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Paragraph Number: 59
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum recommends that all relevant United Nations entities and Governments:
(a) Advise Governments to revise their national legal and administrative frameworks to ensure indigenous women’s equal rights and access to social and economic services and resources, including land ownership;
(b) Identify and give recognition to the capacities of indigenous women and their specialized knowledge in the areas of health, natural environment, traditional technologies, crafts and arts, and design appropriate employment and income-generating strategies;
(c) Provide indigenous women with the appropriate education and training resources so that they can effectively access and participate in mainstream national, regional and international economic institutions.
Area of Work: Economic and Social Development, Indigenous Women
Addressee: CEDAW, UNESCO, UNDP, UNIFEM
Paragraph Number: 6
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
Noting that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women makes no reference to indigenous women and that it does not take into account the specific nature of the gender dimension of racial discrimination, the Forum recommends that the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women:
a. Pay special attention to the issues related to maintaining the integrity of indigenous women and the gender dimension of racial discrimination against indigenous peoples;
b. Organize a meeting, in collaboration with indigenous women, UNIFEM, UNESCO and UNDP, with the objective of beginning a process to develop and adopt a general recommendation on indigenous women, including women living under colonization.
Area of Work: Indigenous Women
Addressee: SPFII
Paragraph Number: 15
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum, to underscore its long-term commitment to the issue of "indigenous women", recommends that its secretariat:
a. Assist IANWGE in its efforts to mainstream indigenous women’s issues throughout the United Nations system;
b. Strengthen liaison with the Forum’s portfolio holders in order to provide feedback on indigenous women’s issues in each of the mandated areas to the Forum;
c. Promote the monitoring and reporting on the implementation process of programmes within the United Nations system designed to address indigenous women’s issues and the assessment of their impact;
d. Increase outreach to indigenous women’s groups and assist them in networking and information-sharing;
e. Create strong liaison relationship with universities and other institutions of learning and research with the aim of mainstreaming indigenous women’s issues in academic curricula, assist indigenous women’s organizations in identifying and effectively utilizing available education resources and programmes, and promote capacity-building through fellowships, grants etc.;
f. Build broad-based awareness of indigenous women’s issues by increasing the Forum’s media outreach (e.g., through newsletters, radio, web site, publications in journals on indigenous issues).
Area of Work: Indigenous Women
Addressee: IP
Paragraph Number: 22
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum welcomes the establishment of indigenous education caucuses and looks forward to working with them to promote mutual indigenous education goals, and urges indigenous educators to become actively involved in these useful structures.
Area of Work: Education
Paragraph Number: 10
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum recognizes the instrumental role of the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE) and welcomes the identification of "indigenous women" as an emerging key issue, the creation of a task force on indigenous women and the inclusion of an item on indigenous women in its 2005 agenda. The Forum requests its secretariat to transmit to it the results of the 2005 session of IANWGE on indigenous women.
Area of Work: Indigenous Women
Addressee: UNESCO, Cultural and Academic institutions
Paragraph Number: 35
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum recommends that UNESCO, other cultural institutions and academic institutions:
(a) Recognize and document the diversity of gender relations in indigenous communities based on active community input and participation;
(b) Examine and document women’s spheres of power in indigenous societies, taking into account traditional mechanisms of gender definition and distinction (e.g., pollution/purity, gender-specific roles in ritual, gendered division of labour);
(c) Examine and document the instrumental role of women in indigenous societies as the custodians of sacred knowledge and power, and as medical specialists;
(d) Highlight and give recognition to women’s instrumental roles in indigenous societies as educators, healers and ritual specialists;
(e) Highlight indigenous women’s traditional skills, arts and crafts and publicize them through the media, cultural institutions etc.
Area of Work: Culture, Indigenous Women
Paragraph Number: 103
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
Recalling the special theme of its second session, "Indigenous children and youth", the Permanent Forum confirms its commitment to make indigenous children and youth an ongoing part of its work. In so doing, it acknowledges the efforts made by organizations representing indigenous peoples, United Nations bodies, especially the Committee on the Rights of the Child and States, to address the urgent needs of indigenous children and youth, and encourages partners of the Forum towards further collaboration regarding this crucial cross-cutting issue.
Area of Work: Indigenous Children and Youth
Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 14
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
To ensure that the concerns and priorities of indigenous women are properly taken into account, the Forum urges States:
a. To take concrete steps to increase the participation of indigenous women in governance and decision-making structures at all levels;
b. To clearly identify and define the issues and needs of indigenous women, taking into account regional and local cultural differences;
c. To develop and strengthen structures and mechanisms for the advancement of indigenous women within the wider agenda for the advancement of women; to clearly define their mandate by taking into account the holistic and cross-cutting nature of indigenous women’s issues; to allocate appropriate resources to those institutions; and to provide support from the national political leadership to those structures;
d. To ensure the implementation of international human rights instruments, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, regarding indigenous women, and to integrate those instruments into the formulation of a coherent national public policy for indigenous women (including legal frameworks, budget allocations and specific programmes and projects addressing indigenous women’s issues);
e. To ensure equal access of indigenous women to decision-making and governmental bodies, political parties, judiciary, trade unions etc.;
f. To lend support to NGOs (both international and national) dealing with issues involving indigenous women;
g. To increase indigenous women’s capacity for decision-making and political participation, and to ensure that adequate numbers of indigenous women are placed in positions of political leadership as well as in governance and public administration.
Area of Work: Indigenous Women
Addressee: Member States, IPO
Paragraph Number: 21
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
Recognizing that States cannot address indigenous education issues alone or in isolation, indigenous representatives and organizations of indigenous peoples should prepare to engage with Governments to facilitate the indigenous education goals of participation, access, attainment, indigenous languages, proficiency in the national language and at least one international language and numeracy, capacity-building, appreciation, understanding and respect for indigenous cultures, and anti-racism strategies.
Area of Work: Education
Paragraph Number: 9
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum underlines the importance of technical cooperation and capacity-building programmes regarding and involving indigenous women, and in that respect recommends that such programmes conducted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, ILO, UNDP, among others, include projects regarding and involving indigenous women.
Area of Work: Indigenous Women
Paragraph Number: 63
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum urges the United Nations funds, agencies and programmes and multilateral cooperation entities, including UNIFEM, to adopt policies and strengthen existing funds for financing and supporting indigenous women’s participation, strengthening their own participation and social development options in all initiatives that promote their cultural identities.
Area of Work: Indigenous Women
Paragraph Number: 20
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:
The Forum recommends that the United Nations system consider the following recommendations:
(a) The United Nations system should fully explore the protection, use and promotion of indigenous (including traditional) knowledge and ensure synergies across the relevant bodies currently investigating the issues (specifically the World Intellectual Property Organization, UNESCO, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Health Organization, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and others) and furthermore should invite the Forum to participate;
(b) UNESCO should continue to investigate indigenous pedagogy and its application to indigenous education in collaboration with the Special Rapporteur on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples and the Forum and other relevant bodies. The study should include the use of such strategies as boarding schools and both their negative and positive effects. To assist with this investigation into indigenous education, UNESCO is urged to facilitate regional conferences and a global forum on indigenous education to identify both barriers to educational equity and good practice;
(c) The Forum calls upon Governments and UNESCO to give more attention (by increasing their budgets) to developing quality indigenous education policies (with the participation of indigenous peoples) to achieve the Dakar objectives. “Education for all” is one of the fundamental objectives of the World Education Forum that should be achieved by 2015;
(d) The Forum encourages the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNESCO and other agencies to continue to support, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, intercultural and bilingual education programmes and to promote in particular the right of education for girls;
(e) The Forum should work with UNITAR to coordinate training for indigenous peoples within the United Nations system;
(f) UNESCO is requested to facilitate a world indigenous education conference, with appropriate United Nations partners (the Forum, UNESCO, UNITAR etc.), Member States and indigenous peoples. Furthermore, UNESCO should invite indigenous peoples and the Forum to participate in United Nations activities in the field of education. UNESCO has recently completed and distributed a publication on best practices for indigenous peoples education and this should be promoted throughout the international community;
(g) UNICEF advocates bilingual and cross-cultural education for indigenous peoples and conducts schools for girls and women’s literacy programmes in Latin America, and this initiative should be further encouraged and expanded;
(h) The Forum recommends that relevant agencies and Governments, on a regional basis, should provide technical services and the political and moral support needed for the creation, recognition and functioning of future international indigenous universities;
(i) Taking into account the importance of UNESCO national commissions, the Forum recommends that the Economic and Social Council and Governments facilitate the participation of indigenous peoples in the regional commissions with the incorporation of indigenous representation;
(j) The Forum, to underscore the crucial role of language skills to sustainable development and in celebration of the United Nations Year on Education for Sustainable Development (2005), recommends that the secretariat of the Forum, together with the United Nations Development Programme, UNICEF and UNESCO, explore the possibility of organizing a regional workshop in Asia or Africa on the theme “Indigenous children and language education”, to discuss policies, programmes and practical experiences with bilingual education to strengthen additive learning through the use of mother tongue and the “indigenization” of curricula in formal schooling, among members of the Forum, United Nations agencies, Governments (especially departments of education), indigenous and tribal representatives and indigenous education experts.
Area of Work: Education, Traditional Knowledge
