The Permanent Forum welcomes the report on the International Workshop on Perspectives of Relationships between Indigenous Peoples and Industrial Corporations, organized jointly by the Administration of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, and the secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, with support from the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, held in Salekhard, Russian Federation, on 2 and 3 July 2007, and calls upon States to fully support and accept the recommendations contained in the report.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the fact that the International Union for Conservation of Nature, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, is undertaking preparations for the World Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nature to be convened during the upcoming World Conservation Congress, which will be held in Marseille, France, in September 2021. The summit is aimed at providing an opportunity to highlight and exchange information about the contributions of indigenous peoples to sustaining biodiversity, combating climate change and promoting sustainable development. The Forum recommends that Member States, international organizations and NGOs support the participation of indigenous peoples in the summit. The Forum invites the International Union for Conservation of Nature to share the outcomes of the summit at the Forum’s twenty-first session in 2022.
The Permanent Forum welcomes with appreciation the decision of the General Assembly, in its resolution 66/141, to request that the Secretary-General submit to the Assembly at its sixty-seventh session a comprehensive report on the rights of the child, including a focus on indigenous children. The Forum wishes to take part in any initiative undertaken by the Secretary-General in preparing the comprehensive report on the rights of the child.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the measures undertaken by several countries that aim, inter alia, to explore and develop alternative sources of income, significantly reduce the exploitation of natural resources, enhance conservation of biological diversity and establish measures in favour of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, such as the national initiative undertaken by Ecuador entitled “Yasuni-ITT initiative”. The Permanent Forum recommends that such measures respect the right to free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned.
Special emphasis should be placed by States on the involvement of city and local government authorities in engaging and supporting young indigenous people to achieve the Millennium Development Goals at the local level. Priorities for local authorities should include the creation of local youth councils with the participation of indigenous youth in decision-making, the provision of meeting spaces for young people to gather and coordinate projects, develop youth leadership, support for youth artistic and cultural expression, promotion of sport for development and peace and access to information and communication technologies
The Permanent Forum calls for the implementation on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which gives clear guidance to States on the need for them to minimize childhood exposure to toxic chemicals through water, food, air and other sources of exposure. It is critical that environmental regulators be educated specifically regarding article 24 of the Convention.
The Permanent Forum notes the intention of the International Indigenous Women’s Environmental Justice and Reproductive Health Initiative to organize an expert group meeting on the environment and indigenous women’s reproductive health and requests that the organizers invite members of the Permanent Forum to participate in the meeting. Further, the Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization participate in the expert group meeting.
OHCHR, the secretariat of the Permanent Forum, ILO, the World Bank Group and other relevant United Nations entities, including United Nations country teams, should focus on increasing the understanding of indigenous peoples’ underlying material rights to land and the need to give material rights priority over process rights. These agencies should undertake analytical work on how the intensity and exclusivity criteria that are commonly encompassed in domestic property rights systems could be understood in the context of international human rights standards related to indigenous property rights.
The Permanent Forum takes note of the sixth call for proposals of the Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility of IFAD, which is focused on advancing indigenous peoples’ biodiversity conservation and sustainable management for adaptation and resilience to climate change. The Permanent Forum urges IFAD to facilitate direct access to climate financing to indigenous peoples’ communities and organizations through the Facility and the Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme, and encourages Governments and donors to support those initiatives.
The Forum recommends the creation of a global, legally binding regime for toxic industrial chemicals and hazardous pesticides, the vast majority of which are currently unregulated under existing conventions, to protect the rights of everyone, including indigenous peoples, from the grave threats to human rights presented by the ongoing chemical intensification of the global economy. Such a regime should have strong accountability and compliance mechanisms and be in conformity with international human rights standards, including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum acknowledges the entry into force on 14 April 2014 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure. In this regard, it recommends that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund, other United Nations agencies and States support the dissemination of the guide to this Optional Protocol, including its translation into different languages and the building of capacity among indigenous organizations and institutions to make effective use of the Optional Protocol in promoting and protecting the rights of indigenous children and youth.
The Permanent Forum is requested to support the planning and development of a world indigenous forum on the right to water, including the cultural and spiritual dimensions of water and peace. Planning for the forum shall be carried out through appropriate United Nations agencies and bodies and indigenous peoples’ organizations from all regions that have been working on water issues, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Water Education, the World Water Assessment Programme and UNICEF.