The Permanent Forum strongly urges the General Assembly to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Governments and States promote the creation of conditions for indigenous peoples that will enable them to maintain the forests in their traditional way and conserve their cultural identity, with priority accorded to indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, strengthening their capacities and highlighting the value of ancestral knowledge related to native forests. The Forum further recommends that the traditional knowledge and traditional forest management practices and governance systems of indigenous peoples for the protection and use of their forests be recognized in all forest policies and climate-related forest initiatives.
Businesses, in their human rights due diligence processes, should meaningfully engage with indigenous peoples as rights holders in business decisions and outcomes affecting them. In that regard, free, prior and informed consent should be understood as their right to give or withhold consent.
During its tenth session, the Permanent Forum emphasized that redefining the relationship between indigenous peoples and the State as an important way to understand the doctrine of discovery and a way to develop a vision of the future for reconciliation, peace and justice. To that end, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provides a strong human rights framework and standards for the redress of such false doctrines, notably in articles 3, 28 and 37. The Permanent Forum encourages the conduct of the processes of reconciliation “in accordance with the principles of justice, democracy, and respect for human rights, equality, non-discrimination, good governance and good faith”.