The Permanent Forum encourages the Government of Paraguay to continue to accept assistance from United Nations agencies and programmes and national cooperation agencies in order to develop policies aimed at the elimination of forced labour and other forms of servitude, especially in matters relating to the most urgent challenges: food, health, housing and education.
The Forum also notes with concern that the World Bank’s operational policies, including its policy on indigenous peoples, have limited application, covering only investment lending and not other Bank operations. The Forum recommends that the outcome target of the Bank’s process to review and update its safeguards be a set of safeguards and follow-up mechanisms covering all finance instruments and all other Bank operations.
The Permanent Forum recommends that FAO, in 2014, the International Year of Family Farming, organize and host an expert seminar on culture, food sovereignty and traditional livelihoods to feed into the post-2015 process. The seminar should include the participation of an elder, an adult and a young person from each of the seven sociocultural regions of the Forum.
The Permanent Forum urges States to respect and support indigenous peoples’ priorities, including through the development and implementation of economic recovery strategic plans to support and strengthen indigenous peoples’ institutions, authorities and decision-making bodies in the exercise of their right to selfdetermination. Indigenous peoples have the right to possess the means for financing their autonomous functions and priorities.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States, in order to combat the adverse effects of migration, cooperate with indigenous peoples to provide employment and economic development opportunities within their territories.
The Permanent Forum calls upon the Arctic Council to provide the indigenous permanent participants in the Council with adequate financial resources, enabling them to effectively participate in all relevant activities of the Council.
The Permanent Forum recommends to Member States that the development agenda beyond 2015 recognize indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination, autonomy and self-governance, together with their right to determine their own priorities for their development, to participate in governance and policy decision-making processes at the local, national, regional and international levels and to develop mechanisms for consultation and participation of indigenous peoples, building on the fundamental right to free, prior and informed consent and full participation in the development process. The role of the United Nations country teams in that respect is crucial.
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.
Consistent with articles 7 and 30 of the United Nations Declaration, States should take measures for settlement, protection and security in the post-conflict period, and for the construction of durable and lasting peace, promoting the full and effective inclusion of indigenous peoples, including indigenous women, in any initiative for peace and reconciliation.
The Forum welcomes UNDP’s contribution to the Forum and its support of the establishment of a working group on free, prior and informed consent and of the initiative to develop a land rights policy. The Forum also recognizes the key role UNDP can play in data collection and disaggregation through its national human development reports and the Millennium Development Goals reports. The Forum also recognizes that the Goals can provide an overall framework for furthering indigenous peoples’ development.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States strengthen and implement legal and institutional frameworks that recognize and protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples to their lands, territories and resources and ensure their participation in decision-making processes. Such frameworks should adhere to the Declaration and Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169) of the International Labour Organization, ensuring Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior and informed consent when development, environment, biodiversity and climate change programmes and projects are conducted on their lands and territories.
The Permanent Forum requests that the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples identify the actions of transnational corporations that may breach the inherent rights detailed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and further invites them to present a report to the Forum at its eighth session, in 2009.