Recognizing that the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues will play a central role in coordinating efforts among United Nations agencies to translate the outcome document of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples into meaningful change, the Permanent Forum requests that the Group ensure that its membership includes all United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, including specialized agencies. The Forum recommends that the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and the Advisory Board of the United Nations Office for Partnerships and other relevant United Nations agencies take the measures necessary for addressing the special situation of indigenous peoples in developed countries.
The Permanent Forum also welcomes the recent adoption of the United Nations Development Group guidelines for indigenous peoples’ issues, which will bring the United Nations normative framework on indigenous peoples to the field level and contribute to the implementation of the goals and objectives of the Decade and of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Forum encourages the United Nations system to support the Guidelines with a programme of action and calls upon the donor community to provide resources to that effect. The Forum also calls upon the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues to review and revise the Guidelines in light of the adoption of the Declaration.
Taking into account paragraphs 11, 14, 15, 17 and 26 of the outcome document of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples and article 23 of the United Nations Declaration, the Permanent Forum reminds Member States of the need to implement their commitments through national action plans, strategies or other measures, developed jointly and effectively with indigenous representatives on the basis of the right of free, prior and informed consent, in particular to ensure the adequate training and availability of health professionals in indigenous communities as a matter of urgency.
In accordance with articles 20 and 21 of the Declaration, the Permanent Forum urges States to develop legislation, policies and programmes supporting traditional livelihoods with the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples. In particular, the Forum urges the Government of Finland to renew the Reindeer Herding Act with the full and effective participation of the Sami people
The Permanent Forum appoints Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim and Vital Bambanze, members of the Forum, to conduct a study on indigenous peoples and resource conflicts in the Sahel and in the Congo Basin, and to present that study to the Forum at its twenty-first session.
The Permanent Forum urges UNDP to strengthen its institutional capacity on indigenous peoples’ issues by establishing a task force to serve as a liaison mechanism between headquarters and focal points on indigenous issues at the country level. Furthermore, the Forum recommends that these focal points be specialists on indigenous peoples’ issues.
The Permanent Forum is concerned about the recent grant by the World Bank of a waiver to its indigenous peoples policy (operational policy 4.10) and requests that the World Bank ensure that waivers will not be used in the future. Furthermore, the Forum requests that the Bank conduct a review of the impact on indigenous peoples of the waiver issued to the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania Programme and present its findings to the Forum
The Permanent Forum encourages the Commission for Social Development to consider indigenous peoples’ issues at the fifty-sixth session of the Commission as part of its agenda related to the 2017-2018 priority theme “Strategies for eradicating poverty to achieve sustainable development for all”.
The Forum is fully aware of the close links between conflict and poverty. Conflicts cause poverty and reverse development. The Forum invites those United Nations agencies, funds and programmes working in areas of conflict to consider the special needs of indigenous peoples in their work.
The Forum takes note of the adoption by the Commission on Sustainable Development of a substantive agenda for the next several years, and decides to prepare inputs to the Commission according to the calendar adopted by the Commission. In preparation for the first cluster for 2004-2005 on water, sanitation and human settlements, the Forum recommends that its secretariat prepare, without financial implications, a brief draft position paper and to submit it to the Forum at its third session.
The Permanent Forum urges relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, including FAO, IFAD, ILO, UNEP, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, UN-Women and the World Bank, to recognize and support this form of cultivation.
In this regard, the Permanent Forum recommends that Member States and the United Nations system take due account of the outcome document and the conclusions of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, to be held in September 2014, given that this process is deeply interrelated with the post-2015 process and will set the context for future work on indigenous peoples’ issues.