The Permanent Forum recommends that the international community take serious measures to mitigate climate change. The survival of the traditional ways of life of indigenous peoples depends in large part on the success of international negotiations in developing strong, enforceable agreements that will truly be effective in combating climate change. The Permanent Forum concurs with a major conclusion of the Stern report that strong and immediate measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions now will be less costly than attempting to adapt to the widespread changes that unchecked climate change will cause in the future.
The Permanent Forum calls upon Member States to analyse the compatibility of domestic laws with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in particular with a view to harmonizing laws dealing with Arctic renewable resources upon which indigenous peoples depend, and to include the indigenous peoples of the Arctic in a direct and meaningful way in this analysis.
The Permanent Forum appoints Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz and Mr. Pavel Sulyandziga as special rapporteurs to elaborate papers on indigenous peoples and relevant thematic issues relating to sustainable development (for example, sustainable agriculture, land, rural development, drought and desertification), for consideration by the Commission on Sustainable Development and for the submission of its reports to the Secretary-General and to represent the Permanent Forum in the Commission’s interactive dialogues with United Nations agencies. The Commission is urged to invite a member of the Permanent Forum to attend its annual sessions.
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 Forum recommends that all United Nations environmental bodies, in particular the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, UNEP, GEF, the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, make the necessary efforts to mobilize resources for projects by indigenous peoples, and provide financial support to strengthen the international indigenous peoples Forum on biodiversity and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
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.
The Permanent Forum urges Member States, in their regular reporting to the United Nations human rights treaty bodies and, in particular, to the Human Rights Council through the universal periodic review, to include the actions taken to implement the recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
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.
The Permanent Forum reaffirms and reiterates that self-determination, free, prior and informed consent and accountability form the basis of, and prerequisite for, any relationship that can be called a true partnership for development, and urges all States, indigenous peoples, United Nations bodies, international development agencies, corporations and the private sector, as well as civil society, to uphold these vital principles.
The Permanent Forum reiterates its concern over environmental violence, in particular the pervasive impacts of such violence on indigenous women and girls. The Forum takes note with appreciation of the recommendations from the third International Indigenous Women’s Symposium on Environment and Reproductive Health, held at Columbia University in New York on 14 and 15 April 2018. The Forum recommends that members of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues and the relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council consider ways to address and incorporate the recommendations from that Symposium.