The Permanent Forum highlights that unprincipled positions and actions of States undermine indigenous peoples’ human rights and the United Nations Declaration and that such conduct prejudices indigenous peoples globally and serves to weaken the international human rights system. States must therefore take steps, in conjunction with indigenous peoples, to ensure that their commitments and obligations are not violated in other international forums, especially following the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. In accordance with both the outcome document of the World Conference and the United Nations Declaration, States, in conjunction with indigenous peoples, should develop legislation and mechanisms at the national level to ensure that laws are consistent with the United Nations Declaration
The Permanent Forum urges the Government of Kenya to implement the recommendations of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the rights of Endorois to the ownership of their ancestral lands, to the restitution thereof and to compensation in that connection.
The Permanent Forum remains concerned about the state of formal education for indigenous young people and calls upon States to fully fund bilingual and culturally appropriate primary, secondary and tertiary education programmes led by indigenous peoples, including mobile education initiatives for nomadic and semi-nomadic communities. Supporting informal and formal indigenous education systems is crucial in order to maintain and transmit traditional indigenous knowledge systems.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Plurinational State of Bolivia should speed up implementation of the constitutional provisions regarding the freeing of individuals, families and communities in the light of the fact that forced labour and servitude are serious human rights violations that must be addressed with great urgency.
With reference to article 42 of the United Nations Declaration, the Permanent Forum invites African States, in particular Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Mali, Nigeria and Rwanda, to present, at its sixteenth session, information on the situation of indigenous peoples affected by conflict in those countries.
Recognizing the central role of public and indigenous peoples’ education
systems, the Permanent Forum recommends that Member States collect disaggregated
data, within the next two years, on the number of indigenous students who attend
kindergartens, small ungraded schools, nomadic schools and boarding schools across
the regions to secure opportunities for children to remain in their communities.