The Permanent Forum also calls upon WHO to work in close cooperation with the Forum in establishing a programme on non-communicable diseases, with special attention to indigenous peoples and diabetes. The Forum recognizes the findings of the Expert Meeting on Indigenous Peoples, Diabetes and Development, held in Copenhagen on 1 and 2 March 2012, and its outcome document entitled “The Copenhagen call to action” and recommends that those outcomes be considered when establishing the programme.
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.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the recognition by UNICEF of the valuable contributions indigenous children and youth can make in their local communities to ensure the sustainability of climate change adaptation and mitigation plans. The Forum urges the Fund to continue to raise awareness of the impact of climate change on indigenous children and youth, and requests that it ensure the effective participation of indigenous children and youth in the discussions on and solutions to environmental issues in accordance with article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Permanent Forum urges the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to engage with the Permanent Forum and other partners in the global AIDS movement, to initiate universal access to treatment, to develop a set of resources highlighting effective approaches and best practices for HIV prevention and AIDS care in indigenous communities, particularly from the developed world, including the development of an appropriate paper to provide guidance to national HIV surveillance systems, and to advocate and promote meaningful participation of indigenous peoples in HIV policy and planning
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples should serve as a key and binding framework in the formulation of plans for development and should be considered fundamental in all processes related to climate change at the local, national, regional and global levels. The safeguard policies of the multilateral banks and the existing and future policies on indigenous peoples of United Nations bodies and other multilateral bodies should be implemented in all climate change-related projects and programmes.
States should recognize indigenous peoples’ rights to forests and should review and amend laws that are not consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other international standards on indigenous peoples’ land and natural resource rights, including over forests. This includes indigenous peoples’ customary law on land and resource rights and the right to be fully involved in decision-making processes.