The Permanent Forum recommends that WHO create and convene regional round tables to address the issue of indigenous peoples and the pandemic in order to ensure that the indigenous peoples of the globe are uniquely considered in mitigation efforts. Such round tables would also offer a timely opportunity to coordinate actions for responding to the impact of the pandemic on indigenous peoples.
The Forum requests Governments to prepare reports on their experience and case studies as to how they are addressing indigenous people’s health and the Millennium Development Goals, and to submit their reports to the Forum at its fourth session.
Noting the widespread malnutrition among indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum urges the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) to ensure that all interventions by those organizations aimed at reducing this problem in indigenous communities are based on assessments of the structural causes of the problem, including access to land and availability of natural resources. Moreover, methods of interventions should be sensitive to the social fabric and respectful of indigenous peoples’ models of development.
The Forum recommends that WHO, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the United Nations Population Fund convene a workshop on indigenous health, with the goal of addressing a system-wide strategy to address the health needs of indigenous peoples and setting out the terms of reference for a study on the health needs of indigenous peoples, with particular emphasis on indigenous children and women including infant mortality, reproductive rights, sterilization, domestic abuse and addiction and the collection of data relating to these issues. The Forum recommends that its focal point and a representative of the Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus on Health be invited to attend and be provided the means to participate.
The Permanent Forum decides to appoint Mr. Carsten Smith and Mr. Michael Dodson, members of the Permanent Forum, as special rapporteurs to undertake a study about indigenous fishing rights in the seas.