The Permanent Forum recalls its invitation to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to initiate a general comment on the collective rights of indigenous peoples to lands, territories and natural resources. The Forum welcomes the decision of the Committee to draft a general comment on land and economic, social and cultural rights. However, the Forum expresses its concern about the limited participation of indigenous peoples in the drafting of the general comment and invites the Committee to consider facilitating the participation of indigenous peoples. The Forum also invites the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples to provide support in this regard.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the lively and analytical dialogue that emerged from the half-day discussion on the African region and encourages the United Nations Development Group to facilitate further dialogue between States and indigenous peoples at the African continental level to foster better understanding of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the commitments to indigenous peoples that Member States have made. Within this framework, capacity-building at the national level should be enhanced.
The Forum recommends that the agencies and bodies of the United Nations, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund rethink the concept of development, with the full participation of indigenous peoples in development processes, taking into account the rights of indigenous peoples and the practices of their traditional knowledge.
6. The Permanent Forum congratulates the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on the adoption of its policy on indigenous and tribal peoples and requests that FAO take measures towards the implementation of the policy at all levels, especially at the country level. Such measures include improving the capacity of FAO staff to work effectively with indigenous peoples and their organizations and establishing a mechanism for partnership. Further, the Permanent Forum requests that FAO involve it in the development of voluntary guidelines on the responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests. In addition, the Forum requests participation in the Committee on World Food Security and membership in the Committee’s advisory group.
The Permanent Forum has paid particular attention to the significant increase in the infrastructure budget of the World Bank, from $15 billion to $45 billion in 2009, for the primary economies of developing States. The implications of this development in relation to the respect and protection of indigenous peoples’ rights have to be clearly understood, and the imperative of getting the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples affected by infrastructure projects has to be guaranteed. The Forum also urges the World Bank to provide additional operational budget to manage this large increase in infrastructure spending. The Permanent Forum reiterates its previous recommendations that the World Bank revise its operational safeguard policies to be consistent with the provisions of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.