The Permanent Forum welcomes the launch of the publication Global Indigenous Youth: Through their Eyes by the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus and the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. The Forum recommends that international organizations, indigenous youth organizations, academia and other stakeholders undertake similar initiatives to raise awareness on the challenges facing indigenous young people.
The Forum recommends that the Committee on the Rights of the Child, at its special discussion day on the indigenous child, to be held on 19 September 2003, in addition to considering reports from States parties, pay special attention to issues related to safeguarding the integrity of indigenous families.
The Permanent Forum notes the intention of the members of the North American indigenous caucus to hold a conference on indigenous children and youth in detention, custody, adoption and foster care, and urges members of the caucus to invite members of the Forum, Government representatives and youth representatives to discuss model programmes and effective measures to address the disproportional representation of indigenous children and youth in detention, custody, adoption and foster care.
Education in the mother tongue and bilingual education, foremost in primary and secondary schools, lead to effective and long-term successful educational outcomes. The Permanent Forum urges States to fund and implement the Programme of Action for the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, specifically in the following education-related objective. The Forum underlines the need for States to respect and promote indigenous peoples’ definitions of learning and education, founded on the values and priorities of the relevant indigenous peoples. The right to education is independent of State borders and should be expressed by indigenous peoples’ right to freely traverse borders, as supported by articles 9 and 36 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum is deeply concerned about the particular vulnerabilities
of indigenous children. In this regard, it notes the study of the Expert Mechanism on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the rights of the indigenous child under the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (A/HRC/48/74) and
the note by the Secretariat entitled “Update on the promotion and application of the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: violence against
children” (E/C.19/2022/4), prepared in collaboration with the Special Representative
of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children. The Permanent Forum calls
upon Member States to prioritize the human rights of indigenous children and young
people, in cooperation with indigenous peoples. The Permanent Forum further calls
upon those States that have not yet ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
including its three Optional Protocols – on a communications procedure, on the sale
of children, child prostitution and child pornography and on the involvement of
children in armed conflict, to do so as soon as possible.
UNESCO and UNICEF should continue to promote bilingual and cross-cultural education programs for indigenous peoples and schools for girls and women's literacy progrmas in Latin America, and should encourage and expand these experiences in other regions.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, the United Nations Children’s Fund and other relevant United Nations entities collaborate with indigenous organizations in all regions to develop comprehensive guidelines, including best practices for culturally safe sex education by and for indigenous peoples. That type of comprehensive education may serve as an effective violence-prevention means.
Aware of the massive exodus of indigenous youth to the alien environments of cities around the world and the discrimination, socio-economic hardships, weakened family networks and drug abuse, inter alia, affecting those youngsters and "street children", the Forum requests the World Bank, the ILO and UNICEF to conduct an in-depth comparative study of legal frameworks and social programmes addressing indigenous urban youth in selected countries. The study should assess key problems and best practices and should provide recommendations for the formulation of policies and strategies for future action.
The Permanent Forum requests that UNICEF operationalize and implement its strategic framework on indigenous and minority children and report to the Forum in 2012 on measures undertaken to that end.
The Forum recommends that States reduce the rates of illiteracy, lack of schooling, truancy and dropouts and raise the rates of completed primary education through literacy campaigns and the design of indigenous, bilingual, inter-cultural educative and extramural models in the States where indigenous peoples live.
The high rate of indigenous children who are out of school requires urgent attention, in particular in respect of securing access by girls to high-quality and relevant education that respects the cultures and traditions of the communities and that is responsive to their needs. Given that many indigenous peoples live in regions that have been defined as geographically remote or inaccessible, and many services do not reach such indigenous and/or nomadic communities, there are also serious challenges regarding the long distances required to reach hospitals and health-care centres, which lead to higher maternal and infant mortality rates in indigenous communities. The Permanent Forum urges States to ensure that health and education services reach remote areas and meet the needs of nomadic peoples.