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 Forum urges Governments, in addressing economic and social development issues, to make efforts to adopt general strategies that include considerations for the needs and rights of indigenous peoples in the policies, laws and administrative issues that affect them, and they should include participation and consultations with indigenous peoples. Governments should also consider implementing special policies directed to employment creation for indigenous peoples, facilitating access to credit and the creation of small and medium-sized businesses.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Government of Paraguay should remain firm in its commitment to cooperating with indigenous peoples’ organizations in order to find emergency solutions to the extremely serious situation of the indigenous communities that have been wholly dispossessed of their land, and to implement policies to ensure the reconstitution of their territory.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the dialogues to support indigenous peoples’ preparations for the United Nations Food Systems Summit. The Forum requests Member States and the secretariat of the Summit to guarantee the participation of indigenous peoples at the Summit with a view to ensuring due reflection of indigenous peoples’ rights and issues in the relevant outcome documents.
The Permanent Forum notes that in international law, the right to adequate food and the fundamental right to be free from hunger apply to everyone without discrimination. The Permanent Forum is concerned about the implementation gap between what is legally recognized and the reality. The right to food is frequently denied or violated, often as a result of systematic discrimination or the widespread lack of applicability of indigenous peoples’ rights. The Permanent Forum recommends that States engage in an inclusive and participatory process to ensure food sovereignty and security, in accordance with the principles of free, prior and informed consent, and develop standards and methodologies and cultural indicators to assess and address food sovereignty.