint a special rapporteur for the protection of water to gather testimony directly from indigenous communities of the world impacted by or targeted for water privatization, diversion, toxic contamination, pollution, commodification and other environmental injustices that damage natural and potable water supplies
During the pandemic, indigenous peoples have been seriously affected by a lack of access to energy, health-care establishments, education centres, infrastructure that supplies clean water, and communication services and information technologies. Governments have made a range of efforts to support economic activity in their responses to the economic impacts of the pandemic. The relaxation of environmental and human rights standards in order to support activities that will promote economic growth, such as logging, mining, large-scale agriculture and various infrastructure and energy projects, threaten indigenous peoples’ territories. The Permanent Forum requests Member States to include indigenous peoples in the preparatory process and the outcome of the high-level dialogue on energy to be held by the General Assembly in September 2021, in order to accelerate action on achieving Goal 7 and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the progress made in the development of community-based tools to monitor the implementation of the Declaration, the outcome document of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and encourages collaboration and contributions from Governments, the agencies of the United Nations system, indigenous peoples and civil society organizations to the Indigenous Navigator framework and other tools in order to strengthen community-based monitoring of global commitments made under the Declaration, the World Conference and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations country teams in Asian countries with indigenous populations, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, formulate a matrix of indicators, benchmarks and milestones to assess the outcomes and results of their policies and programmes relevant to indigenous peoples. Furthermore, the Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations agencies and donor agencies expand their funding and technical assistance to support capacity-building of Asian indigenous peoples’ organizations.
The Permanent Forum urges the World Bank to work on a sustained basis with the Government of Cambodia to effectively implement the management action plan resulting from the inspection panel case for the “Forest concession management and control pilot project”, which includes the termination of all existing logging concessions and the promotion of equitable and sustainable alternatives for forest management.
The Permanent Forum invites the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants to prepare a study on the situation of indigenous women migrants.
The Forum decides to devote special attention to the follow-up to global United Nations conferences, and in that regard requests its secretariat to prepare a technical background paper.
In follow-up to the Millennium Development Goals, the Permanent Forum urges Governments and agencies to quantify the number of projects and programmes that they are undertaking in response to the recommendations of the Permanent Forum. It would also be helpful if they could, when reporting, report on progress in the process of implementation of recommendations, instead of merely enumerating activities. Reports could be more analytical, not just activity-based, and should pick up on relevant recommendations from past sessions that addressed the necessary theme.
The Forum, taking into account that States recognized the vital role of indigenous peoples in sustainable development at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, calls upon the United Nations system, other intergovernmental organizations and Governments to establish processes of meaningful participation and partnership with indigenous communities in those processes, including within the context of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework and the poverty reduction strategy papers of the World Bank. The Forum recommends, through the Economic and Social Council, that all States, organs and agencies of the United Nations take into account the Kimberley Declaration adopted by the Summit of Indigenous Peoples on Sustainable Development, held in the territory of the Khoi-San People from 20 to 23 August 2002, as well as the Plan of Implementation of Indigenous Peoples on Sustainable Development, when States begin to implement the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The Permanent Forum, through the Economic and Social Council, invites United Nations agencies, bodies, funds and programmes to identify areas of work within their mandates for collaborative implementation with indigenous peoples’ Kimberly proposals, taking into account the report of the Commission on Sustainable Development on its eleventh session and the multi-year programme of work of the Commission, for the further implementation of Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation as well as the fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations system conduct a separate consultation with indigenous peoples at the regional and global levels as an integral and critical part of the processes relating to the post-2015 development agenda.
Alarmed at attempts to exclude indigenous peoples of Africa in the application of World Bank Operational Policy 4.10, the Permanent Forum recommends that the World Bank immediately initiate consultations with States and indigenous peoples in Africa as part of its safeguards policy review and ensure the application of safeguards to indigenous peoples of Africa, as directed by articles 19 and 41 of the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum acknowledges the important work of the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean on its thirtieth anniversary. The Permanent Forum encourages Member States, United Nations entities and indigenous peoples to support strengthening the work of the Fund.