On the basis of information received at its second session, the Forum expresses its deep concern about the reported atrocities committed against the Pygmy people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Kuna people of Panama, and atrocities committed against indigenous peoples in other regions of the world. It urges the entire United Nations system as well as the appropriate bodies to take appropriate action.
The Permanent Forum urges States, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, to develop and implement specific laws and mechanisms to protect indigenous human rights defenders, to ensure that attacks against them are investigated and that those persons responsible are held accountable.
The Permanent Forum urges States that have been recommended by the universal periodic review to ratify the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), to do so
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Government of Paraguay should make resolute progress towards the development of a land registry that will facilitate land titling, and thus the recovery of land by indigenous communities and the territorial reconstitution of their respective peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that all States apply the principles of general comment No. 11 (2009) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, entitled “Indigenous children and their rights under the Convention”.
The Permanent Forum recommends to the Human Rights Council that, in the course of a universal periodic review, the situation of indigenous peoples of a country under consideration also be examined.
The Permanent Forum applauds the effective participation mechanisms for indigenous peoples in such mechanisms as the Convention on Biological Diversity Working Group on article 8 (j) and related provisions, and recommends that, in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, such practices be extended to all critical areas of interest to indigenous peoples, such as the Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing and in particular the Working Group on Protected Areas.
The Permanent Forum encourages CAPI and other indigenous peoples’ organizations to continue to defend the principle of indigenous peoples’ self-determination that they have followed in asserting their own identity, and thus to continue their efforts to reach agreement with the Government on reforms consistent with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum strongly supports the position expressed in the outcome document of the Durban Review Conference that States should take all necessary measures to implement the rights of indigenous peoples.
The Forum recommends that the World Conservation Union Congress, to be held in November 2004 in Bangkok, endorse the recommendations on indigenous peoples and protected areas, as well as other relevant recommendations (such as on sacred sites) adopted by the Fifth World Parks Congress. It should also emphasize the need for the recognition of community conserved areas and indigenous peoples’ protected areas, the need for the full respect for indigenous peoples’ rights and the need for indigenous peoples’ free prior informed consent to be obtained before the declaration or in the management of any protected area which may affect them.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Human Rights Council authorize at least one more session of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations so that it can review and, as needed, complete its important work.
The Permanent Forum recommends that a task force be created within the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues to specifically address migration issues of indigenous peoples, as suggested in the 2006 Geneva workshop on this matter (E/C.19/2007/CRP.5).