The Permanent Forum recommends that States discontinue all sedentarization and other programmes that coerce indigenous peoples to forsake shifting cultivation for other modes of cultivation without their free, prior and informed consent. Alternative modes of cultivation ensure food sovereignty, livelihood security, health security, educational security and forest conservation and other safeguards.
Member States, the United Nations system, bodies and funds should consider the definitions of extreme poverty by indigenous peoples and in this regard should refer to the report of the independent expert on human rights and extreme poverty (E/CN.4/2005/49). Poverty indicators based on indigenous peoples' own perception of their situation and experiences should be developed, jointly with indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum urges States to financially resource, empower and support local Arctic indigenous communities in order to give indigenous youth and women, together with other members of the communities, the opportunity to secure and develop their cultures.
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 existing small-grant schemes and programmes, since they often enable indigenous peoples’ organizations to play an active role in implementing the recommendations of the Forum. The Forum encourages the United Nations system to develop small-grant schemes and to increase the level of funding aimed directly at indigenous peoples and also to continue establishing mechanisms to ensure that they effectively reach and benefit indigenous peoples at the local level and provide funds directly to indigenous organizations for socioculturally appropriate project implementation.
The Permanent Forum is concerned that the regional presence, representation and services of United Nations agencies in the Asia-Pacific region are limited mostly to the Asian subregion, and recommends that all United Nations agencies review their operations to provide equal services to the Pacific subregion and identify their operations separately according to the two subregions.
The Permanent Forum encourages international financial institutions to establish policy mechanisms and programme frameworks requiring corporations to comply with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which were unanimously endorsed by the Human Rights Council in 2011, in addition to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, International Labour Organization Convention No. 169, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the World Bank brings its policy on indigenous peoples (OP 4.10) into full compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Forum attaches particular importance to the need for the Bank to adopt the standard of free, prior and informed consent and, in general, to institutionalize and operationalize an approach based on human rights. The Forum reiterates its recommendation, made at its twelfth session that the emerging instruments of the Bank and other agencies must be harmonized with the Declaration, which is regarded as a reflection of the minimum human rights standards necessary for the promotion and protection of indigenous peoples, nations and communities. Such instruments should be consistent with or exceed those minimum standards. The Forum underlines the need for the Bank’s operational policies to use language that is consistent with the Declaration.
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.
The Permanent Forum requests ILO, IFAD and the United Nations Development Programme to prepare a study, in collaboration with indigenous peoples, summarizing the experience of implementing programmes for indigenous peoples on socioeconomic development, focussing on best practices in entrepreneurship and creative industries, and to present it to the Permanent Forum at its twenty -third session, to be held in 2024.