The Forum invites the secretariat of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to its third session for an
exchange of views on important issues of common interest.
The Permanent Forum encourages States and United Nations agencies and funds to implement, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, proactive and substantive measures to realize the full and effective implementation of the rights affirmed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. These measures must include greater accessibility for indigenous learners who live in remote areas or in nomadic communities. The Forum calls upon States to respect and implement article 19 of the Declaration by ensuring the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that affect them.
Given the unique role of information and communications technology companies in the design, development and use of contemporary language technologies, the Permanent Forum reiterates its invitation to the private sector to contribute to the International Decade. The Permanent Forum encourages these companies to continue to develop digital platforms, in cooperation with indigenous peoples and academic institutions, in order to compile information archives for the preservation and revitalization of indigenous languages, language corpora, speech recognition, machine translation and synthesis tools, digital dictionaries and online courses.
The Permanent Forum recognizes the harm that the recent decision of the European Parliament regarding the seal product import ban may cause Inuit in the Arctic, and calls upon the European Union to rescind this import ban and, failing that, to enter into direct and meaningful dialogue with the Inuit Circumpolar Council to discuss ways of moving forward. Furthermore, the European Union must make decisions that affect both European and non-European indigenous peoples taking into account their right to free, prior and informed consent.
The Permanent Forum urges indigenous peoples’ organizations and academic institutions, in particular indigenous peoples’ universities, to prepare thematic studies, within the mandate areas of the Forum, as a contribution to the preparatory processes leading up to the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples in 2014.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States ensure that the territories of indigenous peoples in Asia be free of State military interventions and that military bases, camps and training centres established in indigenous territories without the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples be removed immediately, consistent with articles 19 and 30 of the Declaration.
The Forum recommends that the Convention on Biological Diversity and other relevant United Nations bodies such as UNEP, the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), UNDP, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the World Bank, WIPO, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, support indigenous peoples’ organizations in order to develop capacity on research, work and proposals on human indicators applicable to the implementation of the environmental conventions and the plans and programmes of work of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The Permanent Forum urges States to recognize and protect indigenous peoples’ cultural right to water and, through legislation and policy, to support the right of indigenous peoples to hunt and gather food resources from waters used for cultural, economic and commercial purposes. This is consistent with article 25 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum calls upon Member States to start the work, in the context of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, of creating a place and a voice for indigenous peoples in the governance of the world’s oceans. This effort involves the participation of indigenous peoples in all aspects of the work and decision-making regarding the Convention on the Law of the Sea, including the environmental provisions and the delimitation of the continental shelf. It may also include establishing advisory committees of indigenous peoples to guide the work under the Convention, as has been done under the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The Permanent Forum urges States to implement articles 11 and 13 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in particular in relation to the practice and revitalization of indigenous peoples’ languages, cultural traditions and customs as a way of building resilience and preventing self-harm, violence and suicide.
The Forum recommends that States, United Nations agencies, bodies and funds, other multilateral bodies and financial institutions and other donors provide technical and financial support to protect and nurture indigenous peoples’ natural resource management, environment-friendly technologies, biodiversity and cultural diversity and low-carbon, traditional livelihoods (pastoralism; rotational or swidden agriculture; hunting and gathering and trapping; marine and coastal livelihoods; high mountain agriculture; etc.). The Forum further recommends that discussions and negotiations on strengthening the links between climate change, biodiversity and cultural diversity under the Convention on Biological Diversity or the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ensure the effective participation of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum acknowledges the efforts and initiatives of States and United Nations agencies to promote mother-tongue based multilingual education, develop health programmes and provide skills to indigenous children and youth. In this regard, the Forum encourages States and United Nations agencies to increase their efforts in a targeted and wide-scale manner to respond to the needs and priorities of indigenous children and youth, especially in the areas of education and health, in a manner that is culturally sensitive and ensures their overall well-being consistent with articles 11, 14, 41 and 42 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.