The Permanent Forum urges States and bodies and organizations of the United Nations system, including the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Environment Assembly, to include indigenous peoples in a fully meaningful and effective manner in decision-making processes in all areas aimed at tackling marine litter and plastic pollution, and landscape/ecosystem degradation, including in programmes and partnerships and in the future negotiations of international instruments. Such efforts should include recognition of the traditional knowledge, practices and innovations of indigenous peoples, in particular indigenous women, in plans and actions to restore landscapes and ecosystems and to address marine litter and plastic pollution.
The Permanent Forum recommends that national human rights institutions and commissions address indigenous peoples’ issues and include indigenous experts as members of such bodies.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the $1.7 billion pledge in support of indigenous peoples made by Governments and private funders at the twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Glasgow, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. However, the Permanent Forum is concerned that this pledge does not adequately address the effects of climate change. An effective response to the challenges presented by global climate change requires a concerted effort that encompasses all seven sociocultural regions of the world. The Permanent Forum requests that the pledge-givers include indigenous peoples from all seven sociocultural regions as recipients and redefine the scope of their commitment so that the funding is not only about forests and land tenure, but also reflects indigenous peoples’ self-determination, the building of alliances and the strengthening of indigenous peoples’ local economies, governance systems and resource management strategies.
The Permanent Forum also notes the number of interventions by indigenous peoples alarmed at the denial of their right to free, prior and informed consent in relation to extractive industries and other forms of large- and small-scale development. Therefore, the Permanent Forum recommends that States and international financial and aid institutions systematically monitor, evaluate, assess and report on how free, prior and informed consent has or has not been recognized and applied with respect to the lands, territories and resources of the indigenous peoples concerned.
The Permanent Forum is concerned about legislative and regulatory processes that criminalize the establishment and management of community radio stations. The Forum encourages States to expressly recognize community media in their domestic law and to adopt effective actions to enforce the right of indigenous peoples and communities to have their own media.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the invitation extended by the Russian Federation to hold a United Nations expert group meeting devoted to environmental and indigenous peoples’ issues in Khabarovsk, Russian Federation, in August 2007, and invites other States to follow its good example.
The Permanent Forum requests that the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on human rights defenders conduct a specific study on the situation of indigenous human rights defenders and submit a report to the Permanent Forum at its eighth session.
In relation to the preparation for the high-level plenary meeting/World Conference, the Permanent Forum welcomes the study entitled “Rights of indigenous peoples: achievements and challenges in the Latin American countries”, prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in collaboration with indigenous peoples, and encourages States, agencies and regional commissions to undertake similar studies.
The Permanent Forum applauds the historic decision of the United Nations Human Rights Council in recognizing the right to water as a human right, as well as its decision to initiate a study on the scope and content of the relevant human rights obligations related to equitable access to safe drinking water and sanitation under international human rights instruments, to be submitted prior to the sixth session of the Council. The Permanent Forum also calls upon the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to present to the seventh session of the Permanent Forum the results of her study on the impact on the rights of indigenous peoples in terms of contamination, diversion, appropriation and privatization of water, which is sacred to indigenous peoples and is central to all life.
The Forum invites the Commission on Human Rights to recommend that the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants and their families incorporate in her report the situation of indigenous migrants, especially indigenous women and children
The Permanent Forum recommends that the relevant United Nations agencies and Member States with reindeer herding peoples support training and education programmes for indigenous reindeer herding youth and communities in order to secure the future sustainability and resilience of the Arctic and sub-Arctic indigenous pastoral reindeer herding societies and cultures in the face of climate change, land-use change and globalization.
The Permanent Forum encourages ILO to promote the ratification of the Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, 1989 (No. 169) (Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention).